OFFICIUM HEBDOMADAE SANCTAE [Office of Holy Week]

Antwerp: ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti [Plantin Press Balthasar Moretus], 1684. Near fine.. Beautifully bound Plantin edition of this fundamental collection of liturgies for the week leading up to Easter. An important and commonly reprinted liturgical collection in a finely printed Plantin edition in black and red ink. This copy was rebound in the Victorian era with traits typically found on more deluxe productions of religious texts in that era: goatskin leather, brass clasps, gilt and gauffered edges. USTC locates nine copies, with FirstSearch adding a few more, but none recorded at American institutions. A striking artifact of Victorian aesthetic transformation. 12mo, 6'' x 3.5''. 19th-century full brown goatskin with multiple rules in blind, raised bands, gilt-lettered spine, two brass clasps at fore-edge. Marbled endpapers, gauffered edges, multiple ribbon markets. Illustrated with engraved title-page vignette, 5 engraved plates, and woodcut initials. Printed in red and black. 655, [1] pages, collated complete. Ink gift inscription dated 1879 to second fly leaf; embossed bookplate of Hallam Webber laid in. Light rubbing to joints; text with some foxing and browning. Housed in custom paper faux-vellum solander case with marbled interior.