Featured Size does matter! A HUGE Roman Gradual binding!

Sometimes I find an intriguing book for sale online. This time I purchased a binding of a so called Roman Gradual (Graduale Romanum in Latin). These books are used by choirs in the Catholic Church to sing from. The larger the choir the larger the books.

When I saw the advertisement online the binding didn't seem as large as it actualy is.

According to the seller the binding was purchased during a holiday 1960's in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca in Spain.



As I understand now the seller was not able to send the binding so I collected the binding yesterday, about 50 km from my home. When I saw the binding for the first time I was flabbergasted how large is was. 75x55 cm (30x22 inches).



The binding has still an intact "furniture" (metal elements) exept for 1 leather clasp. The binding weighs 22.6 kg (50 lbs)!

I made a photo of it in front of some other of my books. The row on the bottom are the normal folio book size.

Close ups of the metal parts. A lot of the ornaments are backed with parchment.



The inside of the binding. All the original sheets of manuscript music on parchment were probabaly sold seperately.




On the inside you still see a ghostly imprint of the former manuscript that was inside. Those looked like this (also from my collection):



I am not sure how old this binding is. The binding was repaired many times during it existance and tells it's own story. That makes it so interesting for me!

Someone on Twitter (a manuscript cataloguer from the Cambridge University) told me the binding could be 16th century.

What do you think about the age of this binding?

An interesting article about these books

 

No she was an older lady and this binding was stored in the attic for decades.

 

The cathedral where the binding was bought has a museum where this book stand is displayed. I really can imagine a book like mine on there for all the choir to read...

 

What an amazing book! The good thing about things being stored in attics is they tend to be kept dry vs basements. That is as long as the roof is in tact and the rats don't get to it.

 

Stunning find, EL, and your collection is just the right place for it. You may have to build an extension though.

Are you going to try and fill it with period music sheets? As you know, there are quite a lot of single sheets out there, often sold as home decor.

Could certainly be.
Interestingly, it has a combination of square head nails and rose head nails.
I don't know exactly when the rose heads were introduced, but they are generally associated with 17th and 18th century furniture. The rose head nails on your binding could be replacements of missing square head nails.
Given the customary 17th century use of rose heads, your binding and the square head nails are likely to pre-date the 17th century, imo.
If the rose heads were introduced before the 17th century, it could be even older.

 

Music sheets of this size are very rare and expensive. I have a few pages in my collection, but they aren't the right size. If I would replace them, it will cost me thousands of euro's. (The binding was only 125 euro, which is more in my budget !)

 

That is great, I was expecting it to be more.

 

What a fascinating find! Can't help with the age (although it looks several hundred years old for sure.) Does seem like you got it for a good price. Thanks for sharing!

 

What a beautiful binding, @Ex Libris ! Congratulations on finding it. It has found a good home.

 

A tiny (22 in /55.88 cm) version of a similar binding for sale. Not much extra info though, except my buy was a bit of a bargain…

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/m...mental-size/id-f_37819702/#skuId=f_37819702S1

 

Just a bit.

 

I don’t know if my binding would be that expensive, because of the size and weight. It is hard to store. Maybe I should transfer it into a table…

 

Extraordinary piece & price-it's the size of a small door ! Wonderful to see something that old (almost 'ancient') on this site-thanks for the treat.
PS-Good Lord-Now I want to start shopping for old book bindings !!!

 

Restrain yourself, Bosko...Easy now, deep breaths...another...easy.
There, isn't that better?

 

Sorry Whit-but my clear thinking accountant spouse will pull me out of it. when you go into an acquisition spiral-got to nip the binge in the bud...or it's a 40 year 'lost weekend' !

 

This is how massive this binding is! As @bosko69 said: the size of a small door.

 

I found a very similar copy in the University of Illinois with the same size! Even the copper clasps, bosses and corner pieces match. According their article it is from the 17th century. The only difference is the diamond-shaped pattern on the binding.






Article
Digital scan
Record of the book

 

Excellent searching, EL. I imagine they could have come from the same workshop.