Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

Processing to baptism 

​

[MODENA - CATHOLIC CONVERTS]. SALMI DA CANTARSI ed ordine da tenersi nella processione per il battesimo de’ catecumeni. In Modena: Per gli Eredi di Bartolomeo Soliani Stampatori Ducali, c.1750s?. £400

​

SOLE EDITION? 4to, pp. viii; woodcut vignette on title-page, and woodcut initials and tailpiece; a couple of small spots, but otherwise clean and fresh; in later drab wrappers; spine worn and upper wrapper slightly loose.

​

Very rare printing of the psalms and canticles to be sung during the procession at the baptism of catechumens, that is, converts to Catholicism from Islam, Protestantism, and (most frequently) Judaism, in Modena in the second half of the eighteenth century, under the auspices of the Casa dei catecumeni, the formal institution which took over from the House of Este the responsibility for the conversion of Jews and others, and the pastoral and spiritual care of converts.

​

The procession is described in the two-page introduction; the confraternity responsible for the catechumen will, at the appointed time, come to their house to collect a banner displayed outside, which will be raised at the head of a procession to the Cathedral, during which Psalm 113 (In Exitu Israel) and the canticle Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel are to be sung; these conclude as the procession enters the church. The procession will feature six putti dressed as angels, and neophytes or their children will carry the garments required for the ceremony: for men, a white cloak, for women, a white veil. At the rear of the procession are the officers of the Casa dei catechumeni and the catechumen and catechist.

After the service, the procession again follows the banner, heralded with trumpets and drums, and returns back to the newly baptised person’s home singing the Nunc Dimittis as they exit the church, and then the Te Deum. The newly baptised will receive a blessing, before receiving ‘alcune cortesia’.

​

We have failed to locate any further copies, although it is cited in the index of Al Kalak and Pavan’s comprehensive study of the Modena Case dei catecumeni. 

​

Cited by M. al Kalak and I. Pavan, Un’ altra fede. Le Case dei catecumeni nei territori estensi (1583-1938), Florence, 2013, p. 218; not recorded by OCLC or SBN. 

​

[ref: 2670 ]