Incunabula
Incunabula
Incunabula, latin for “cradle” or “swaddling clothes” is a term used to describe the earliest books printed between 1450 with Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press and 1501, when this new printing technology had become widely available across Western Europe. Incunabula bore many of the same type choices, layout, format, and construction of hand copied manuscripts, and represented a period of continuity between the medieval manuscripts and the early modern printed book. By the second half of the 15th century, the printed book superseded the manuscript to account for increasing demand for book production, resulting from increased urban literacy rates, secularization of education, and the growth of an expanded middle class that included civil servants, court officials, teachers, etc.
During this fifty-year period, scholars have estimated that 18-20 million books were printed, and today 450,000-500,000 survived globally, a survival rate of approximately two to three percent.1
Sermones parati de tempore et de Sanctis
S.l.: s.n.; ca. 1486
Wycliffe Rare Books; BV4241 .S26 1486
Sermones parati de tempore et de Sanctis was likely published around 1486 in Strasbourg, and it is credited to Paratus, though much is unknown about the author’s identity. It was intended to provide appropriate sermons for the liturgical year.
Quadragesimale doctoris illuminati Francisci de Mayronis
Franciscus de Mayronis, approximately 1285-approximately 1328
Venetijs ... impressi : Per Bernardinum de Nouaria; anno ab Incarnatione Domini die vero xx. mensis Ianuarij 20 January 1491
Wycliffe Rare Books; BV4241 .M37 1492
François de Meyronnes was a 14th century French Franciscan, philosopher and theologian, known for his studies with Duns Scotus. In this text he examined the parable of the prodigal son, and it was produced in two editions in Brussels and Venice, indicating its relative influence for the time.
Both incunabula above have visible examples of “manuscript waste” or unwanted manuscript materials, often medieval, from another text used in the production of the bindings of an unrelated title.
Proemium Platynae in vitas Pontificum ad Sixtum. IIII. Pontificem Maximum
Platina, 1421-1481.
Venice : Impresa Iohannis de Colonia ... Iohannis Mathen ...; iij. idus Iuuij impressum anno salutis christianae .M.cccc.lxxix. Laus deo
Upjohn-Waldie 1479 P53 fol.
Bartolomeo Sacchi, or Platina, wrote the first papal history from a humanist perspective in his Lives of the Popes. From this first edition printed in 1479, it became the authoritative papal history, and it was frequently republished until well into the 18th century.
Tabula in libros, opuscula, et comme[n]taria diui Thome de Aquino, cu[m] additionibus conclusionum : concordantiis dictorum eius : et sacre scripture autoritatibus
(Tabula operum S. Thomae de Aquino. 1497)
Pietro, da Bergamo, d. 1482.
Impressa Venetiis : Per Johannem Rubeum Vercellensem; 1497
Upjohn-Waldie 1497 P54 fol.
Peter of Bergamo was a 15th century Dominican Priest and taught theology at Bologna. Bergamo was known for his interpretations and produced this influential compilation and guide to the complete works of Thomas Acquinas.
Danthe alighieri fiorentino
Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321.
Impressa in Venetia : Per Piero de Zuanne di Quarengii da Palazago Bergamasco.; Del. M.CCCC.LXXXXVII. Adi. XI. octubrio. 11 Oct. 1497
Upjohn-Waldie 1497 D36 fol.
From the mid 15th century until the end of the 16th century, the Divine Comedy was a popular title, and in the late 15th century, several notable editions illustrated with woodcuts were published. This 1497 edition of the Divine Comedy was likely the last to be published in the 15th century and was edited by Pietro Quarangi. The copy held by Graham Library was censored during the Spanish Inquisition to remove specific passages of the Divine Comedy considered to be heretical.