An incunable, also called an incunabulum, is a book, pamphlet, or broadside printed during the very early years of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The exact date is not fixed, but the number of printed books grew rapidly in the next century. Because of this, all incunabula, which were made before the printing press became common in Europe, are rare. Some books from the early 16th century are more common.

Incunabula are different from manuscripts, which are documents written by hand. Some experts include block books from the same time as incunabula, while others only consider books printed with movable type.

As of 2021, about 30,000 different incunable editions are known. The number of surviving copies is likely much higher, with about 125,000 copies alone in Germany. Statistical analysis suggests that at least 20,000 editions are lost. Worldwide, around 550,000 copies of about 27,500 different works have been preserved.

Terminology

An incunable is the English version of the Latin word incunabulum, which means "swaddling clothes" or "cradle." This term was used to describe the earliest stages of something, like the beginning of a process or development. Before the term incunable was used, people sometimes called these early printed books fifteeners, meaning "books from the fifteenth century."

The word incunabula was first used in the context of printing by a Dutch doctor and scholar named Hadrianus Junius in 1569. He wrote about a time "in the first infancy of the typographic art," meaning the very early days of printing. Some people mistakenly believe that Bernhard von Mallinckrodt introduced the term in 1640, but he was actually quoting Junius.

Over time, the word incunabula came to describe printed books themselves, especially those made before the year 1500. This term was not used in English until the middle of the 19th century. Junius set 1500 as the end of the incunable period, a standard still used today by scholars. However, this date is not based on changes in printing techniques. Many books printed after 1500 look very similar to incunables. The term post-incunable is now used to describe books printed between 1500 and 1520 or 1540, though there is no universal agreement on the exact time frame. Around this time, it became more common to include the place and year of printing on a book’s title page or in a colophon, making it easier to date editions.

Types

There are two types of early printed books called incunabula: block books, which are printed from a single carved wooden block for each page (a method similar to woodcutting in art, known as xylographic); and typographic books, which are made using individual metal letters that can be rearranged on a printing press. Some authors use the term "incunabula" only for the typographic books.

Printing spread to cities in the North and Italy, leading to many different types of texts and styles. Early typefaces were based on local writing styles or inspired by European Gothic scripts. Some were also based on scripts used in official documents, such as those used by Caxton, and in Italy, some typefaces were modeled after handwritten scripts and calligraphy used by humanists.

Printers gathered in cities where there were scholars, religious leaders, lawyers, nobles, and other professionals who were their main customers. Most of the earliest printed books were written in Latin, following traditions from the Middle Ages. However, as books became less expensive, more books were written in local languages or translated into local languages from Latin texts.

Famous examples

Famous early printed books include two from Mainz: the Gutenberg Bible from 1455 and the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam from 1486, printed and illustrated by Erhard Reuwich. Another example is the Nuremberg Chronicle, written by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in 1493. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, printed by Aldus Manutius, includes important illustrations by an unknown artist.

Other printers of early printed books were Günther Zainer of Augsburg, Johannes Mentelin and Heinrich Eggestein of Strasbourg, Heinrich Gran of Haguenau, Johann Amerbach of Basel, William Caxton of Bruges and London, and Nicolas Jenson of Venice. The first early printed book with woodcut illustrations was Der Edelstein by Ulrich Boner, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg in 1461.

A discovery in 2015 provided evidence of groups of pages, as suggested by research, possibly printed between 1444 and 1446 and possibly linked to Procopius Waldvogel of Avignon, France.

Post-incunable

Many early printed books, called incunabula, do not have dates. To find their correct time period, experts must carefully study their features. The time after the incunabula period shows how printed books became more developed. By about 1540, printed books usually followed a standard format that included the author's name, a title page, the date, the seller's name, and the place where the book was printed. This made it easier to identify specific editions.

As mentioned earlier, the end date for incunabula is convenient but was not based on major changes in printing around the year 1500. Books printed after 1500 often looked similar to incunabula, except for small books printed in italic type, which Aldus Manutius introduced in 1501. The term "post-incunabula" sometimes refers to books printed after 1500, but experts disagree on how long after. In England, this period usually covers 1501–1520, while in mainland Europe, it covers 1501–1540.

One example from this time is Hakob Meghapart (Hagop Meghapart), who became the first known printer of Armenian books in 1512. He worked in Venice and published Urbatagirk (The Book of Friday) and other early Armenian printed works. His books kept features from handwritten books, such as red and black ink and decorated letters, making them look similar to incunabula even though they were technically post-incunabula.

Statistical data

The information in this section comes from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC).

There are 282 printing towns and cities. These are found in about 18 countries based on today’s borders. Listed from most to least editions printed in each country are: Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, England, Austria, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Hungary (see diagram).

The following table lists the 20 most important 15th-century printing locations. The numbers provided are exact but should be considered close estimates. As of August 2016, the ISTC recorded a total of 30,518 editions.

The 18 languages used for incunabula, listed from most to least, are: Latin, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Catalan, Czech, Greek, Church Slavonic, Portuguese, Swedish, Breton, Danish, Frisian, and Sardinian (see diagram).

About one in ten editions (approximately 3,000) includes illustrations, such as woodcuts or metalcuts.

The most common incunabula is Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle ("Liber Chronicarum") from 1493, with about 1,250 surviving copies. This is also the most illustrated work. Many incunabula are unique, but on average, about 18 copies of each remain. The Gutenberg Bible, with 48 or 49 known copies, is relatively common but extremely valuable. Counting incunabula is complicated because libraries often treat a single volume of a multi-volume work as a separate item. A complete incunabula may include one volume or up to ten volumes.

In terms of format, the more than 30,000 editions include: 2,000 broadsides, 9,000 folios, 15,000 quartos, 3,000 octavos, 18 12mos, 230 16mos, 20 32mos, and 3 64mos.

Over the past five centuries, incunabula have mostly remained in libraries in North America and Japan. None were printed in the Southern Hemisphere, which has fewer than 2,000 copies. About 97.75% of incunabula are located north of the equator. However, many are sold each year at auctions or through the rare book trade.

Major collections

The British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue now lists more than 29,000 titles. Of these, about 27,400 are incunabula editions (not all are unique works). People began studying incunabula in the 17th century. Michel Maittaire (1667–1747) and Georg Wolfgang Panzer (1729–1805) organized printed materials in chronological order using an annals format. In the early 19th century, Ludwig Hain created the Repertorium bibliographicum, a checklist of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author. These "Hain numbers" are still used as important references. Later editions of Hain added more information by Walter A. Copinger and Dietrich Reichling. However, this work is now being replaced by a more complete modern listing, the German catalogue Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. This project began in 1925 and is still being completed at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. North American collections were listed by Frederick R. Goff, and the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue provides a worldwide union catalogue.

Notable collections with more than 1,000 incunabula include: