PRINTER AND PLACE OF PRINTING

The 1483 Missale Romanum Glagolitice does not have a title page. The incipit line of the text following the calendar is printed in red ink and reads:

[P]očetie misala po zakonu | rimskoga dvora ndle prve...
Beginning of the missale romanum week first ...
(Bošnjak 1970, p. 159)

The colophon on the end of the printed text reads:

Ljet Gospodnjih Č.U.O.V. [1483] mjeseca pervara dni I.B. [22]
ti misali biše svršeni.

In the year of our Lord 1483, in the month of February the 22nd day,
this missal was completed.
(Čunčić 2001, p. 86, Krader 1963, p. 95).

There are no indications where book was printed, who print it or who financed the project. Because of very high quality of the printing, design, and cut of the type, it is generally assumed that it was printed in the Italy, most probably Venice or Rome.

During the 1960s some of the Croatian researchers put forward the theory that book was printed in Croatia, and in particular in the town of Kosinj. The theory was based on a report written by Senj’s bishop Sebastian Glavinić (1630-1698) during his canonical visitations through the region of Lika. Among other things, the bishop noted that the town of KOSINJ is widely known for printing of breviaries “as could be read in the colophons of the books used by the Glagolitic clergy” (Putanec 1960, p. 58). However, no books with such colophons were ever found. One partial copy on paper and a fragment printed on parchment of the book known, as 1491 Roman Breviary does exist. The finding of this breviary supports the theories of the print shop in Kosinj, however the font sets used for this incunabula are different from one of the 1483 Missal, making it very improbable that they are printed in the same print shop.

Based on the philological analysis of the inscription NOEMIL, written in Glagolitic letters under the colophon in the copy in possession of the National and University Library in Zagreb, some researchers suggested that other possible places of printing could be in the Pavlin monastery in the village of MODRUŠ. According to that theory, NOEMIL is acronym of Nicolaus Ordinis Eremitarum Modrussiae Impressit Loco or “This book is printed in a place of Modruš by Nikola, monk of hermitage order” (i.e. Pauline Fathers or Order of St. Paul the First Hermit) (Putanec 1960, p. 62). Nothing of this could be supported with any archeological or other material evidence.

The analysis of the watermarks showed that the paper of the Missal came from various German paper mills. However, the use of German papers was as common in Venice, as in Croatia. There were no known paper mills operating at that time on the Croatian territory.

Nevertheless, there are some observations that could support the possibility that the Missal was printed on the territory of Croatia (from Bošnjak 1970, pp. 48-53). The use of the colophon with names of printer and/or publisher was well-established practice among the Venetian print shops at that time. The lack of this information would point toward a less experienced or obscure printing establishment, possibly working without required printing permits. That would indicate a region distant from the administrative center that issues these permits.

The type used to print the 1483 Missal is of exceptional typographical quality. Counting how expensive it was to design, cut, and cast new type, it is highly unusual that this font does not reappear again. Type, punches, and dies were very expensive and were usually traded around, rather than destroyed. For example, Torresani’s workshop preserved Glagolitic letters used for a print of the 1493 Breviary for sixty-eight years and used them again for another edition in 1561 (Bošnjak 1969, p. 658). The disappearance of such an exquisite font, such as the one in the 1483 Missal, means that printing shop was not merely out of business, but most probably destroyed. This was a very distinct possibility in the Croatian territories at the end of the 15th century, when the raids of Ottoman Turks became common occurrences.

It was a very common practice in the Glagolitic manuscripts to use the Latin letters for the pericope initials. The practice was common even in the Glagolitic manuscript books, probably because of the practice of using the Latin exemplars for translating and transcribing texts in Glagolitic. In early printing, initials were carved individually rather than cast, and therefore use of second-hand Latin type for three or four line initials had additional financial advantage. In the 1483 Missal, spaces for the pericope initials were left completely blank. In some of the copies, they were added latter by hand, presumably by the individual users. Latin letters S and C appear only at one place in the text. This lack of pericope letters would further indicated the obscurity of the workshop, which probably owned only the cast fonts.

It is very unlikely that this font was cast in Croatia, but the temporary print shops, moving from town to town in search of the job were very common at that time and it is possible that some German or Italian printer tried its fortune on Croatian territory. The Glagolitic text of the Missal is exceptionally clean from typographical or language mistakes, what indicates that somebody in the print shop had an intimate knowledge of the Old-Slavonic language (used only in the Glagolitic liturgy) and the Glagolitic script, rare skills outside the Croatian territories.

The book was most probably printed with initiative and financial support of the Glagolitic church. At this time, the Glagolitic Church was the only institution that had sufficient funds to organize such a production, either in Croatia or as a special order from a foreign workshop. All examples of the printing financed by a merchant (in 1509, Latin Missal printed in Venice) or nobleman (in 1574, baron Juraj Zrinski organized a print shop in Nedelišće), occurred on the northern regions which used the Latin script and were strongly influenced by the Reformation movement (Pelc 2002, p. 241).


 

Bibliography

Bošnjak, M. (1969). O kolijevci glagoljske i ćirilske štamparije. Jadranski zbornik: Prilozi za povijest Istre, Rijeke, Hrvatskoj primorja i Gorskog Kotara, VII/1966-1969, 659-663.

Bošnjak, M. (1970). Slavenska inkunabulistika. Zagreb: Mladost.

Čunčić, M. (2003). Oči od slnca, mîsal od oblaka: Izvori Hrvatske pisane rijeci. Zagreb: Školska knjiga.

Krader, B. (1963). The Glagolitic Missal of 1483. The Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, 20(2), 93-98.

Pelc, M. (2002). Pismo-Knjiga-Slika: Uvod u povijest informacijske kulture. Zagreb: Golden marketing.

Putanec, V. (1960). Problem predsenjskih tiskara u Hrvatskoj (1482-1493). Jadranski zbornik: Prilozi za povijest Istre, Rijeke i Hrvatskoj primorja, IV, 51-98.