Incunabula are books printed before the year 1501. When Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with movable type in the mid-1400s, he revolutionized book production and changed the world. As a result, the earliest books created with this new technology are pretty special. They’ve been given a fancy name to set them apart from their printed brethren produced post-1501. The word incunabula means “swaddling clothes” and “cradle” in Latin, so it’s been applied to books created in the infancy of printing.
Incunabula are also known as incunables, the English variation of the Latin word. To refer to one book instead of a group of them, use the singular forms incunabulum or incunable. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Latin or English form, but I like using Latin to sound like I know what I’m talking about. People take notice when you throw around Latin terms with confidence.
A Brief History of Printing
To learn how incunabula came onto the scene, we have to delve into the history of printing. Our story starts in the 1450s, when Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468) printed the Gutenberg Bible using movable type in Mainz, Germany. Printing with movable type was kind of a big deal because it allowed for the mass production of books.
Previously, books were painstakingly handwritten and hand-decorated by scribes and illuminators. This tradition was at its height during the Middle Ages, when monks in monasteries produced gorgeous illuminated manuscripts.
As you can imagine, making manuscripts takes time. But if you’re an entrepreneur like our boy Gutenberg, you want to find a way to make books quickly and consistently. Time is money, baby.
Printing with Movable Type
Now, printing in different forms had been around before Gutenberg. Take block books, which had images printed from woodblocks. They’d been around for centuries in Europe. In addition to basic woodblock printing, many of the technologies and skills required for Gutenberg’s invention already existed. We’re talking about presses used for making wine and oil since antiquity. These machines transformed into the printing press.
Then there are methods of casting coins from metalworking and goldsmithing, which Gutenberg used to create durable metal type. Type is the letters, symbols, and characters used to create text on a page. For mass printing to work, you need a lot of type, you need to make it quickly, and you need it to be accurate and uniform.
1) A piece of cast metal type. Image credit: Daniel Ullrich, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. 2) A case of cast metal movable type and typeset matter in a composing stick. Image by Willi Heidelbach, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Put all of this existing knowledge together, throw in some super technical innovations that G-man came up with, and you’ve got printing with movable type. So, who’s the man behind this revolutionary invention?
The Mysterious Gutenberg
Gutenberg is a mysterious character in history. He had an interesting life but was quite secretive with his printing experiments and inventive process. He left few records behind, and much of what we know about him comes from court records. Our boy Gutenberg was a repeat offender. While working on top-secret projects, his partners and financiers sued him and hauled his ass to court. The first case was in 1439, which leads scholars to believe that by the 1440s, Gutenberg likely had the broad strokes of his invention figured out but was fine-tuning it for viability.
The second time he appeared in court was in 1455, after he produced the Gutenberg Bible—the first book printed with movable type in the Western world. This time, Gutenberg lost everything. His financial partner, Johann Fust, sued him for misappropriating funds and defaulting on his loans. The court sided with Fust, who took Gutenberg’s print shop, printing press, type, and other equipment. To add insult to injury, Gutenberg’s apprentice Peter Schöffer was the ultimate weasel by siding with Fust and even becoming his son-in-law.
Fust and Schöffer opened their own printing shop, churned out books, and made bank. Oh, the betrayal!
In 1740, these two backstabbers were still hailed as the inventors of the printing press, with their “associate” Gutenberg as a mere side character.1
But What About Asia?
It’s important to keep in mind that Gutenberg’s “invention” of printing with movable type was happening in 15th-century Europe. It had, in fact, already happened in Asia.
The Chinese had been printing with woodblocks since around 700 CE. In the 11th century, they invented individual pieces of type made of baked clay.
Korea was also dabbling in printing technology. By the 13th century, they too were printing with movable type.
And yet, printing didn’t become a revolution in Asia as it did centuries later in Europe. Scholars believe there are several reasons for this. The first is that the Chinese language has thousands of characters used in thousands of ways, so printing with movable type was impractical. The other reason is that in both China and Korea, calligraphy was a prestigious art form not easily supplanted by printing. Another possibility is the nature of books in China and Korea. At the time, the governments controlled much of society and didn’t necessarily need mass book production.2
Printing Spreads & Incunabula are Born
It was a different story in Europe. Printing spread like wildfire because the time was ripe. There was a huge demand for books in the West, especially as universities were popping up all over the place. Humanist scholarship was in vogue and required lots of reading. Additionally, cities were developing into commercial centers, with entrepreneurs looking for ways to make money.3
While Mainz was the birthplace of printing in the West, it quickly became an unstable environment. In 1462, the Archbishop of Mainz sacked his own city, and businessmen, including printers, fled to greener pastures. German printers spread the love all over Europe, heading to Basel (1466), Rome (1467), Venice (1469), Paris, Nuremberg, and Utrecht (1470), and Milan, Naples, and Florence (1471).4
Early printed books—incunabula—are beautiful tomes mimicking illuminated manuscripts. Printers hired illuminators to deck out their stock with rich ornamentation, because that’s what sold for centuries. But by the end of the 15th century, printers were producing books on an unprecedented scale. It became a tale of quantity over quality, with craftsmanship thrown aside in favor of sheer volume. Illuminators were simply not able to keep up with the mountain of books coming off the presses. Due to the onslaught, printed books began to change in appearance. Before we lament this change, let’s bask in the gloriousness of incunabula.
Characteristics of Incunabula
Since manuscripts were the only model for incunabula, they have several characteristics in common. First is the level of craftsmanship, particularly in decoration. Many incunabula have hand-illuminated ornamentation, including miniature paintings, colored lettering, and decorative initials. They also contain images printed by beautiful woodcuts, which were often hand colored. Another similarity is the style of text. Books dating to 1450–1480 contain types that look like handwriting. Like manuscripts, incunabula also lack title pages.5
Hartmann Schedel, Michael Wolgemut, and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, The Nuremberg Chronicle, printed by Anton Koberger, 1493. The Library of Congress, Public domain.
Similar to manuscripts, incunabula are usually made of high-quality materials, like parchment and, more specifically, vellum. They also have luxurious, decorative bindings.
Unlike manuscripts, there are many copies of incunabula. A print run was usually about 500, but bestsellers could be more.
Examples of Incunabula
Let’s take a look at some cool incunabula. Before we look at specific examples, I’d like to introduce the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC). Created by the British Library, the ISTC is a database of existing incunabula. As of October 2024, there are 30,596 editions listed, with basic info and locations of all known copies throughout the world.
As an example, you may wonder, “Where in the world can I find a Gutenberg Bible?” To find out, click here.
Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible is the OG of incunabula. As the first book printed in the Western world, it’s an icon of book history. Printed circa 1454–1455 by Gutenberg, the Bible is in Latin, with two columns of text per page, each column containing 42 lines. Therefore, it’s often called the 42-line Bible.
The capitals at the beginning of each sentence are hand colored, as are marginal decorations. The original print run was about 180 copies, with 145 on paper and 35 on vellum. Scroll up to the top of the post to see a photo.
Mainz Psalter
The second book printed with movable type in the West is the Mainz Psalter. Our favorite treacherous duo, Fust and Schöffer, printed this Book of Psalms in 1457. Although we side-eye them for screwing over Gutenberg, they did a nice job on this one. It’s printed on vellum in red and black ink and even has bars of music.
The Psalter is notable for being the first book with a printer’s colophon, or note, in the back. It contains info identifying the printer, date, and place of publication. Shall we take a look at the colophon?
The present copy of the Psalms, adorned with venerable capital letters and also distinguished by appropriate rubrications, was so fashioned thanks to the ingenious discovery of imprinting and forming letters without any use of a pen and completed with the diligence to the glory of God by Johann Fust, citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim, in the year of our Lord 1457.6
Ingenious discovery of imprinting by Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer, my ass. The cojones on these liars.
Nuremberg Chronicle
The next incunabulum we’ll look at is the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed by Anton Koberger (1445–1513) in Nuremberg. Koberger was an international businessman with offices throughout Europe. A veritable Mr. Worldwide.
Koberger printed over 1,000 copies of the Nuremberg Chronicle in German and Latin in 1493. It’s a history of the world, written by the German historian Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514). Also known as Liber Chronicarum, the book contains 1,809 woodcuts made from 645 blocks. The woodcut illustrations are by Michael Wolgemut (1434–1519) and his son-in-law Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Since the young Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was an apprentice in their shop at the time, scholars speculate he may be responsible for some of the images.
Canterbury Tales
Let’s head over to Merrie Olde England for a 1477 edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s (c. 1342–1400) Canterbury Tales. The book hailed from the printshop of William Caxton (c. 1424–1491)— England’s first printer—and contains hand-colored ornamental initials.
Caxton was a textile merchant who, in 1471, learned the art of printing in Cologne. In 1476, he returned home and established the first English printing press in London. Caxton is known for printing books in English during a time when Latin reigned supreme.
Elementa Geometria
The last incunabulum we’ll look at is Euclid’s (c. 300 BCE) Elementa Geometria, printed by Erhard Ratdolt (1442–1528) in Venice. Elementa Geometria is a translation from Arabic to Latin by Adelard of Bath (c. 1090–1160). It’s unique because it contains over 400 geometrical illustrations. Printed in 1482, Ratdolt included a gold dedication to the Doge of Venice for good measure.
Interested in learning more about book history? Check out the following articles.
Footnotes
- Lyons, Books, 56. ↩︎
- Valentine, A Social History, 48-50; Howard, The Book, 35. ↩︎
- Lyons, Books, 56. ↩︎
- Howard, The Book, 43-45. ↩︎
- Howard, The Book, 43. ↩︎
- Howard, The Book, 34. ↩︎
Bibliography & Further Reading
*The following links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.
Carter, John, and Nicholas Barker. ABC for Book Collectors. 8th ed. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2006.
Cave, Roderick, and Sara Ayad. The History of The Book in 100 Books. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books U.S., Inc., 2014.
Howard, Nicole. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Lyons, Martyn. Books: A Living History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2011.
Valentine, Patrick M. A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuneiform to Bytes. Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2012.
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