Rare Sarum Missal for Display

A rare edition of the Sarum Missal will soon be on display in England. Here's the story from the London Telegraph:

The earliest-known printed book bearing the stamp of William Caxton, the father of British printing, has been saved for the nation by the National Trust at a cost of almost £500,000.

The book, dated 1487 and printed in Latin, is the only surviving example of the earliest edition of the Sarum Missal, the most commonly used rite for celebrating Mass in pre-Reformation Britain...

"This isn't just rare, it's unique," said Mark Purcell, the libraries curator of the National Trust...

It is a mystery how many copies were printed but the National Trust's volume, bought from the Legh family of Lyme Park, Cheshire - who have owned it since at least 1508 - still has 243 of the original 266 pages.Mr Purcell said: "What is remarkable is that it is the only one that has survived. It is hard to think of another book that has stayed in the same family for 500 years."

Check out the link for a picture of the missal.