Anincunable orincunabulum (pl.:incunables orincunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, orbroadside 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 theprinting press becamewidespread in Europe, are rare, where even some early 16th-century books are relatively common.

They are distinct frommanuscripts, which are documents written by hand. Some authorities on thehistory of printing includeblock books from the same time period as incunabula, whereas others limit the term to works printed usingmovable type.

As of 2021,^[update] there are about 30,000 distinct incunableeditions 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 oflost editions is at least 20,000.^[4] Around 550,000 copies of around 27,500 different works have been preserved worldwide.^[5]

Incunable is theanglicised form ofincunabulum,^[6]reconstructed singular ofLatinincunabula,^[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 isfifteener, meaning "fifteenth-century edition".^[10]

The termincunabula was first used in the context of printing by the Dutch physician and humanistHadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe, 1511–1575), in a passage in his workBatavia (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 toBernhard von Mallinckrodt (1591–1664), in his Latin pamphletDe ortu ac progressu artis typographicae ("On the rise and progress of the typographic art"; 1640), but he was quoting Junius.^[13][14]

The termincunabula 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 ofincunabula, 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 acolophon or on thetitle page became more widespread.^[16]

There are two types of printed incunabula: theblock book, printed from a single carved or sculpted wooden block for each page (the same process as thewoodcut in art, calledxylographic); and thetypographic book, made by individual cast-metalmovable type pieces on aprinting press. Many authors reserve the term "incunabula" for the latter.^[17]

The spread ofprinting to cities both in the North and in Italy ensured that there was great variety in the texts and the styles which appeared. Many earlytypefaces were modelled on localwriting or derived from various EuropeanGothic scripts, but there were also some derived from documentary scripts likeCaxton's, and, particularly in Italy, types modelled on handwritten scripts andcalligraphy used byhumanists.

Printers congregated in urban centres where there werescholars,ecclesiastics,lawyers, andnobles andprofessionals who formed their major customer base. Standard works inLatin 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 incunabula include two fromMainz, theGutenberg Bible of 1455 and thePeregrinatio in terram sanctam of 1486, printed and illustrated byErhard Reuwich; theNuremberg Chronicle written byHartmann Schedel and printed byAnton Koberger in 1493; and theHypnerotomachia Poliphili printed byAldus Manutius with important illustrations by an unknown artist.^{[citation needed]}

Other printers of incunabula wereGünther Zainer ofAugsburg,Johannes Mentelin andHeinrich Eggestein ofStrasbourg,Heinrich Gran ofHaguenau,Johann Amerbach ofBasel,William Caxton ofBruges and London, andNicolas Jenson ofVenice. The first incunable to have woodcut illustrations wasUlrich Boner'sDer Edelstein, printed byAlbrecht Pfister inBamberg in 1461.^[18]

A finding in 2015 broughtevidence of quires, as claimed by research, possibly printed in 1444–1446 and possibly assigned toProcopius Waldvogel ofAvignon, France.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[19] 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.^[16]

As noted above, theend 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 initalic type introduced byAldus Manutius in 1501. The termpost-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 mainlandEurope, 1501–1540.^[21]

One notable example from this period isHakob Meghapart (Hagop Meghapart), who in 1512 became the first known printer of Armenian books. Working inVenice, he publishedUrbatagirk (The Book of Friday) and several other early Armenian printed works. His books retained characteristics of manuscript tradition, including red and black ink and decorative initials, aligning them stylistically withincunabula despite beingpost-incunable by definition.

The data in this section were derived from theIncunabula 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):

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 andSardinian (see diagram).

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

The "commonest" incunable is Schedel'sNuremberg 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 theGutenberg 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 offormat, the 30,000-odd editions comprise: 2,000broadsides, 9,000folios, 15,000quartos, 3,000octavos, 18 12mos, 230 16mos, 20 32mos, and 3 64mos.

ISTC at present cites 528 extant copies of books printed byCaxton, 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 theSouthern Hemisphere, and the latter appears to possess fewer than 2,000 copies, while 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]}

TheBritish Library'sIncunabula 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) andGeorg Wolfgang Panzer (1729–1805) arranged printed material chronologically in annals format, and in the first half of the 19th century,Ludwig Hain published theRepertorium bibliographicum—a checklist of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author: "Hain numbers" are still a reference point. Hain was expanded in subsequent editions, byWalter A. Copinger andDietrich Reichling, but it is being superseded by the authoritative modern listing, a German catalogue, theGesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, which has been under way since 1925 and is still being compiled at theStaatsbibliothek zu Berlin. North American holdings were listed byFrederick R. Goff and a worldwide union catalogue is provided by theIncunabula Short Title Catalogue.^[34]

Notable collections with more than 1,000 incunabula include:

• Global spread of the printing press
• History of books
• Book collecting

• Centre for the History of the Book
• British Library worldwideIncunabula Short Title CatalogueArchived 12 March 2011 at theWayback Machine
• Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW), partially English version
• History of Incunabula Studies
• UIUC Rare Book & Manuscript Library
• Grand Valley State University Incunabula & 16th Century Printing digital collections
• Incunable Collection at the USLibrary of Congress
• Digital facsimiles of several incunabulaArchived 8 June 2017 at theWayback Machine from the website of theLinda Hall Library
• Kristian Jensen (2016)."Introduction to the study of incunabula". Lyon:Ecole Nationale Superieure des Sciences de l'information et des Bibliotheques, Institut d'histoire du livre. Archived fromthe original on 27 November 2017. (Includes annotated bibliography)
• "Rinascimento: Manuscripts & Incunabula".Research Guides. US: Harvard University Library.
• Pollard, Alfred W. (1911)."Incunabula" .Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). pp. 369–370.
• "An Introduction to Incunabula". Barber, Phil. Retrieved6 July 2017.