NEWS: The Vassar Leo X Cuttings (Part III): The Parent Volume, by Peter Kidd.
Having demonstrated in a previous post that the Vassar (and related) cuttings come from a manuscript closely related to the Preparatio ad missam manuscript of Pope Leo X, now at the Morgan Library, we can now consider what else can be deduced about the appearance of the volume from which the cuttings came.
Part of the evidence comes from the text visible on the backs of the cuttings. The text on the back of the oval Vassar cutting is difficult to identify: the top word is uncertain except for the letter “a“, the second line is perhaps part of “ecclesie”, and the last line is apparently part of “Amen”.
The text on the back of the rectangular cutting can be identified as snippets of the priest’s prayer at the offering of the chalice:
Offerimus tibi domine calicem salutaris tuam deprecantes clementiam ut in conspectu divinae majestatis tuae pro nostra et totius mundi salute cum odore suavitatis ascendat.