

The
title-page has an engraving of angels before a monstrance, two with censers.
The masses begin with a small charming woodcut initial, and the major feasts
and the Canon are each preceded by a full-page engraving, some of which are
signed by Iottain: these are the Annunciation (First Sunday of Advent), Nativity
of our Lord, Adoration of the Magi (Epiphany), Crucifixion (Canon), Risen
Christ (Easter Day), Ascension, Pentecost, Last Supper (Corpus Christi), Assumption,
and All Saints. There are more than
50
pp. of music, including the Exsultet and the prefaces, printed
with black square notes on a red four line staff, as usual.
Provenance: On the title-page below the engraved vignette is the following inscription: “Pro Monasterio B.M.V. in Plass S.O.Cist comparavit R[everendissimus] D[ominus] Benedict Engelken loci abbas . . . Anno D[omin]i 1673.” Plass or Plasy is a Cistercian abbey (now redundant) in western Bohemia, founded ca. 1144. On the verso of second front flyleaf is inscribed in ink “Sacristiæ S. Thomæ a 1 Julii 1804.”
Mottled calf with remnants of sumptuous gilt; rebacked, leather with holes for hardware not present; stained and peeling in places. Leaves in good condition for a missal; some paper repairs in margins with loss of rules, a few small holes in bottom margins, expected soiling on most used pages and some in margins elsewhere, no obscured or lost text. Marbled endpapers. Vellum tabs for leaves of canon. Six silk placemarkers attached to a red and green silk headband (not part of binding). All edges gauffered and gilt.
The recto has 3 one-line initials and three line fillers, all in gold, pink and blue containing white tracery, outlined in black. On the verso on a gold rectangle outlined in black is a handsome initial Q in blue and pink (white tracery within), containing gothic foliation in blue and pink inside the Q. Each side has an ornate border on the outer side of the text, containing roses above and thistles below, separated by a volute foliated blue and gold. The pages are ruled in brown, 16 lines to the page, and written in an angular textura gothic script.
In a plain white mat. Smudge of the ink from the text onto the border in the lower part of text of the verso. Traces of soiling in margins with sparse and fine spotting in the inner.