Office of the Virgin for secular use. With a white-line woodcut. 1 U.S. copy.

[Office of the Virgin]. Uffizio della gloriosa Vergine Maria con le Laudi. Accomodato con gl’ Inni, Antifone, Responsori, per potersi dire in tutti i tempi dell’ Anno. Secondo le riforme de’ sommi pontefici, e del nuovo breviario, e messale romano. Lucca: per Filippo Maria Benedini, 1762. 4to [21.0 x 15.7 cm], 84 pp., with woodcut on title page and white-line woodcut in the text. Bound in contemporary vellum. Minor wrinkling, staining, and edge wear. Signs of use internally, with minor edge wear and the occasional stain.
 
 
Rare (1 U.S. copy) 18th-century Lucchese ‘Office of the Virgin’ printed for the use of ‘Compagnie de’ Secolari’ wanting to follow the office during the liturgical year. A contemporary inscription inside the upper cover notes that the book belonged to the ‘Compagnia Della Assunta’ [of Lucca] and was used to initiate novice brothers. Inscriptions on the rear pastedown record that the volume was purchased from the chamberlain Giovanni Domenico Ceragioli on 15 July 1782 and that the book later belonged to the cancelliere Lorenco Mallegni in 1822. Both men were from Lucca.
 
Of note is the volume’s full-page white-line woodcut of the Annunciation (surrounded by a frame of typographical ornamentation). Judging by the archaic nature of the design and the battered state of the woodcut’s borders, the woodblock was originally produced for a much earlier project.
 
Candle wax stains and hand-soiling at the section “Modo di ricevere i novizi, ed ordine di vestirli” suggest that the book was indeed used for initiating novices.
 
OCLC, KVK and ICCU/OPAC/SBN locate copies University of West Virginia (which is incomplete) and the Biblioteca centrale della Provincia Agostiniana d’Italia (Viterbo).
 
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