Missale Iuxta Morem et Consuetudinem Sedis Valentiae

Missale Iuxta Morem et Consuetudinem Sedis Valentiae

This splendid incunabulum, an early book printed before 1501, has complicated origins: it is a commission of the Basilica San Andrés de Mantua from the Venetian workshop of a German printer, Johannes Hamman, which is in turn dedicated to the clergy of Valencia. The work was published in 1492 and was later appended with a wonderfully detailed and colored woodcut of Calvary. It is presented within a floral border including the sun and moon to represent the darkness that occurred for three hours beginning at noon and shows the Crucified Christ flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John while Mary Magdelene kneels and embraces the base of the cross. The Latin text consists of thirteen masses written by Saint Gregory (ca. 540–604) and includes a blessing for the territory of Valencia. The first Valencian missal was printed in Venice because of a distrust of the Valencians, who were dismissed as dubious converts, even though Andrés de Mantua was a patron and admirer of the Valencian clergy.

The Life and Works of St. Gregory

The extraordinary man commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great reigned as the Bishop of Rome from his election in 590 until his death in 604, but those years only represent the culmination of a long and prestigious career in service of the Christian faith and of the city of Rome. He was a senator’s son who served as Prefect of Rome at the age of 30 and was an ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople between 579 and 586. Upon his father’s death, he converted the family villa in a monastery and became the first pope from a monastic background. Gregory treated his election to the throne of St. Peter as a burden but nonetheless established the most effective papal administration to date. Aside from greatly increasing the relief given to the poor of Rome, mostly refugees of war, he sent missions to convert the Anglo-Saxons, reestablished Rome’s religious authority over the Franks, Visigoths, and Lombards, and combated the Arian and Donatist heresies.

A Tremendous Written Legacy

Gregory was one of the most prolific authors in the history of the papacy and the only pope between the 5th and 11th centuries whose writings have survived in sufficient numbers to comprise a proper corpus. His most famous work is Pastoral Care, a treatise on the responsibilities on the clergy. He also created the so-called Gregorian chant and wrote various sermons, dialogues, and commentaries, as well as over 580 letters that have survived to the present. His contributions to the liturgy have earned him the title “the Father of Christian Europe” aside from being one of the Latin Fathers and a Doctor of the Catholic Church who is celebrated by virtually every Christian denomination, even regarded by the radical reformer John Calvin as the last good pope. Despite his body of literature and the numerous quotes attributed to him, there is relatively little autobiographical material among his corpus and thus his personal and philosophical development remain a matter of speculation.