The Constance Missal of 1505 with a Canon on Vellum and Four Illuminated Woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair

Missale Constantiense. [Augsburg], Erhard Ratdolt, 1505.

A magnificent example of Erhard Ratdolt’s mature liturgical printing for the Diocese of Constance, produced in Augsburg in 1505 with a Canon section printed on vellum for daily ritual use and four contemporary coloured woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair, the leading Augsburg artist of the period.

Printed in black and red with musical notation throughout, the volume survives in a remarkably intact contemporary blind-stamped binding with its original brass furniture and clasps, preserving the monumental physical presence characteristic of the great South German Missals immediately before the Reformation.

Edition & Bibliographic Information

Π18 Π6 a-p8 q-r6 s-z8 A-E8 F-G8 H6 I-J8 K-L8 = 132 leaves, 13 numbered leaves, 8 leaves, 323 numbered leaves, 8 leaves, 1 blank leaf, 4 leaves, 2 blank leaves. Printed throughout in black and red.

Illustrated with four large woodcuts, all contemporary coloured, including one full-page woodcut, two half-page woodcuts, and one small medallion; additionally with one computistical woodcut for determining the Sunday letter, numerous decorative initials printed in red and black, lombards in red, and musical notation printed in black on red four-line staves. Folio (345 × 240 mm).

Contemporary calf binding over wooden boards on five raised bands, decorated with blind fillets and roll tools, with pierced brass centre- and corner-pieces and intact clasps; traces of leather page markers preserved. Binding slightly rubbed and wormed in places; minor staining at lower margins; internally remarkably well preserved for a heavily used liturgical volume.

Erhard Ratdolt and the Art of the Liturgical Book

Few printers shaped the visual language of late medieval liturgical printing more decisively than Erhard Ratdolt.

After operating a printing workshop in Venice from 1476 onward, Ratdolt returned to Augsburg in 1486 bringing with him not only technical innovations in typography and colour printing, but also an exceptional sense for proportion and page design. His large liturgical books for southern German and Austrian dioceses soon became celebrated for their technical refinement and visual splendour.

The alternating black and red printing, integration of musical notation, large initials, calendars, and woodcut illustration required extraordinary precision. Ratdolt mastered these complexities with an elegance contemporaries already regarded as unsurpassed.

Hans Burgkmair and the Augsburg Renaissance

For the woodcut illustrations Ratdolt secured the collaboration of Hans Burgkmair, the greatest Augsburg artist of the generation before Holbein.

The present Missal contains four woodcuts by Burgkmair in beautiful contemporary colouring, preserving the devotional atmosphere intended for ceremonial use. Particularly striking is the combination of monumental sacred imagery with the disciplined typographic architecture of Ratdolt’s printing.

Unlike purely decorative Renaissance illustration, these images functioned within the rhythm of the Mass itself, structuring the reader’s movement through the liturgy.

The Canon on Vellum

The most important section of the volume, the Canon missae, was printed on vellum rather than paper.

This was a practical decision. The Canon contained the Eucharistic prayers repeated daily during the celebration of Mass and therefore suffered the greatest wear during use. Vellum offered significantly greater durability under constant handling.

Ratdolt employed this feature repeatedly in his deluxe liturgical productions, and surviving examples with vellum Canons remain among the most admired achievements of German early printing.

Between Medieval Ritual and the Reformation

The Constance Missal stands at a historical threshold.

Ratdolt’s solemn liturgical books preserved a highly ceremonial vision of late medieval worship at precisely the moment when the religious culture sustaining such productions was beginning to fracture. Only a few years later the Reformation would fundamentally transform the liturgy, diminish the role of the traditional Missal, and eventually contribute to the decline of Ratdolt’s own workshop.

Yet in works like the present volume, the late medieval Church reached one of its highest typographic and artistic expressions.

Provenance

German private collection.

Literature

Adams M 1536; BM STC German 952; Dodgson; Proctor; Schottenloher; VD16 M 5608.

For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, number 12b:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume I