A) Cathalogus Missalis Romani
1) Catalogue of Manuscript Roman Missals
In 2019, the first comprehensive catalogue of manuscript missals located up to that point was published: Messali Manoscritti Pretridentini (secc. VIII-XVI). Catalogo, Manlio Sodi e Andrzej Suski, collana Monumenta Studia Instrumenta Liturgica, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. This work places within the researcher’s reach the main characteristics and bibliographical references of the missals used in the West from the eighth century onwards which—whether in complete or fragmentary form—have come down to us. The sorting criterion for the 5,079 listed Missals is based on the geographical location of the libraries where the various copies are currently housed. This undoubtedly facilitates the task of the researcher intending to consult the copies present in a specific library or city, regardless of the type of Missal in question or the period of its writing.
Nevertheless, consultation is less straightforward for those wishing to study the Missals according to the ritual type to which they belong or their chronology. Therefore, our project consists of the preparation of a Catalogue, complementary to the previous one, focused on a very specific object. It will, in effect, be limited to the most important and numerous group of the catalogued missals, that is, the one made up of the missals usually called "Roman". Under this name, 567 missals are listed, including both the missals of the Roman Curia tradition (which include those used by the Franciscans and the Augustinians) and those considered "Roman" in a broad sense, as is the case with various local Missals.
The list will be presented in such a way that it can be easily consulted according to various criteria, such as: date of writing, origin, format, current location of the copy, etc., which we believe will be of great use to the scholar of the history of the Missale Romanum.
Although the reference to the important work mentioned above is fundamental, the data provided therein have been completed, clarified, and in some cases corrected by checking them, where necessary, against the corresponding copies in their respective libraries. We have also updated the names of libraries that have changed their names, such as the former Pierpont Morgan Library, which has been called The Morgan Library & Museum since 2006, or the former St. Deiniol's College, renamed Gladstone’s Library since 2010.
2) Catalogue of Unidentified Manuscript Missals
Among the thousands of missals catalogued in the edition by Sodi and Suski are copies of the most varied origins. In addition to the Roman ones already mentioned, there are others which, while having a similar outline to these, differ in several aspects that constitute their own characteristics and which, for this or another reason, have been given a different name. Those from dioceses or regions such as Passau, Bratislava, Salzburg, Paris and Prague stand out for the quantity of copies that have been preserved. Others have a structure that distinguishes them more clearly from all the preceding ones, such as the Ambrosian missals, used in the region of Milan, and those of the rite called Sarum, used in much of England. Likewise, there are many missals proper to religious orders, the most numerous being the Benedictines, Carthusians, Carmelites, Cistercians, Dominicans, Premonstratensians, etc. Although no missals properly so called are preserved from the Gallican and Mozarabic rites, whose structure, moreover, is completely different to the point that we do not even find in them the Roman Canon always present in all the preceding ones.
However, there is a very large number of copies of manuscript missals in the Catalogue that have not yet been identified, and this is not necessarily because it is impossible to recognise their origin, but because very frequently, when drawing up the list of copies present in a library, librarians have not sought to specify further details, leaving them designated under the simple name of "Missale".
Yet under this highly generic name there must undoubtedly be missals that could be classified among those previously mentioned, and we may suspect that a majority of these deserve the name of "Roman" Missals.
We believe therefore that it could be useful for the scholar to have access to a list, in chronological order, of these "anonymous" Missals, with details of their place of origin and the library in which they can be consulted. Whilst this is only a modest first step in this huge outstanding task, it will at least allow them to be located, accessed, and subjected to systematic study and subsequent classification.
3) Catalogue of Printed Missals
Another aspect of our cataloguing programme consists in updating the classic catalogue published in 1886 by William Henry James Weale, (Bibliographia liturgica: Catalogus missalium ritus Latini ab anno M.CCCC.LXXV. impressorum. Collegit, W. H. Iacobus Weale. Londini, apud Bernardum Quaritch, 1886). This work was updated forty years later by Hans Bohatta, who patiently verified the data provided by Weale, pushing back the starting year to 1474, the printing date of Antonio Zarotto's Missal, considered at the time the editio princeps of the Roman Missal. Bohatta’s work contributed highly significant elements to Weale’s labor: to begin with, he incorporated a substantial number of new copies discovered by himself, noting those he did not have the opportunity to examine in person; he also correlatively numbered all the editions thus catalogued, which greatly facilitated consultation and subsequent reference to each edition. Furthermore, he added certain details taken from the title page, as well as from the colophon and, above all, the registrum—that is to say, the collation of the gatherings—which greatly helped to identify each edition with precision. This new edition of the catalogue was published in collaboration by two of the most prestigious specialized booksellers of the time: Bernard Quaritch in London and Karl W. Hiersemann in Leipzig: Bibliographia liturgica. Catalogus Missalium ritus latini: ab anno MCCCCLXXIV impressorum, collegit W. H. Jacobus Weale, iterum edidit H. Bohatta. Londini, apud Bernardum Quaritch, Lipsiae : Apud Carolum W. Hiersemann, 1928).
This work, which to this day remains a fundamental reference for the study of the missals of the various Latin traditions, registers (to mention only the Missale Romanum) 485 editions. Although subsequently it has had two reprints: in Germany (Anton Hiersemann Verlag, Stuttgart, 1990) and in US: (Mansfield Centre, Martino Fine Books, 1999), these just photostatically reproduced the 1928 edition, thus its content has not been updated. As is to be expected, the nearly one hundred years that have passed since this second edition—during which a devastating war and various social, cultural, and technical changes affected the whole of Europe—render a verification and updating of the data necessary.
In fact, some of the libraries mentioned herein have ceased to exist or have merged with others (such as the ecclesiastical libraries of the Archdiocese of Cologne, in Germany, now unified into a single major institution: the Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln, namely the Diocesan and Cathedral Library); or, conversely, they have been divided and dispersed (such as that of the Bourbon-Parma family, once housed in Schwarzau Castle, a significant number of whose volumes have been held at the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan since 1938, while many others have been scattered). Others have become independent of the institutions into which they were integrated (the British Library, which became independent from the British Museum), while in other cases they have undergone a radical transformation in the opposite direction (the Pierpont Morgan Library, which in 2006 became The Morgan Library & Museum); others have simply changed their name (St Deiniol's College, which became Gladstone’s Library).
Furthermore, the vast majority have implemented a modernisation of their catalogues, which currently allows for the discovery of copies that had not been taken into account by previous researchers. Finally, one cannot overlook certain data added over the years that were never integrated into the catalogue.
Our project consists, therefore, in:
a) Incorporating into the text of Weale-Bohatta published in 1928 the new missals listed by Amiet in Robert Amiet, Missels et bréviaires imprimés: Supplément aux catalogues de Weale et Bohatta; propres des saints (Édition princeps) Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1990 whose data was verified and, frequently, corrected.
b) Doing likewise with the material published in RELICS (Renaissance Liturgical Imprints: A Census), the database of the University of Michigan.
c) Verifying the existence and current location of the various missals thus listed. Verifying with the original copy any cases that present doubts.
d) By collating with the catalogues of the main libraries and verifying copies, incorporating those which could not be taken into account by previous scholars.
e) Adding the complete text of the title pages and colophons, which are of great importance for understanding what a potential buyer of a missal expected to find in them.
In contrast to the aforementioned works, the primary interest of our edition will not be codicological but liturgical.
The original work is divided into two major parts: Diocesan Missals and Missals of Religious Orders.
In this first stage, we are proceeding with the updating of the section corresponding to the Missale Romanum.
B) Synopsis Rituum
1) Synopsis Missalis Romani
Comparative study of the variations of the Missale Romanum from the Middle Ages to the present day.
This work encompasses:
1. The Ritus Servandus in celebratione Missarum:
a) That of the 1570 edition compared with its principal source: the Ordo Missae of Burchard,
b) The edition of Clement VIII of 1604,
c) The edition of Urban VIII of 1634,
d) The modifications introduced from then until the twentieth century,
e) The new rubrics of the 1962 Missal.
2. The Ordo Missae:
It will be arranged in five columns, corresponding to:
a) Medieval manuscripts,
b) Incunabula and early printed books from the editio princeps of 1472 until 1570,
c) The Tridentine edition,
d) The modifications introduced up to the twentieth century,
e) The new Ordo missae of the 1962 edition.
3. The Calendar:
a) Synopsis of the calendars prior to 1570.
b) Synopsis in five columns allowing for the appreciation of the modifications introduced into the Roman Calendar between 1570 and 1962.
2) Synopsis Rituum Latinorum
The Ordo Missae arranged in comparative columns, corresponding to the Latin rites that possess a structure similar to the Roman one and which remained in use after Trent.