In the 1400s, Gutenberg invented the printing press. In 1488, a special missal was printed in Germany for Finland, known as the Missale Aboense (Turku Mass Book). It began with a 13-page calendar section.
The first page showed the course of the moon in the zodiac, followed by a calendar for each month. The calendar of the Missal was not printed for any particular year, and therefore for the day of the week and the phases of the moon, for example, you had to know the numerals for each year (e.g. the Sunday letter and the golden number). The Missale Aboense was in Latin.
The pages of the Missale, which are included in the almanac archive, are reproduced from a second visual edition which appeared in 1988. It was edited by Martti Parvio and published by Suomen kirkkohistoriallinen seura. The visual edition was published by WSOY.
Two pages from the original Missale Aboense are reproduced alongside the neat pages of the illustrated edition. The work belongs to the collections of the University of Jyväskylä Library. The pages have been photographed by Matti Salmi.
