A) Cathalogus Missalis Romani.
An update of the classic catalogue published in 1886 by William Henry James Weale (Bibliographia liturgica: catalogus missalium ritus Latini ab anno 1475 impressorum. Colligit, W. H. Iacobus Weale. Londini, apud Bernardum Quaritch, 1886) and updated fourty years later by Hans Bohatta, who patiently verified the data collected by Weale, numbered the editions collected by him, noting the exemplars which he himself was able to observe personnally, and added a good deal of new copies cataloged by him (Catalogus Missalium ritus latini: ab anno 1474 impressorum, collegit W. H. Jacobus Weale, iterum edidit H. Bohatta. B. Quaritch, London, Leipzig 1928).
This work – still today a capital resource for the study of the missals of the various Latin traditions – contains (counting the Missale Romanum alone), 485 exemplars.
However, the 84 years that have passed since this edition was published – during which a devastating war, and various social, cultural and technological changes affected the whole of Europe – make verifying and updating that data
necessary. Indeed, some of the libraries mentioned in the work have ceased to exist and were merged with others, or got transformed entirely (Cologne, for instance, or the British Museum). Besides, the vast majority have improved their catalogs, thus allowing the present discovery of exemplars which were not taken into account by previous researchers. Even though two reprints (Anton Hiersemann Verlag, Stuttgart, 1990 and Mansfield Centre, Martino Fine Books, 1999) have come out, no update has been made.
Our project consists of:
a) including the missals catalogued by Amiet (Robert Amiet, Missels et breviaires imprimés: supplement aux catalogues de Weale et Bohatta: propres des saints (editions princeps) Paris: Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1990).
b) verifying the existence and present location of the entirety of the catalogued missals.
c) incorporating the exemplars which had not previously been able to be taken into account, after having checked them against the catalogues of various libraries.
Unlike the aforementioned works, our main interest will not be on the study of manuscripts but on the study of the Liturgy. Our work is divided in two main parts:
diocesan missals and missals of religious orders. In this first stage, the focus will be on the update of the section for the Missale Romanum.
B) Synopsis Missalis Romani.
A comparative study of the variations in the Missale Romanum from the Middle Ages to the present.
At the moment, this work covers:
1. The Ritus Servandus in celebratione Missarum:
a) The RS of the 1570 edition compared whith its chief source: the Burcard's Ordo Missae,
b) The 1604 edition of Clement XIII,
c) The 1634 edition of Urban VIII,
d) The modifications brought in up to the twentieth century and the Missal in 1962.
2. The Ordo Missae: In five columns, corresponding to:
a) Medieval manuscripts,
b) Incunabula and ancient prints of the editio princeps from 1474 until 1570,
c) The Tridentine edition,
d) The moifications up to the twentieth century,
e) The edition of 1962.
3. The Calendar.
a) A synopsis of the calendars before 1570.
b) A synopsis, in five columns, permitting the appraisal of the modifications introduced in the Roman Calendar between 1570 and 1962.
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