Featured Very large Psalterium Romanum (1713)

I’d like to share some details about a recent acquisition in my collection: a richly bound Psalterium Romanum printed in 1713 by the Officina Plantiniana in Antwerp. The book itself is massive! 50x30x15 cm and weighs 10kg (22 lbs).



The text itself is a beautiful example of early 18th-century liturgical printing, complete with red-and-black typography and Gregorian chant notation on four-line staves.





What really stands out, however, is the luxurious binding:

• The covers are clad in deep purple (or burgundy) velvet
  
  
• It features two large brass clasps
  
  
• The boards are thick and heavy – likely wooden, as was customary in folio liturgical books
  
  
• The edges of the text block are gold
  

There is an ex-dono (gifted by) inscription dated 28 December 1815, by Henricus Peeters, a former Augustinian from Leuven, who donated the book to the St. Jacob Church in that city. This matches the period when monastic books were redistributed or preserved in parish collections after the French suppression of religious orders.



Based on the materials and overall aesthetic, I suspect the binding was not original to the 1713 printing but was added around the early 19th century, possibly 1800–1820. The style of the brass clasps especially reminds me of Biedermeier design – simple yet elegant, with clean, curved lines and symmetrical motifs.

I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts:

• Do you agree with an early 19th-century dating for this binding?
  
  
• Have you seen similar velvet-bound liturgical books with brass clasps from this period?
  
  
• Could this binding be slightly earlier or later?
  

There is so much more to tell about this book!

Capitals



Ornaments

 

A beauty, EL, congratulations.

I see the Classicist style of the Empire. The fluted lines remind me of columns and if you turn a clasp sideways, it looks like a Renaissance (Classicist) tempietta.
So I agree with early 19th century for the clasps. Probably the binding as well, since there are no marks of differently shaped clasps.

 

In this book there are several art works from different ages. The oldest I have found so far is this large Capital C (84x84mm). Stylistically this is Late Nortern Renaissance.
Luckily the Museum Plantin Museum still has the original woodblock for this capital. This capital was designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antoni van Leest in 1578.

Watch the specific damage of the woodblock to my copy and the one from the museum. They are from the same wood block.




In the book there is also one page sized copper engraving:


This engraving depicts a biblical story where King David David sees the avenging angel punishing the people with the plague (2 Samuel 24).

The Rijksmuseum has a similar engraving in their collection. They attribute the engraving to Cornelis Galle the younger (1615-1678) as the engraver. For me it is still unknown who the designer was.




The engraving on the title page shows Saint Peter and Saint Paul arounf an armorial shield with the armory of pope Clement XI (1649-1721). First I thought this must be an 18th century engraving, but this orginates as a cartouche without the armoral of the specific pope as this example in the British Museum explains. They attribute this engraving to maybe Peter Paul Rubens, but it is more likely by his student Abraham van Diepenbeeck. The Museum Plantin Moretus still posesses a design for this engraving with the armoral of an earlier pope (pope Urban VIII)

 

Breathtaking engravings, beautiful.

 

Yes the quality of these pictures is very high.

 

I really appreciate how much research you do on your books and how well you present them here.

Btw. the copper engraving was among others also used in the 1697 Breviarium romanorum from the same printer. https://www.reddit.com/r/rarebooks/...cted_this_328yearold_12_kg_265_lbs/?rdt=38044

 

Thank you for your post! That breviary has a bizarre format. My Psalterium was ment for church choirs to sing from, so the large size was a plus, but the breviary that was shown in the reddit post was for personal use for a priest. (record in MPM: https://anet.be/record/opacmpm/c:lvd:14500683).

 

I try to inspire others in interest in early modern books. As you can see there is so much depth and richness in the research you can do for such a book, on so many perspectives:

- Contents of the book
- Art in the book and its history

- Typography
- Pictures
- Ornaments
- Capitals​

- Provenance of the book
- People that attributed to the book
- Relevance of the book in its time
- The book as a physical object

- Binding
- Paper
- Furniture (clasps, et cetera)
​

I know there are maybe a hundred people in the world with the same hobby, and I think that is a pity.