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CHANTING IN LATIN
It appears to be
very distant from our modern life
and our modern perspective but
almost everybody who's come into contact with this book for whatever reason
they've been absolutely
captivated by the
literally hundreds of stories
this bok tells.
This is not just a very rare and treasured item but this is
truly unique and
truly remarkable.
The word missal comes from the same root as as the word mass in Latin.
It's not a pretty book
it's a working book.
The book is printed in red and in black
and the basic thing is
if it's in black, you say it. If it's in red, you do it.
There's distinctions between large font and small font.
All of those characteristics that he would use to navigate through the text
had to be replicated in print if the book was going to be any use.
It was printed by William Caxton, England's first printer.
What Caxton decided to do was to outsource the work
to a foreign printer
and the printer he chose was called Guillaume Maynal
a Parisian printer
and he chose very well.
Maynal later in his career came to be known
as the master of red and black printing.
Illuminators came in and painted the gilded initials
and then painted in the blue initials that you can see throughout the book.
One of teh other unique things and special features of the Sarum Missal at Lyme
is that it bears Caxton's very famous printer's device.
it was bought as-new
by the Leigh family at Lyme.
It bears direct
evidence
of the impact of the reformation in England.
All references to the Pope or the Church of Rome
had to be crossed through
and you look at the missal book at Lyme and you can see that in 1538
someone assiduously went through and they did cross out all references to the Pope.
There are some
very rude inscriptions in the book
about a Protestant clergyman called Richard Moody.
One of them says: "With all my heart and a piece of my stomach
I beshrew Richard Moody!"
It's clearly not complementary.
It hasn't just been a case of putting a book in a case.
It's been re-presenting the whole of the library.
The ceiling was fully grained which is a particular technique to make it look like oak.
We looked behind the bookcases and found
fragments of the original wallpaper.
For visitors to see that and see our staff getting very excited
about what they're finding was just so exciting for both parties.
Crimson velvet,
crimson flock wallpaper
also gold
bright, bright gold
so it was a very zingy pattern
and we are putting that back in all its glory.
We had some of the original velvet surviving
which was used for the curtains, for the seat covers and for a sofa.
It was stamped velvet
a French technque where you stamp a pattern into the velvet.
So we were able to copy that.
We are recreating the furniture that was here.
One of the visions was that people would be able to sit on the furniture and relax.
It will be a completely different space than it was before.
Consultation with visitors has been to test out whether putting technology
in the historic environment is the right thing to do.
The fact that it's battered and the fact that it's moth-eaten
and the fact that people
have scrawled all over it
the children have cut bits of it out
makes this a much more interesting book.
It is of phenomenal importance
to English printing and is in fact
the single most important printed book in the National Trust's enormous collection.
A book like this should be kept n its place
and any money spent on it should be seen as an investment
rather than an expenditure.
An investment for the future.