Mass for St Dominic
F151.d.4.20, J.ii v + J.iii r
Missale Praedicatorum
Paris, 1519

The small size of the book makes it unlikely that it normally served as an altar Missal, but with good eyesight and lighting it could have been used as such. The rubric text of the Mass of St Dominic (4 August) displayed here refers to him as patris nostri and contains the Sequence In celesti hierarchia, both features particular to Missals of the Order and not contained in his Mass in the Roman Missal. Printed liturgical books frequently have rubric running titles as here, In festo Beati dominici, and this much facilitates the location of texts by the reader. The Introit is In medio ecclesie, differing from the Roman rite, the Collect (rubric Oratio) is Deus qui ecclesiam tuam beati dominici confessoris, the Epistle II Timothy 4: 1–8, the Gradual, Os iusti meditabitur sapientiam, differing from the Roman rite, and the Gospel Matthew 5: 13–19, also differing from the Roman rite. The choice of the Gospel is significant for the teaching and preaching mission of the Order as it is the instructions given by Christ on the Beatitudes, ending with the words ‘He therefore that shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven’.