Art Nouveau Bookbinding of 16th-century Roman Missal

This richly illustrated Roman missal, printed in Venice in 1572 after the Council of Trent reforms, comes with an Art Nouveau lace bookbinding, made by Carlo Glinger in Rome in the late 19th–early 20th century. The binding is covered with embossed, gilded and painted brown leather. In the centre of the book cover there are stylized soaring lilies symbolising purity and innocence. Doves, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the papal coat of arms are embedded between them. The same floral motif, enclosed with a decorative cartouche, is repeated in the centre of the back book cover. The verso of the front cover bears the bookplate of one of the print's owners, Ernesto Pagnoni of Milan, who had the binding made. The bookplate, imprinted on leather and painted, refers in its symbolism to antiquity and depicts two female figures resembling ancient caryatids. The book arrived to the Ossolineum together with the Krzeszów Cistercian’ book collection.