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The class known as Rit (for Ritual) comprises British and Continental editions of liturgical texts used in the Christian church. It numbers nearly 450 volumes and was created in 1911 by gathering together existing holdings from within the library. It includes 25 books left to the library by Henry Bradshaw (University Librarian 1867-1886) who was an active bibliographer and editor of liturgical texts. It also includes all the publications of the Henry Bradshaw Society, formed in 1890 in his honour with the aim of publishing rare liturgical texts from the original manuscript sources. In 1911 these numbered 41 volumes but in 2018 there are 123 volumes in the main series, and each subsequent publication of the Society is added to this class. Further additions were made to the collection in the years shortly after its formation, with the bequest of Edward Atkinson, Master of Clare College (1856-1915) the most significant in terms of number of volumes.

The collection focuses particularly on early printed editions of breviaries, missals and books of hours, with a particular strength in sixteenth-century Continental publications. It includes three copies of one of the first liturgical texts to be published in English, A goodly prymer in Englysshe, newely corrected and prynted with certeyne godly meditations and prayers... very necessarye and profytable for all them that ryghte assuredlye understande not the latine and greke tongues, known as Marshall's Primer and printed by royal consent in 1537 (Rit.d.753.1, 2 and 3). There are also numerous continental and British Books of Hours according to various local practices, some of which suffered at the hands of Anglican owners: a volume of Roman hours printed in Paris in 1530 has all references to popes and indulgences scored through (Rit.d.353.1) while another is inscribed 'This boke I bought to see the errors of it, that I might the better confute them' (Rit.a.155.1, a Sarum book of hours printed in Paris in 1555). An unusual volume is a large format Antiphoner to be read from by a whole monastic choir at once (Antwerp, 1572; Rit.bb.257.1). The collection also includes rare works by early continental printers including a beautifully illuminated miniature Book of Hours on vellum by Germain Hardouin (Paris, c. 1505: Rit.e.350.2) and two Hours by Thielmann Kerver (both Paris, 1522; Rit.d.352.2, and Rit.e.242.4(2)). 

The majority of the volumes in the collection are in Latin, with the next most common language being English. It includes texts in many other languages, however, with at least one volume in each of the following: Chaldean; Greek; Mohawk (a Book of Common Prayer presented to the library by the first Bishop of Nova Scotia); Russian; Spanish; Portuguese; Swedish; Maltese; and Danish. It also includes services according to the practice of the Cistercian, Carthusian, Carmelite, Benedictine, Hieronymite and Augustinian religious orders.

The following table shows the number of books from each century by location of printing (for the purposes of this table the volumes published by the Henry Bradshaw Society have been omitted as they are modern academic editions of manuscripts rather than books used actively in religious worship):

Place of publication 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 1800-1899 1900-present Total
Britain 58 19 8 19 9 113
Continental Europe 95 31 50 17 1 194
Other/ Unknown 16   1     17
Total 169 50 59 36 10 324

The majority of those volumes whose place of publication cannot be determined are fragments of only a few leaves.