The Companion of the Sanctuary, with the Approbation of the Rt. Rev. Bishop [John Joseph] Williams by John Joseph Williams

Thomas B. Noonan and Co. Acceptable. 0x0x0. In English and Latin. [1880] Thomas B. Noonan and Co. (Boston, Massachusetts), 3 1/8 x 4 1/4 inches tall full leather bound, ornate gilt ruling and cross to covers, gilt design and lettering to spine, working brass clasp and hasp closure, all page edges gilt, illustrated with engravings, engraved frontispiece with tissue guard and two other high-quality full-page engravings by noted lithographer L. Turgis Le Jeune (French, active Paris and New York, ca. 1855?87), 454 pp. Light soiling and moderate to heavy rubbing and edgewear to covers. Cracking to front exterior hinge, which appears to have been reinforced with binder's glue at some point - the binding is quite firm. Gilt page edges dulled. Slight edge chipping to front and rear blank free-endpapers, and to a couple of interior pages. Several pages with light to moderate, mostly marginal, soiling. Half-inch tearing to the lower inner edge of the title page along the gutter. Despite these detractions, still a complete copy, with working clasp, of this exceptionally rare late nineteenth century American Catholic prayer book. OCLC (No. 79833672) locates only one copy at institutions worldwide - at Harvard's Houghton Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which dates it at 1880. Though no year is given, the table of moveable feasts covers 1873-1896 and Boston's Bishop Williams (who issued the approbation) served from 1866-1907. ~SSS~ A rare late nineteenth century Roman Catholic prayer book issued by Boston Catholic publisher Thomas B. Noonan and Co. Gives the Table of Moveable Feasts for 1873-1896, brief morning and night prayers, devotions for Mass, Holy Mass, Vespers prayers, hymns, penitential psalms, prayers before confession, table of sins, act of confession/contrition, prayers for Holy Communion, Litany of the Saints, Litany for the Sick, Rosary of Jesus, Rosary of Blessed Virgin, Prayers of St. Bridget, Meditations on Christ's Passion, and tho most extensive section on Prayers at Mass.