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INCUNABULA
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INCUNABULA , a Latin neuter-plural meaning " swaddling-clothes," a "See also:cradle," " birthplace," and so the beginning of anything, now curiously specialized to denote books printed in the 15th See also:century. Its use in this sense may have originated with the See also:title of the first separately published' See also:list of 15th-century books, See also:Cornelius a Beughem's Incunabula typographiae (Amster-See also:dam, 1688). The word is generally recognized all over See also:Europe and has produced See also:vernacular forms such as the See also:French incunables, See also:German Inkunabeln (Wiegendrucke), See also:Italian incunaboli, though the anglicized incunables is not yet fully accepted. If its See also:original meaning had been regarded the application of the word would have been confined to books printed before a much earlier date, such as 1475, or to the first few printed in any See also:country or See also:town. By the end of the 15th century See also:book-See also:production in the See also:great centres of the See also:trade, such as See also:Venice, See also:Lyons, See also:Paris and See also:Cologne, had already lost much of its See also:primitive See also:character, and in many countries there is no natural halting-See also:place between 1490 and 1520 or later. The attractions of a See also:round date have prevailed, however, over these considerations, and the See also:year 1500 is taken as a halting-place, or more often a See also:terminus, in all the See also:chief See also:works devoted to the See also:registration and description of See also:early printed books. The most important of these are (i.) Panzer's Annales typographici ab artis inventae origine ad annum MD., printed in five volumes at See also:Nuremberg in 1793 and subsequently in 1803 carried on to 1536 by six additional volumes; (ii.) Hain's Repertorium bibliographicum in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD. typis expressi ordine alphabetico See also:vet simpliciter enumerantur vet adcuratius, recensentur (See also:Stuttgart, 1826-1838). In Panzer's Annales the first principle of See also:division is that of the alphabetical See also:order of the Latin names of towns in which incunabula were printed, the books being arranged under the towns by the years of publication. In Hain's Repertorium the books are arranged under their authors' names, and it was only in 1891 that an See also:index of printers was added by Dr Konrad See also:Burger. In 1898 See also:Robert See also:Proctor published an Index to the Early Printed Books in the See also:British Museum: from the invention' of See also:printing to the year MD., with notes of those in the Bodleian Library. In this See also:work the books were arranged as far as possible chronologically under their printers, the printers chronologically under the towns in which they worked, and the towns and countries chronologically in the order in which printing was introduced into them, the See also:total number of books registered being nearly ten thousand. Between 1898 and 1902 Dr W. Copinger published a Supplement to Hain's Repertorium, described as a collection towards a new edition of that work, adding some seven thousand new entries to the sixteen thousand See also:editions enumerated by Hain. From the total of about twenty-three thousand incunabula thus registered considerable deductions must be made for duplicate entries and undated editions which probably belong to the 16th century. On the other See also:hand Dr Copinger's Supplement had hardly appeared before additional lists began to be issued registering books unknown both to him and to Hain, and the new Repertorium, begun in 1905, under the auspices of the German See also:government, seemed likely to See also:register, on its completion, not fewer than See also:thirty 'thousand different incunabula as extant either in See also:complete copies or fragments. In any See also:attempt to estimate the extent to which the incunabula still in existence represent the total output of the 15th-century presses, a See also:sharp distinction must be See also:drawn between the weightier and the more ephemeral literature. ,Owing to the great religious and intellectual upheaval in the 16th century: ;,much oft the literature previously current went out of date, while the cumbrous early editions of books still read were superseded by handier ones. Before this happened the heavier works had found their way into countless See also:libraries and here they,reposed peacefully, only sharing the See also:fate of the libraries themselves when .these were pillaged, or by a happier See also:fortune amalgamated with other collections in a larger library. The considerable number of copies of many books for whose preservation no See also:special See also:reason can be found encourages a belief that the proportion of serious works now completely lost is not very high, except in the See also:case of books of devotion whose See also:honourable destiny was to be worn to pieces by devout, fingers. On the other hand, of the lighter literature in book-See also:form, the cheap romances and catchpenny literature of all kinds, the destruction has been very great. Most of the broadsides and single sheets generally which have escaped have done so only by virtue of the 16th-century See also:custom of using See also:waste of this See also:kind as a substitute for wooden boards to stiffen bindings. Excluding these broadsides, &c., the total output of the 15th-century presses in book form is not likely to have exceeded See also:forty thousand editions. As to the See also:size of the editions we know that the earliest printers at See also:Rome favoured 225 copies, those at Venice 300. By the end of the century these See also:numbers had increased, but the soft See also:metal in use then for types probably wore badly enough to keep down the size of editions, and an See also:average of 500 copies, giving a possible total of twenty million books put on the See also:European See also:market during the 15th century is probably as near an estimate as can be made. Very many incunabula contain no See also:information as to when, where or by whom they were printed, but the individuality of most of the early types as compared with See also:modern ones has enabled typographical detectives (of whom Robert Proctor, who died in 1903, was by far the greatest) to track most of them down. To facilitate this work many volumes of facsimiles have been published, the most important being K. Burger's Monumenta Germaniae et Italiae Typographica (1892, &c.), J. W. Holtrop's Monuments typographiques See also:des Pays-Bas (1868), 0. See also:Thierry-Poux's Premiers monuments de l'imprimerie en See also:France au XV° siede (ago), K. Haebler's Typographic iberique du See also:guinea-me siecle (1901) and See also:Gordon See also:Duff's Early See also:English Printing (1896), the publications of the Type Facsimile Society (1900, &c.)and the Woolley Facsimiles, a collection of five See also:hundred photographs, privately printed. In his Index to the Early Printed Books at the British Museum Proctor enumerated and described all the known types used by each printer, and his descriptions have been usefully extended and made more precise by Dr Haebler in his Typenrepertorium der,Wiegendrucke (19o5, &c.). With the aid of these descriptions and of the facsimiles already mentioned it is usually possible to assign a newly discovered book with some certainty to the See also:press from which it was issued and often to specify within a few See also:weeks, or even days, the date at which it was finished. As a result of these researches,it is literally true that the out-put of the 15th-century presses (excluding the ephemeral publications which have very largely disappeared) is better known to students than that of any other See also:period. Of original literature of any importance the See also:half-century 1450–1500 was singularly barren, and the zeal with which 15th-century books have been collected and studied has been criticized as excessive and misplaced. No doubt the minuteness with which it is possible to make anold book yield up its secrets has encouraged students to pursue the See also:game for its own See also:sake without any great See also:consideration of See also:practical utility, but the materials which have thus been made available for the student of European culture are far from insignificant. The competition among the 15th-century printers was very great and they clearly sent to press every book for which they could See also:hope for a See also:sale, undaunted by its bulk. Thus the great See also:medieval See also:encyclopaedia, the Specula (See also:Speculum naturale, ,Speculum historiale, Speculum morale, Speculum doctrinale) of See also:Vincent de See also:Beauvais went through two editions at S'trassburg and found publishers and translators elsewhere, although it must have represented an outlay from which many modern firms would shrink. It would almost seem, indeed, as if. some publishers specially affected very bulky works which, while they remained famous, had grown scarce because the 'See also:scribes were afraid to attempt them. Hence, more especially in See also:Germany, it was not merely the output of a single See also:generation which came to the press before 1500, but the whole of the medieval literature which remained alive, i.e. retained a reputation sufficient to attract buyers. A study of lists of incunabula enables a student to see just what works this included, and the degree of their popularity. On the other hand in See also:Italy the See also:influence of the classical See also:renaissance is reflected in the enormous output of Latin See also:classics, and the progress of See also:Greek studies can be-traced in the displacement of Latin See also:translations by editions of the originals. The See also:part which each country and See also:city played in the struggle between the old ideals and the new can be determined in extra-See also:ordinary detail by a study of the output of its presses, although some See also:allowance must be made for the extent to which books were transported along the great trade routes. Thus the fact that the Venetian output nearly equalled that of the whole of the See also:rest of Italy was no doubt mainly due to its export trade. Venetian books penetrated everywhere, and the skill of Venetian printers in liturgical books procured them commissions to See also:print whole editions for the English market. Front the almost complete See also:absence of scholarly books in the lists of English incunabula it would be too much to conclEde that th re was no demand for such books in See also:England. the demand existed and was met by importation, which a See also:state of See also:Richard III.'s expressly facilitated. But that it was not commercially possible for a scholarly press to be worked in England; and that no See also:man of means was ready to See also:finance one, tells its awn See also:tale. The total number of -incunabula printed in England was praba* upwards of four hundred, of which See also:Caxton produced fully one-See also:fourth. Of the ten thousand different incunabula which the British Museum and Bodleian library possess between them, about 4100 are Italian, 3400 German, r000 French, 700 from the Nether-lands, 400 from See also:Switzerland, 15o from See also:Spain and See also:Portugal, 50 from other parts of the See also:continent of Europe and 200 English, the proportion of these last being about doubled by the special zeal with which they have been collected. The celebration in 1640 of the second See also:centenary (as it was considered) of the invention of printing may be !taken as the date from which incunabula began to be collected for their own sake, apart from their See also:literary See also:interest, and the publication of Beughem's Incunabula typographiae in 1688 marks the increased See also:attention paid to them. But up to the end of the 17th century Caxtons could still be bought for a few shillings. The third centenary of the invention of printing in 1740 again stimulated See also:enthusiasm, and by the end of the 18th century the really early books were eagerly competed for. Interest in books of the last ten or fifteen years of the century is a much more modern development, but with the considerable literature which has grown up round the subject is not likely to be easily checked.
The chief collections of incunabula are those of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, Royal library, See also:Munich, and British Museum, See also:London, the number of See also:separate editions in each library exceeding nine thousand, with numerous duplicates. The number of separate editions at the Bodleian library is about five thousand. Other important collections are at the University library, See also:Cambridge, and the See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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