Eighteenth-Century Guides to the Mass

Tableaux de la messe, en trente-six figures.
Paris: Théodore de Hansy, 1782.
(BRE0069)

This illustrated guide includes prayers for the Mass, accompanied by a depiction of the corresponding ceremony performed by a priest assisted by one or two acolytes. Above the altar, relevant scenes of the Passion are shown. Such guidebooks date back to the mid-seventeenth century and the publication of Tableau de la Croix by François Mazot in 1651. Like Mazot’s publication, the copy printed by Francois Jouenne is composed of images and text produced entirely with engraved plates. The 1782 work published by de Hansy, however, comprises both letterpress printing and engraved plates.

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Ritual and Church History
Eighteenth-Century Guides to the Mass