Incunable

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Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schoffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter "U" and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the "Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani" (Hamburg). Inkunabel.ValMax.001.jpg
Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schöffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter "U" and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the "Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani" (Hamburg).
Illumination with doodles and drawings (marginalia), including an open-mouthed human profile, with multiple tongues sticking out. Copulata, "De Anima", f. 2a. HMD Collection, WZ 230 M772c 1485 Prohemium..JPG
Illumination with doodles and drawings (marginalia), including an open-mouthed human profile, with multiple tongues sticking out. Copulata, "De Anima", f. 2a. HMD Collection, WZ 230 M772c 1485
Image of two facing pages from "Phisicorum", fols. 57b and 58a, with doodles and drawings. HMD Collection, WZ 230 M772c 1485 Phisicorum ca. 1485 ..JPG
Image of two facing pages from "Phisicorum", fols. 57b and 58a, with doodles and drawings. HMD Collection, WZ 230 M772c 1485

An incunable or incunabulum (pl.: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. [1] The specific date is essentially arbitrary, but the number of printed book editions exploded in the following century, so that all incunabula, produced before the printing press became widespread in Europe, are rare, where even some early 16th-century books are relatively common.

Contents

They are distinct from manuscripts, which are documents written by hand. Some authorities on the history of printing include block books from the same time period as incunabula, whereas others limit the term to works printed using movable type.

As of 2021, there are about 30,000 distinct incunable editions known. [2] The probable number of surviving individual copies is much higher, estimated at 125,000 in Germany alone. [3] Through statistical analysis, it is estimated that the number of lost editions is at least 20,000. [4] Around 550,000 copies of around 27,500 different works have been preserved worldwide. [5]

Terminology

Incunable is the anglicised form of incunabulum, [6] reconstructed singular of Latin incunabula, [7] which meant "swaddling clothes", or "cradle", [8] which could metaphorically refer to "the earliest stages or first traces in the development". [9] A former term for incunable is fifteener, meaning "fifteenth-century edition". [10]

The term incunabula was first used in the context of printing by the Dutch physician and humanist Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe, 1511–1575), in a passage in his work Batavia (written in 1569; published posthumously in 1588). He referred to a period "inter prima artis [typographicae] incunabula" ("in the first infancy of the typographic art"). [11] [12] The term has sometimes been incorrectly attributed to Bernhard von Mallinckrodt (1591–1664), in his Latin pamphlet De ortu ac progressu artis typographicae ("On the rise and progress of the typographic art"; 1640), but he was quoting Junius. [13] [14]

The term incunabula came to denote printed books themselves in the late 17th century. [15] It is not found in English before the mid-19th century. [9]

Junius set an end-date of 1500 to his era of incunabula, which remains the convention in modern bibliographical scholarship. [11] [12] This convenient but arbitrary end-date for identifying a printed book as an incunable does not reflect changes in the printing process, and many books printed for some years after 1500 are visually indistinguishable from incunables. The term "post-incunable" is now used to refer to books printed after 1500 up to 1520 or 1540, without general agreement. From around this period the dating of any edition becomes easier, as the practice of printing the place and year of publication using a colophon or on the title page became more widespread.[ citation needed ]

Types

There are two types of printed incunabula: the block book, printed from a single carved or sculpted wooden block for each page (the same process as the woodcut in art, called xylographic); and the typographic book , made by individual cast-metal movable type pieces on a printing press. Many authors reserve the term "incunabula" for the latter. [16]

The spread of printing to cities both in the North and in Italy ensured that there was great variety in the texts and the styles which appeared. Many early typefaces were modelled on local writing or derived from various European Gothic scripts, but there were also some derived from documentary scripts like Caxton's, and, particularly in Italy, types modelled on handwritten scripts and calligraphy used by humanists.

Printers congregated in urban centres where there were scholars, ecclesiastics, lawyers, and nobles and professionals who formed their major customer base. Standard works in Latin inherited from the medieval tradition formed the bulk of the earliest printed works, but as books became cheaper, vernacular works (or translations into vernaculars of standard works) began to appear.[ citation needed ]

Famous examples

First incunable with illustrations, Ulrich Boner's Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister, Bamberg, 1461 Pfister.faks.1.jpg
First incunable with illustrations, Ulrich Boner's Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister, Bamberg, 1461

Famous incunabula include two from Mainz, the Gutenberg Bible of 1455 and the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam of 1486, printed and illustrated by Erhard Reuwich; the Nuremberg Chronicle written by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in 1493; and the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili printed by Aldus Manutius with important illustrations by an unknown artist.[ citation needed ]

Other printers of incunabula 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 incunable to have woodcut illustrations was Ulrich Boner's Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg in 1461. [17]

A finding in 2015 brought evidence of quires, as claimed by research, possibly printed in 1444–1446 and possibly assigned to Procopius Waldvogel of Avignon, France.[ citation needed ]

Post-incunable

Many incunabula are undated, needing complex bibliographical analysis to place them correctly. The post-incunabula period marks a time of development during which the printed book evolved fully as a mature artefact with a standard format. [18] After about 1540 books tended to conform to a pattern that included the author, title-page, date, seller, and place of printing. This makes it much easier to identify any particular edition. [19]

As noted above, the end date for identifying a printed book as an incunable is convenient but was chosen arbitrarily; it does not reflect any notable developments in the printing process around the year 1500. Books printed for a number of years after 1500 continued to look much like incunables, with the notable exception of the small format books printed in italic type introduced by Aldus Manutius in 1501. The term post-incunable is sometimes used to refer to books printed "after 1500—how long after, the experts have not yet agreed." [20] For books printed in England, the term generally covers 1501–1520, and for books printed in mainland Europe, 1501–1540. [21]

Statistical data

Printing centres in Europe Printing towns incunabula.svg
Printing centres in Europe
Incunabula distribution by region Incunabula distribution by Region.svg
Incunabula distribution by region
Incunabula distribution by language Incunabula BY language-08.svg
Incunabula distribution by language

The data in this section were derived from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC). [22]

The number of printing towns and cities stands at 282. These are situated in some 18 countries in terms of present-day boundaries. In descending order of the number of editions printed in each, these 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 shows the 20 main 15th-century printing locations; as with all data in this section, exact figures are given, but should be treated as close estimates (the total editions recorded in ISTC at August 2016 is 30,518):

Town or cityNo. of editions % of ISTC recorded editions
Venice [23] 3,54912.5
Paris [24] 2,7649.7
Rome [25] 1,9226.8
Cologne [26] 1,5305.4
Lyon [27] 1,3644.8
Leipzig [28] 1,3374.7
Augsburg [29] 1,2194.3
Strasbourg [30] 1,1584.1
Milan [31] 1,1013.9
Nuremberg [32] 1,0513.7
Florence 8012.8
Basel 7862.8
Deventer 6132.2
Bologna 5592.0
Antwerp 4401.5
Mainz 4181.5
Ulm 3981.4
Speyer 3541.2
Pavia 3371.2
Naples 3231.1
TOTAL22,02477.6

The 18 languages that incunabula are printed in, in descending order, are: Latin, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Catalan, Czech, Greek, Church Slavonic, Portuguese, Swedish, Breton, Danish, Frisian and Sardinian (see diagram).

Only about one edition in ten (i.e. just over 3,000) has any illustrations, woodcuts or metalcuts.

The "commonest" incunable is Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle ("Liber Chronicarum") of 1493, with about 1,250 surviving copies (which is also the most heavily illustrated). Many incunabula are unique, but on average about 18 copies survive of each. This makes the Gutenberg Bible, at 48 or 49 known copies, a relatively common (though extremely valuable) edition. Counting extant incunabula is complicated by the fact that most libraries consider a single volume of a multi-volume work as a separate item, as well as fragments or copies lacking more than half the total leaves. A complete incunable may consist of a slip, or up to ten volumes. [33]

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

ISTC at present cites 528 extant copies of books printed by Caxton, which together with 128 fragments makes 656 in total, though many are broadsides or very imperfect (incomplete).[ citation needed ]

Apart from migration to mainly North American and Japanese universities, there has been little movement of incunabula in the last five centuries. None were printed in the Southern Hemisphere, and the latter appears to possess less than 2,000 copies, about 97.75% remain north of the equator. However, many incunabula are sold at auction or through the rare book trade every year.[ citation needed ]

Major collections

The British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue now records over 29,000 titles, of which around 27,400 are incunabula editions (not all unique works). Studies of incunabula began in the 17th century. Michel Maittaire (1667–1747) and Georg Wolfgang Panzer (1729–1805) arranged printed material chronologically in annals format, and in the first half of the 19th century, Ludwig Hain published the Repertorium bibliographicum—a checklist of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author: "Hain numbers" are still a reference point. Hain was expanded in subsequent editions, by Walter A. Copinger and Dietrich Reichling, but it is being superseded by the authoritative modern listing, a German catalogue, the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke , which has been under way since 1925 and is still being compiled at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. North American holdings were listed by Frederick R. Goff and a worldwide union catalogue is provided by the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue. [34]

Notable collections with more than 1,000 incunabula include:

LibraryLocationCountryNumber of copiesNumber of editionsRef.
Bavarian State Library Munich Germany19,7179,381 [35]
British Library London UK12,50010,390 [36]
Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris France12,0008,000 [37]
Vatican Library Vatican City Vatican City8,6005,400 (more than) [38]
Austrian National Library Vienna Austria8,030 [39]
National Library of Russia Saint Petersburg Russia7,302 [40]
Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart Germany7,093 [41]
Bodleian Library Oxford UK6,7555,623 [42]
Library of Congress Washington, D.C. US5,700 [43]
Russian State Library Moscow Russia5,360 [44]
Huntington Library San Marino, California US5,000 (more than) [45]
Cambridge University Library Cambridge UK4,650 (more than) [46]
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III Naples Italy4,563 [47]
Danish Royal Library Copenhagen Denmark4,500 [48]
John Rylands Research Institute and Library ManchesterUK4,500 [49]
Berlin State Library Berlin Germany4,496 [50]
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts US4,3893,627 [51]
National Library of the Czech Republic Prague Czech Republic4,200 [52]
National Central Library of Florence Florence Italy4,089 [53]
Leipzig University Library Leipzig Germany3,800 [54]
Jagiellonian Library Kraków Poland3,671 [55]
Library of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Munich Germany3,598 [56]
Bamberg State Library Bamberg Germany3,550 [57]
Yale University (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library) New Haven, Connecticut US3,525 (all collections)[ citation needed ]
Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel Germany3,4772,835 [58]
University Library Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau Germany3,448 [59]
Wrocław University Library Wrocław Poland3,250 (more than) [60]
Biblioteca Nacional de España Madrid Spain3,1592,298 [61]
Göttingen State and University Library Göttingen Germany3,100 [62]
Library of the University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany3,100 [63]
Palatina Library Parma Italy3,042 [64]
Basel University Library Basel Switzerland3,000 (more than) [65]
Biblioteca Marciana Venice Italy2,887 [66]
Frankfurt University Library Frankfurt Germany2,800 [67]
Uppsala University Library Uppsala Sweden2,500 [68]
Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna Italy2,500 (circa) [69]
Bibliothèque Mazarine ParisFrance2,4002,120 [70]
Braidense National Library Milan Italy2,368 [71]
Library of the University of Cologne Cologne Germany2,350 [72]
Les Dominicains de Colmar  [ fr ] Colmar France2,300 [73]
Newberry Library Chicago US2,200 (more than) [74]
Casanatense Library Rome Italy2,200 [75]
National Library of the Netherlands The Hague Netherlands2,200 [76]
Library of the University of Tübingen Tübingen Germany2,148 [77]
Library of the University of Innsbruck (Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek) Innsbruck Austria2,1221,889 [78]
National and University Library Strasbourg France2,120 (circa) (7,000 destroyed by fire in the 1870 Siege of Strasbourg) [79]
Nuremberg Public Library  [ de ] Nuremberg Germany2,100 [80]
Library Angelo Mai Bergamo Italy2,100 [81]
Morgan Library New York US2,000 (more than)[ citation needed ]
Library of the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg Erlangen Germany2,000 (more than) [82]
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma RomeItaly2,000 [83]
National Széchényi Library Budapest Hungary1,800 (more than) [84]
Heidelberg University Library Heidelberg Germany1,800 [85]
Estense University Library Modena Italy1,662 [86]
Turin National University Library Turin Italy1,600 (more than) [87]
Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt  [ de ] Halle (Saale) Germany1,600 [88]
Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal Lisbon Portugal1,597 [89]
Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova  [ it ] Padua Italy1,583 [90]
Zentralbibliothek Zürich Zürich Switzerland1,562 [91]
Strahov Monastery LibraryPragueCzech Republic1,500 (more than) [92]
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève ParisFrance1,500 [93]
Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg  [ de ] Salzburg Austria1,385 [94]
Baden State Library Karlsruhe Germany1,365 [95]
University Library of Bonn Bonn Germany1,3381,307 [96]
Biblioteca Augusta Perugia Italy1,330 [97]
University Library in Genoa Genoa Italy1,321 [98]
Trivulziana Library MilanItaly1,300 [99]
Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon Lyon France1,300 [100]
Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Eichstätt Germany1,290 [101]
Walters Art Museum Baltimore, MarylandUS1,280 [102]
Verona Municipal Library Verona Italy1,230 [103]
Bryn Mawr College LibraryBryn Mawr, PennsylvaniaUS1,225 (more than) [104]
Library Teresiana Mantua Italy1,2811,083 [105]
Ratsschulbibliothek Zwickau  [ de ] Zwickau Germany1,200 [106]
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Urbana, IllinoisUS1,200 (more than) [107]
National Library of Poland Warsaw Poland1,1981,031 [108]
Biblioteca Colombina Seville Spain1,194 [109]
Queriniana Library Brescia Italy1,158 [110]
Central Library of the Region of Sicily Palermo Italy1,136 [111]
University of Graz Library Graz Austria1,115 [112]
Angelica Library RomeItaly1,100 [113]
University of Glasgow Glasgow UK1,062 [114]
University Library in Bologna Bologna Italy1,021 [115]
Bridwell Library Dallas, TexasUS1,000 (more than) [116]
Library Passerini Landi Piacenza Italy1,000 (more than) [117]
Abbey library of Saint Gall St. Gallen Switzerland1,000 [118]
Library Intronati Siena Italy1,000 (circa) [119]
National Library of Serbia Belgrade Serbia1,000 (circa) [120] [121]
National and University Library in Zagreb Zagreb Croatia1,000 (circa)[ citation needed ]
Bibliothèque municipale de Besançon Besançon France1,000 (circa)[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ Greenfield, Jane (2002). ABC of bookbinding: a unique glossary with over 700 illustrations for collectors and librarians. New Castle (Del.) Nottingham (GB): Oak Knoll press The Plough press. p. 37. ISBN   978-1-884718-41-0.
  2. ↑ The British Library Incunabula Short Title Catalogue Archived 12 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 16 August 2021) gives 30,518 editions, though this includes some which have been re-dated to the early 16th century.
  3. ↑ According to Bettina Wagner: "Das Second-Life der Wiegendrucke. Die Inkunabelsammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek", in Griebel, Rolf; Ceynowa, Klaus (eds.): "Information, Innovation, Inspiration. 450 Jahre Bayerische Staatsbibliothek", K G Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN   978-3-598-11772-5, pp. 207–224 (207f.) the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue lists 30,375 titles published before 1501.
  4. ↑ J. Green, F. McIntyre, P. Needham (2011), "The Shape of Incunable Survival and Statistical Estimation of Lost Editions", Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 105 (2), pp. 141–175. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/680773
  5. ↑ Badische Landes-Bibliothek (in German)
  6. ↑ As late as 1891 Rogers in his technical glossary recorded only the form incunabulum: Rogers, Walter Thomas (1891). A Manual of Bibliography (2nd ed.). London: H. Grevel. p. 195.
  7. ↑ The word incunabula is a neuter plural only; the singular incunabulum is never found in Latin, and is no longer used in English by most bibliographers.
  8. ↑ C. T. Lewis and C. Short, A Latin Dictionary, Oxford 1879, p. 930.
  9. 1 2 "incunabula" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  10. ↑ "Fifteener" was coined by bibliographer Thomas Frognall Dibdin, a term endorsed by William Morris and Robert Proctor. ( Carter & Barker 2004 , p. 130).
  11. 1 2 Hadrianus Iunius, Batavia, [...], [Lugduni Batavorum], ex officina Plantiniana, apud Franciscum Raphelengium, 1588, p. 256, line 3.
  12. 1 2 Glomski, J. (2001). "Incunabula Typographiae: seventeenth-century views on early printing". The Library. 2 (4): 336. doi:10.1093/library/2.4.336.
  13. ↑ Bernardus a Mallinkrot, De ortu ac progressu artis typographicae dissertatio historica, [...], Coloniae Agrippinae, apud Ioannem Kinchium, 1640 (in frontispiece: 1639), p. 9, line 16. The term appears within a long passage of several pages (pp. 27–33; corresponding to Batavia, pp. 253–58), set in italics to indicate a quotation, and attributed to Junius.
  14. ↑ Sordet, Yann (2009). "Le baptême inconscient de l'incunable: non pas 1640 mais 1569 au plus tard". Gutenberg Jahrbuch (in French). 84: 102–105.
  15. ↑ "incunabula | printing | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
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  17. ↑ Daniel De Simone (ed), A Heavenly Craft: the Woodcut in Early Printed Books, New York, 2004, p. 48.
  18. ↑ Walsby, Malcolm; Kemp, Graeme, eds. (2011). The Book Triumphant: Print in Transition in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Brill. p. viii. ISBN   978-90-04-20723-3.
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  20. ↑ Carter, John; Barker, Nicolas (2004). ABC for Book Collectors (8th ed.). New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press and the British Library. p. 172. ISBN   1-58456-112-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2010. Lock-green.svg
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  22. ↑ BL.uk Archived 12 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine , consulted in 2007. The figures are subject to slight change as new copies are reported. Exact figures are given but should be treated as close estimates; they refer to extant editions.
  23. ↑ "Index: Place of Publication: Venice", Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, retrieved 3 December 2017
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  86. ↑ "Official Website of Estense Library".
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  99. ↑ "Official Website of Trivulziana Library".
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  110. ↑ "Official Website of Queriniana Library".
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