«EXULTET». – This is the Easter Proclamation, the solemn Lucernarium proper to the Easter Vigil; in essence it is the solemn offering of the paschal candle (v.) inserted into the proclamation and exaltation of the Mysteries of that same night, namely the Resurrection and our Redemption. The elevation of form and content makes it a genuine masterpiece.
Already St Augustine (De civ. Dei, XV, 22) speaks of a praise of the paschal candle; St Jerome (Epist. 18: PL 30, 182 ff.) reproaches Bishop Presidius of Piacenza for his excessive description of nature, especially of bees, in the E. (CSEL, 6, p. 415). Henry of Pavia (opus sect. 9 and 10) and the Gelasian Sacramentary (80) have preserved its text. In Rome there was neither a blessing of the paschal candle nor of the E. before the 8th century (the so-called Gregorian does not contain the formula); nor were suburban churches permitted to bless the candle before the 6th century.
The current form of the E., sung by the deacon
Its use dates back to manuscripts, where the owner’s name was written on the flyleaf, and was transmitted unchanged to incunabula. In its present form it seems to have appeared already in the 15th century, but the earliest known example is from 1516. The design was initially produced by the woodcut process; in the 16th and 17th centuries copperplate engraving prevailed, at the beginning of the 19th lithography, and then woodcut came back into fashion. In recent times the ex libris has become the object of scholarly study and collecting; the largest collection is that of the British Museum (100,000 specimens).
They differ from ex libris the superlibris, consisting of the name or device of the owner of a book impressed on the binding.