Incunable is the anglicised form of incunabulum, reconstructed singular of Latin incunabula, which … See more

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, … See more

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 … See more

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 wit… See more

The data in this section were derived from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC).
The number of printing towns and cities stands at 282. These are situated in some 18 countries in terms of present-day boundaries… See more

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 Mait… See more

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