''Missale Aboense'' was the first book printed for

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. As its name suggests, it was a prayer book used for

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

. It follows the tradition of the Dominican liturgy, which around the year 1330 was adopted as the official liturgy of the See of

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

. This poor bishopric could not afford to have its own missal printed, but its Dominican tradition came to the rescue. At the same time as the ''Missale Aboense'' was printed, a simultaneous printing appeared for the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

's needs elsewhere in the

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

n countries. In the ''Missale Aboense'' the only main difference from this were the necessary local features of the Turku See in the

Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

. At that time there were no printing shops in Finland. (The first one, in the

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

, was established in 1642.) The ''Missale'' was commissioned by Bishop Konrad Bitz from the

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

printer Bartholomeus Ghotan. Bitz dated his introduction to the book, Turku, 17 August 1488, and it was published in the same year. The ''Missale'' was printed on both parchment and paper. This firstborn of

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

literature ran to some 550 folio pages. With regard to beauty of typography, it still competes successfully for a leading place among Finnish books. A facsimile edition of the work was brought out in 1971 and 1988.

External links

Missale Aboense online
{{Authority control Illuminated missals 1488 books Incunabula 15th century in Finland History of Christianity in Finland History of Turku History of Lübeck 15th-century Christian texts Christian prayer books 15th-century Latin books