The collections
The Museum Plantin-Moretus conserves a multiple collections. Old printed books and manuscripts, printing presses and tools, paintings, prints and drawings, furniture and paintings and several archives.
Octo missae
The Octo missae contains eight Mass settings by the Antwerp composer Georges de la Hèle. This monumental work was the first musical work to be printed by the Officina Plantiniana, in 1578.
©Museum Plantin-Moretus
Impressive dimensions
In 1578, the first music print rolled off the presses of Christophe Plantin’s printing house—and what a print it was. This monumental volume, measuring 55 by 40 cm, was large enough for all the singers of a choir to read from at once. The collection contains the music for eight masses: four are written for five voices, and two each for six and seven voices. The musical quality is exceptionally high: four of the motets are by the renowned composer Orlandus Lassus.
The Antwerp-born composer Georges de la Hèle (1547–1586), under whose name the work was published, worked mainly for the Habsburg court in Spain and the Low Countries. This publication is the most important work of his that has survived; the rest was lost in a fire in Madrid in 1734. The musical notation was cut by the Ghent engraver Hendrik van den Keere, with whom Plantin collaborated regularly. This work stands as a fine example of the outstanding typography of Christophe Plantin’s printing house.
©Museum Plantin-Moretus
iHele, George de la, Lassus, Orlandus, Rore, Cyprianus de, Octo missae quinque, sex et septem vocum, o:lvd:2036159, Collectie Stad Antwerpen, Museum Plantin-Moretus
Swift sales
This copy is the only one of this edition preserved in Flanders. The paper used for it was originally intended for a different purpose: Philip II himself had commissioned it for a music print that was never realised. To be sure of recovering his costs, Plantin asked De la Hèle to purchase forty copies at a reduced price. However, the work sold better than expected.
