Catholic Church. “Canon missae : ad usum episcoporum ac praelatorum solemniter vel private celebrantium.” Rome: Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1852. 213 pages, 1 ill., 44 cm. (i.e., it’s huge!)
The book was donated to the Goucher College Library by Janet Goucher Miller and accessioned in June 1987. Previously it had been owned (based on a black ink ffep signature) by a Reverend William Bush (?), January 1898. After that, at some point in the C20 based on the hand, a manuscript prayer was added at the foot of page 213 (“Deus, cuius misericordiae non est numerus”) and before that an archaic, flourished C18 hand wrote out a rubricated script for the Confirmation of new members of the Church, on two sides of a single large folded leaf laid in, perhaps once loosely bound by four sewing or pin holes at the head and foot of the fold. The book still contains the remains of three sumptuous 1.5 inch-wide bookmark ribbons in purple, yellow, and green, but otherwise it bears only one other clue to its earlier ownership. The binding is fancy, gold stamped red morocco leather with an archbishop’s coat of arms in the center of both covers. Each archbishop is given (or takes) an individualized coat of arms upon appointment, but most incorporate the archbishop’s hat or galero, in life often a green one to distinguish it from cardinals’ “red hats,” which have been their special color since 1245. The galero at the top is tied to two sets of hanging ornaments, each of which has ten tassels. Cardinals get fifteen (so there!), and bishops only six, so “tassel envy” must be a real risk for high church officers. The prelate for whom this missal was bound clearly liked bling and had the fore-edges of all seventeen significant pages of the last Mass tagged with folded red cloth tabs for ease of turning. This coat of arms appears to bear two leopards passant, or striding sideways, but beyond that my heraldry fails. Suggestions?
Author: Professor Arnold Sanders, Emeritus Professor of English (2015) – Goucher College.
*Note: The materials below are provided by Goucher Special Collection & Archives.
