Design of the text of liturgical manuscripts

In the missal, the book for the celebrant of the Mass, various sizes and styles of scripts, the color in which they were written, music notation, and initials were carefully organized to define loudly proclaimed text, quietly spoken text, chant sung by the priest, incipits of chant sung by the choir, the beginning and hierarchy of texts and the beginning of new parts of the same text. In the first printed missal, called either a Missale Romanum or a because it was edited for general use by the Franciscans, about one-third of the printed pages were left blank for the rubrics to be written in by hand in red. Unique copy at The Newberry Library, Chicago, f7428.5, fol. [al]. Another version of the first missal exists, with many of the rubrics printed in red. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, Urb. lat. 109.

For a discussion of the design of the missal page, see Mary Kay Duggan, "The Design of the Early Printed Missale," Journal of the Printing Historical Society, No. 22 (1993), 54-78.