Diary with Dominican Calendar and XII Wood-Engravings
Ditchling: Saint Dominic's Press, 1928. Limited edition. Original striped paper boards (8 inches tall), mounted printed label, black leather spine, bound with extra blank leaves, uncut. Faint tanning to blank flyleaves, interiors fine, gentle soiling to still-bright boards. A near-fine copy. Item #1229
"A CERTAIN FRIAR WAS SENT FROM HIS PRIORY TO PREACH"
First edition of this St. Dominic's Press edition illustrating "the monthly liturgical calendar of church festivals and saints' days as kept in the Dominican order." An excellent copy of a charming book—in the preferred original striped binding.
The Dominican Diary reflects the pervasive Dominican ethos at Ditchling, where the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic was established alongside St. Dominic's Press. Influenced by the Dominican priest, Vincent McNabb, H.D.C. "Hilary" Pepler converted to Catholicism: "On Rosary Sunday 1916 Hilary was baptised by Fr. McNabb, his sponsors being Wilfrid and Alice Meynell" (Joseph Pearce). In this printing of the General Roman Calendar, "each monthly list of holy days is headed by a wood-engraving representing one of the stages of a friar's journey" (Douglas Cleverdon). Prefaced by Pepler with The Year, a brief parable of a wandering monk "seeing Eternity in the present works of men." Returning to the monastery from the fields, the monk saw that "the door of the chapel was open, the bell was ringing at the Elevation. There he saw the labour of the year achieve its final end, for in the hands of the priest was That which had been bread." Illustrated by David Jones with a wood-engraving on the title page (which is repeated for January) and 13 similar illustrations by Mary Dudley Short, This is the preferred first issue: in original striped boards with additional blank leaves bound in. Some copies were bound without the extra leaves and a second binding of plain beige boards was likely issued later. Cleverdon, 20. Sewell & Taylor, Saint Dominic's Press: A Bibliography 1916-1937, A160.
Price: $300.00