An Introduction to Incunabula
Phil Barber, Post Office Box 8694, Boston, Mass.
02114-0036
Telephone (617) 492-4653,
www.historicpages.com
What It Means"Incunabula" is a generic term coined by English
book collectors in the seventeenth century to describe the first printed
books of the fifteenth century. It is a more elegant replacement for what
had previously been called "fifteeners", and is formed of two Latin words
meaning literally "in the cradle" or "in swaddling clothes". The word is
plural; in referring to a single fifteenth century book, "incunabulum" is
correct. This term is also occasionally Anglicized as "Incunable". The
first Incunabulum is the Gutenberg Bible of 1455, although there is today
some debate among scholars over whether this may be correctly considered
the first printed book, as items had been printed in Europe from solid
block type, rather than moveable type, since the fourteenth century. Books
made in 1500 are the last incunabula, printed in the final year of the
fifteenth century. In correct usage the new century began (as all do) on
January 1, 1501, as the year 1500 is simply the one hundredth and final
year of the fifteenth century.
Masterpieces of the Printer's ArtThe art of printing is virtually
unique in the human experience in that it emerged fully formed. The works
of the pioneering master printers are absolutely breathtaking in their
technical and artistic perfection. They set standards for excellence that
remained unrivaled until the rise of the modern "art" printing house a
century ago; and yet these works are still unequaled, when it is taken
into account the laborious, entirely manual processes of their
manufacture. The power and the charm of Incunabula are quite as unique as
their impact on human history was profound.
Printing was such an immense improvement over the hand copying of books
that it caught on immediately and within two generations the art of the illuminated
manuscript had become all but extinct. The earliest printers, however,
continued many of the traditions of the scribes, making use of textual
contractions and elisions to reduce the volume of matter to be printed. In
addition many incunabula were designed to be rubricated by hand, that is,
to be decorated with flourishing initial letters and other embellishments,
done by the now underemployed and presumably discontented scribes. Book
illustrations in the Incunabula period were prepared from woodcuts, that
is, printed from blocks of wood hand engraved with their subjects by
skilled artists and artisans. This form of illustration allows great
artistic expression, and the results of this technology are eagerly
collected today, and appreciated for what they are, the first commercial
art to be available to all people.
Printing Changes the WorldThere was a flood tide of demand for
the new printed books. In the forty five years of the incunabula period
tens of thousands of titles were printed, amounting to millions of copies
of books on all topics. Now knowledge, the key to power, became available
at a tiny fraction of the cost of a handwritten book. This development
proved an enormous impetus to literacy, and banished forever the dark days
when only a few Church officials and noblemen held the key to deciphering
the magic letters of the old parchments. The printed book arrived just as
an emerging middle class of tradesman and artisans was rising in social,
political, and economic power, further challenging the institutions that
had held Europeans in their absolute control for a thousand years. This
explosion of knowledge, coupled with the new humanist world view of the
Renaissance, swept away the lingering intellectual darkness of
Medievalism, and ushered in the centuries of social and technological
progress that have made possible the unprecedented prosperity of the
modern world.
Where It All BeganPrinting began in Mainz, Germany, with
Gutenberg, in the 1450's. After the city was sacked in 1459, many of
Gutenberg's followers removed to Cologne. From there printing spread
across Europe with remarkable speed. In 1470 there were fourteen printing
houses on the continent; in 1480 there were more than a hundred. From the
German states printing moved almost immediately into France and the
Italian Kingdoms, then arrived in Holland in 1472, Belgium in 1473, Spain
in 1474, finally reaching England in 1477.
How Books Were Originally SoldA visit to an early printer to buy
books was nothing like a modern trip to a book shop. The earliest books
lack titlepages and were presented for sale undecorated and unbound. The
browser would be greeted by the sight of a display of sample books whose
signatures (groups of pages) were loose, just tied together with string,
with the author and title of the work on a small attached slip of paper.
When the book pages were purchased, the new owner would have them
embellished and bound according to his means. Many printers kept an
in-house staff of rubricators (also called "rubrishers" in old books) and
binders, as well as printers, type-cutters and sometimes paper-makers.
Because of this tradition copies of the same work may be found today in
the simplest of vellum (sheepskin) bindings with no decoration, or
lavishly rubricated in color and even gold leaf, and bound in the most
sumptuous tooled and gilt leather, perhaps even fitted with clasps of
chased silver.
Incunabula as Collector's ItemsThe study and collecting of
Incunabula has been actively pursued for centuries. The great majority of
these early works have perished over time, victims of hard use and the
incessant warfare that scourged Europe. The collecting of individual
leaves from defective or incomplete works has been an accepted part of the
bibliophile's world for an equally long period. Leaves from the Gutenberg
Bible are of course the ultimate collectible Incunabula leaves and are
avidly collected. A bookseller broke a defective copy of this great
classic in 1923, marketing the leaves as "A Noble Fragment", at $300.
Today the market value of a Gutenberg Bible leaf is between twenty
thousand and thirty five thousand dollars depending on the quality of the
rubrication. Fortunately most Incunabula are far less costly, with
specimens available for as little as $10. The factors determining an
Incunabulum's collectibility are its appearance, printer, and rarity. The
more artistic the piece the greater is the collector demand, and hence its
value. Leaves with illustrations and fine decoration are currently
collectors' favorites. Among the more noted printers, works of the great
Venetian printer Aldus Manutius are very popular for the superb quality of
their style and execution. The prolific Nuremberg printer Anton Koberger
produced many works that are highly esteemed today, including the
sumptuous Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, the world's first fully illustrated
printed book. Works by William Caxton, the first to print books in
English, are not only superbly executed but are also so rare as to be
virtually non-existent in today's collector market.
Today these leaves are extremely popular for decorating. Housed in
suitable mats and frames they remain lovely works of art and the most
affordable artifacts from the Renaissance era. The mats in which they may
be housed for display should always be made of archival quality materials,
to ensure that their contents will remain undamaged.
Preservation
Briefly, the enemies of all old documents are heat, humidity, and
sunlight. To maintain their fine condition, they should be kept in a
stable storage environment free of excess fluctuation in temperature and
humidity. There should limited contact with air and strong light. To
accomplish these goals, select a dry, cool place in your home to store
your collection. Any room suitable for habitation will generally be
satisfactory for the preservation of this material.. Never leave it in the
basement or attic, where change of temperature and humidity occur
regularly and can cause deterioration.
If you frame your collection,
include an ultraviolet filtering screen between them and bright light.
Secondly, select only archival quality acid free containers for permanent
storage. These can be fairly costly if purchased already made up, but with
a little ingenuity, some Mylar, and double-sided adhesive tape, you can
make your own custom holders at a considerable savings. Documents maybe
treated with acid-neutralizing chemical agents, though it is suggested
that amateurs do not attempt this process as the solvents can be harmful
and the results erratic.
The World Wide Web is a gold mine of helpful information of all kinds
for the collector, archivist, and historical hobbyist. Here are a few
suggested links for further information on the care and preservation of
collectibles of all kinds.
Conservation Information
The Northeast Document Conservation Center
(http://www.nedcc.org). This excellent site includes an online version
of the Center's very helpful book Preservation of Library and Archival
Materials: A Manual.
Conservation OnLine
(http://palimpsest.stanford.edu). A project of the Preservation
Department of Stanford University Libraries, this site abounds in useful
information and has a wide variety of links for further online resources.
UNESCO's
"Memory of the World" project
(http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/index.html). This very ambition
project aims to "promote the preservation of the documentary heritage of
mankind" and to this end discusses many way of preserving paper, photos,
and modern archival materials.
http://www.natmus.min.dk/ixgb.htm
This site contains Tim Padgfield's An Introduction to the Physics of
the Museum Environment, a useful discussion on relative humidity and
its effect on collections, with techniques for environmental monitoring.
Society for the Preservation of Natural
History Collections (http://spnhc.org). Featured here are a number of
pamphlets, including several on insect pests and identification of
archival quality plastics.
Commercial Websites
University Products. This
site sells the finest archival quality supplies to house your collection,
and books on how to care for your valued collectibles.
Action Plastic Sales. Here
you will find a wide selection of economically priced polyethylene slips
(useful for shipping and short term storage) and other useful supplies.
L-W Book Sales & Publishing.
Excellent retail source for reference books and price guides in many areas
of antiques and collectibles.
You can also visit my
information pages on collecting, collector terminology, how to read my
general catalog descriptions, and more by selecting this link.
For Further ReadingBerry, The Annals of Printing,
Blandford, 1966
Carter, et al., Printing and the Mind of Man,
London, 1967
Chappell, A Short History of the Printed Word,
Knopf, 1970
McMurtie, The Book, Covici Friede, 1938
Oswald,
A History of Printing, Appleton, 1928
Pollard, Early
Illustrated Books, London, 1898
Thomas, Great Books and Book
Collectors, Excalibur, 1983
Incunabula Union ListsGesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke,
Leipzig, 1928 - date
Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries,
N.Y., 1972
Hain-Coppinger, Repertorium Bibliographicum, London,
1895 - 1902
|