Antiphonarivm Romanvm.
Paris, R. III Ballard 1649.
4to (233 x 171 mm.). [iix], 460, 190, [2 blank]p. PRINTED MUSIC THROUGHOUT IN MOSAIC MUSIC TYPE, a woodcut title bouquet.
Contemporary gilt-paneled red morocco (joints neatly repaired), inner rectangle with dots and repetitions of a nautilius tool, slightly later gilt episcopal arms of a member of the La Vergne family (see O-H-R 1419), gilt-lettered spine title, the other compartments filled with dots and the nautilius tool, two sets of marbled free endleaves, all edges gilt.
Customarily a large folio for communal use, the Roman Antiphonal is the principal choir book containing the verses sung before and after the Psalms for the Mass and on feast and saint day offices. This quarto, however, is expressly for the provincial priest, who, in lieu of a cantor, sang the antiphons himself from the pulpit. For clerics unfamiliar with plainchant performance, Ballard supplied a four-page introduction at the end of the volume, which apparently belonged to Louis de La Vergne-Montenard de Tressan (1638-1712), bishop of Vabres (from 1670) then of Le Mans (from 1672). I have located one other copy (Toulouse). In good condition (bookplate removed from front pastedown), signature of ?Lebrer, a Jesuit, on a front flyleaf, Jean-Joseph-Amabile Bonté signed the title in 1769.
¶Le Fage, Cours complet de plain-chant 749,75; Guillo, Pierre I Ballard et Robert III Ballard: imprimeurs du roy pour la musique 1649-A.
Price: $2,800.00