553 - Graduale Monasteriense—Gradual, containing all the sacred Mass chants for the entire year, for the use and custom of the Church and Diocese of Monasterien, containing the first printed and corrected edition. With a large woodcut title border, 6 large and numerous small initials. Cologne, H. Alopecius (H. Fuchs), 1536. 295 leaves (Roman-numbered) with musical notation. 44 x 31 cm. Contemporary pigskin binding over wooden covers, with roller stamps, brass fittings, 2 brass clasps, and 10 bone knobs.

Graduale Monasteriense—Gradual, containing all the sacred Mass chants for the entire year, for the use and custom of the Church and Diocese of Monasterien, containing the first printed and corrected edition. With a large woodcut title border, 6 large and numerous small initials. Cologne, H. Alopecius (H. Fuchs), 1536. 295 leaves (Roman-numbered) with musical notation. 44 x 31 cm. Contemporary pigskin binding over wooden covers, with roller stamps, brass fittings, 2 brass clasps, and 10 bone knobs. Musik in Münster 15 – Bömer/Degering J 1052 – Aengenvoort p. 17 – The first printed gradual in northwestern Germany in the 16th century, printed by the Cologne printer Hero Fuchs, known as Alopecius. The Gradual of 1536, published in his workshop, is, alongside the Antiphonary and the Psalter, “the earliest and most impressive example of a choral print in northern Germany.” (Music in Münster). The Münster Cathedral Chapter commissioned the printing following the fire at the cathedral library and the Anabaptist period. Since the only printer in Münster at the time, Dietrich Tzwyel, had fled from Münster to the Lutheran camp in 1534, the work was commissioned from outside the city (Aengenvoort, p. 24). It is one of the most important liturgical books, which was likely used by the cathedral until 1880 and is unique throughout the entire northwestern German region. The Gradual is printed in Gothic neume notation on a five-line staff. - The woodcuts are attributed to Anton Woensam of Worms, who had been working for various Cologne book printers since 1517. - Like all known comparable copies, the book ends with folio 295 = dd1. Collation: A–O 6; P 1–6 (designated as P, P2, P3, P4, P, P2); Q–Z 6; a6; b6 (designated as b, b2, b3, b4, none, b); c–z6; aa–cc6; dd1 = fol. 295. - A continuous water stain along the upper margin; 5 folios newly bound at the beginning; 15 folios reinforced at the margins; the title page has been pasted in and closely trimmed at the margin; the last digit is missing on 60 pages due to marginal trimming; Page 201 has been restored; on the reverse, 5 lines of text and some musical notes have been partially added by hand; page 244 has missing individual notes and letters in the lower corner. On the title page, a handwritten entry reads “Anno 1593 à Magistro Fabricae ad instantiam Bernardi Beme(?) Pastoris …”; below the colophon, an 18th-century handwritten entry reads: “St. Clemens Church.” -Overall, a well-preserved copy. *