ABSTRACT
For some time the author have been preparing a synoptic edition of plainchant in manuscripts of the Pontificale romanum, liturgical books with chants, rubrics, prayers, and readings for rituals over which only a bishop could legitimately preside. These services include clerical ordinations and the consecration of bishops, abbots, abbesses, and nuns, the dedication of a church and a cemetery; and the consecration of an altar and other cult objects. The editio princeps, published in Rome in 1485 and edited by papal master of ceremonies Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini and his assistant and eventual successor, Johannes Burckhard, was an ambitious project of music printing for its time, especially compared with the missals that dominate the incunabula period. Its publisher and the founder of its music type, Stephan Plannck, set not just those chants typically found in PWD manuscripts but a number that were not, including the propers for three masses: for the consecration of a bishop, an abbot, and an altar.
