D
om Hugh Somerville-Knapman, a Benedictine monk at Douai Abbey in the UK, has done up a review of a travel edition of the 1962 Missale Romanum published by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP). Here are a couple of his photos of it:
Not inappropriate to a travel edition, he tells us that there is not much in the way of liturgical art, short of the Canon Missae page you see above.
At any rate, I will let his review speak for itself but from what I can see of it, it looks like a well done publication. One thing that looks particularly pleasing is the typography. This is an aspect that can often be forgotten by publishers and reviewers alike (for the record, Dom Hugh does not neglect this aspect in his review). It is not only important for the beauty of the book, it is also is important practically so that the text is clean and legible.
It is also good to see that they included the rubrical illustration for incensing either a fixed or free-standing altar -- a very real necessity in this day and age.
My only design critique is that, instead of a plain Latin cross, it would have been good to either have a slighly more ornamental cross, or even dispense with the design altogether, perhaps add an ornamental border, or even allow the leather work to speak for itself. Sometimes less is more, and sometimes more is more, but there can be a point too where it might have been better to go one way or the other and not half way in between.
Do head on over to Dom Hugh's site for his full review.
Photo credits: Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman
