Has anyone identified the Missale Romanum / Rituale Romanum used by Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula?

Odin82

Sr Member
Every few years, I end up returning to the quest of trying to identify the Missale Romanum / Rituale Romanum that Anthony Hopkins is reading from at the end of Bram Stoker's Dracula. As a person that likes collecting books used in movies, I'd love to be able to identify it or track one down for my collection. Anyone have any information that could help on this? I've tried searching on Archive.org, but can't find a matching page to the "Titulus X" screen cap. I presume the prop department would have just acquired one, rather than creating one for such a small scene. (Closest I can find (Here) and (Here)

The Text reads:

Sacerdos, seu quivis alius legitimus Ecclesiae minister, vexatos a daemone exorcizaturus , ea qua par est pietate,. prudcntiae, ac vitoc intcgritate prseditus esse decet: qui nott sua, sed divina fretus virtute , ab omni rerum humanaruui cupiditatc alienus, tam pium opus ex caritate constanter et humiliter exequatur. Hunc praeterea maturae aetatis esse decet, et non solum officio, sed etiam morum gravitate reverendum.
2. Ut igitur suo munere recte fungatur, cum alia multa


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Hey man, thanks for replying with your find. It's greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, I can't seem to open the link to go to Page 380. I'm guessing it's an issue on my side. Would you or someone be able to take a screenshot of the page?

That's some sweet find though! Can't find it on archive.org. Would love to be able to get a PDF of it and make a replica.
 
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Awesome man! I'm miffed why I can't open it. Maybe Geoblocked or something. Can't you access the entire book, or just the page?

It's actually driving me ***king nuts that it won't let me click or preview any pages. On a Mac, using Safari. Just turned off all adblockers, and still won't allow it. "Preview Not Available" Even tried Firefox, and no go.
 
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Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner and the drop down has downloading options
Unfortunately that doesn't come up for me. I only get the "My Library" "Help" and "Advanced Search". Not even available on the Google Play store, where other editions are available and to download. I'm absolutely miffed if it's a geoblock from the country I'm in.

Edit: Had to get a VPN for Firefox, change it to Canada, and it allows me to download it. Damn, what the hell is wrong that it has EU countries blocked, as it didn't work with the Netherlands/Germany VPN. Wow.. Google, wtf.

Edit 2: Ughh, the download doesn't have the illustrations in it.
 
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Odin, check your messages.

This was fun to research!

While the Latin used in the Rituale Romanum hasn't changed since the 16th century, the characters have. For example, "V" being changed to "U" and all that. So it was likely a late 19th century book, based on the font and the style of art. Additionally, the order of chapters, etc, hasn't changed since then either, so it was just a matter of look for books with the same style art in the leading capital, and than going to around page 300 or so to see if it matched.

The big challenge in finding a copy to buy is that there are so, so many different versions that have the exact same text, and different art. Add to that some books were sold as just the pages with cardboard covers, so you could get it bound to match your library, and it gets even more challenging.
 
The prop mistress, supplied me with the book, and I made the latch and embossed the cover. I don't know what the original book was, however I still have the magnesium printing plates for the added pages.
I think I also still have the magnesium "VAMPYRE" plate I used to emboss the cover.
When I needed to emboss the cover, I didn't have a press strong enough for the job. But, I was restoring my 1967 Alfa Duetto at the time, so I jacked up the car, put the book and plate under the car, with jack stand and rested the car on the book cover. In the morning, it was perfect.
 
It looks like I don't have the VAMPYRE plate, but do have the others. Although the portrait plate I think was changed.
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I also have this plate and leather piece which I don't remember what they were for, but we made them for the film.

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