Missale Aboense

The Missal Aboense ( " Missal of Turku " ) was the first printed book for Finland. It is the only incunabula, so the only before 1501 printed book of Finnish literature.

The Missal was printed on order of the Bishop of Turku, Konrad Bitz, in 1488 in the printing of Bartholomew Ghotan in Lübeck for use in the diocese. The foreword is written by Bitz dated August 17, 1488. The book is printed in Latin on parchment and paper. It includes 550 pages, the edition was a few hundred.

The Missal Aboense was its name, a missal that is both general measurement texts ( Ordinary Mass and the Proper Mass ), as well as texts for the Masses of all the saints of the church year contained. The Missal used the Dominican measurement scheme, since the Dominican liturgy had been determined in 1330 to the liturgy of the Diocese of Turku. The diocese had at that time not the means to print its own completely Missal. When pressure was saved by based on the Dominican liturgy missals were printed at the same time for use in other Nordic countries.

In the book, however, some made ​​for Finland modifications and additions were included, among others, in connection with the patron saint of the diocese, Henry of Uppsala and other Saints.

From the Missal not a single copy is intact, but there are fifteen incomplete specimens known. Four of these are on parchment, printed the other on paper. Of the parchment editions are two in Finland (Helsinki and Jyväskylä ) and one each in the Royal Library in Denmark and Stockholm. From the pages received the work could be reconstructed as a whole; Reprints on this basis were published in 1971 and 1988.