Incunabulum (Latin: plural; incunabula) / Incunable

Incunabula are the earliest books printed, that is all those published up to and including 1500. Books printed after 1500 are known in German as "Frühdruck" [= "early print(s)"]. Ultimately derived from the Latin "cunae" [= cradle, hence the German term "Wiegendruck"], the term "incunabulum" is used for books printed in the earliest days of printing with movable type, figuratively speaking, when the craft of printing was still "in its infancy" but the term is much later than the works it is applied to since it was not coined until Philippe Labbé (1607-67), a bibliographer in Paris used it to refer to early printing, not to the books that were printed, issuing a list of incunabula in the Paris Royal Library. Cornelius à Beughem, a bookseller in Emmerich-am-Rhein used the term as it is used today in 1688. A catalogue of known incunabula was published by Michel Maittaire in five volumes (1719-41). In Germany, the term "Wiegendruck" has been in use since the 19th century. An incunabulum represents the first step away from the entirely hand-written book to the printed work, one that is often still experimental as far as technical aspects of printing and typography are concerned. The development of the printed book can be traced with some assurance through incunabula because those who printed them still regarded themselves as independent master craftsmen. Later the artisanal approach to making a book would be replaced by small crafts businesses that simplified much of the process in order to be able to print in larger volume in a shorter time. Among the most important and best known incunabula is, of course, the celebrated 1455 Gutenberg Bible. Further, other noteworthy incunabula are the Anton Koberger Bible of 1493 and the Schedelsche Weltchronik of the same year. Famous incunabula printers include Albrecht Pfisterer in Bamberg, Günter Zainer in Augsburg and Johannes Mentelin in Strasbourg. The first printed catalogue of a collection of incunabula to have survived is the "Historiae bibliothecae reipublicae Noribergensis ... catalogus librorum proximis ab inventione annis usque ad a. Chr. 1500 editorum" drawn up by Joh. Saubert for the Nuremberg Stadtbibliothek [Municipal Library]. Nowadays there are approx 40 000 incunabula titles and roughly a half million exemplars. German usage also applies the term "Inkunabel" as distinguished from "Wiegendruck" to single woodcuts as well as early copperplate engravings, etchings and even lithographs.

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