Periodically, in the catalogs of antique shops and auctions, as well as in books of fiction, the word "incunabula" is found. This, literally translated from Latin, is “beginning” or “cradle”. But in the modern explanatory dictionary, books printed before the end of the fifteenth century are so designated. What sets them apart from the rest of the old books? Why are they so valuable? Let's figure it out in order.
The first ever printed book in history
Incunabula are, of course, ancient books. But in history there are more ancient prints. It is believed that the first such publication was the Chinese Diamond Sutra. Even the exact date of its appearance is known - May 11, 868 AD. The authorship is attributed to a certain master Wang Chi (or Jie), who undertook to print a book translated from Sanskrit into his native language by a group of Buddhist monks.
It is a thin brochure (by modern standards) in the form of a scroll, consisting of only six sheets and one illustration depicting the Buddha. The manufacturing process lasted a very long time, since the master himself, manually, cut out the stamps with hieroglyphs and burned them in the furnace. Given the number of characters in the Chinese alphabet, the work was truly colossal. In addition, the clay was quite fragile, and stamps often had to be redone, which also took time. But perseverance and painstakingness allowed Wang Chi to finish his work.
Subsequently (already in the twentieth century), the book was acquired by the Hungarian archaeologist and traveler Stein Aurel from a Taoist monk who looked after a library of ancient manuscripts in the caves of Mogao. More than 20 thousand xylographic books were found there, describing the history of China, popular sciences, religious texts and collections of folklore. Now these antiquities are kept in the National Library. They are digitized so that everyone can read them.
History of Incunabul
Incunabula is a transitional book between manuscripts and mass stamping. It all started in the forties of the fifteenth century, when Guttenberg invented his machine, developed a special paint for him, a set of fonts and other devices.
At first, the incunabula looked like handwritten books. After all, the Gothic font, the decoration of the capital letters and the drawn illustrations were preserved. Gradually began to use copper engravings, which were much stronger than clay stamps and allowed to make a larger number of copies. The title page was not in the books, all the necessary information about the printer, the author and the time of creation were indicated at the end of the text, and only at the end of the fifteenth century they moved forward.
The term “incunabula” appeared only a century and a half after the beginning of printing in the work of Bernard von Malinkrodtom “On the Development of the Art of Printing House”. It is curious that the bibliophile chose an arbitrary date - December 31, 1500, to divide the period of creation of incunabula and other printed books.
Largest incunabula collections
Incunabula are extremely valuable antiquities. They not only keep history, but are history in themselves: materials, ink, fonts, design of drawings - all reflect the art of their time. To have such a book in a private collection or in public museums and libraries is a great success. There are even whole collections.
The Bavarian State Library has the most extensive number of incunabula. It collected about 20 thousand copies. Behind it are the British French, Vatican and Austrian libraries, which store almost 12 thousand books. Leading US libraries boast only five thousand genuine incunabula, and their high-quality copies. In the UK and Germany there are about 3 thousand books.
Most of the publicly available copies were published in Latin, but there are also in English, Dutch, Greek and French. They were bought by doctors, scientists, lawyers, wealthy nobles and worshipers.
Are there incunabula in Russian libraries?
The Russian National Library houses one of the most amazing collections of books. The Incunabula play an important role in it, since according to information on officially registered copies, the Russian collection is the largest in the world.
Its beginning was laid in the Zaluski library, which was taken from Warsaw to the Russian Empire in the 18th century. The collection was expanded through the purchase of books from private individuals, as well as at international auctions.
Most often among incunabula there are copies of German and Italian printing houses, less often - France and Holland. Single books in the collection came from Spain, and there are no book samples from Misty Albion at all.
The Gothic font was gradually replaced by simpler types, since it was necessary to produce a large number of stamps, and there was less and less time for creating a blank and ebb. Later copies are already decorated more modestly than the first incunabula.
The most famous incunabula
Books published in Europe since the beginning of printing have accumulated over time in such numbers that there is a need for them to be taken into account. The first catalogs arose in the 19th century in Germany and Great Britain.
One of the first books published by Guttenberg, besides the Bible, was Donat. This is a Latin textbook, which was used by all the noble and wealthy people in the Middle Ages. But up to now, entire copies have not survived; all 365 copies of the book are highly fragmented.
In addition to textbooks, the works of great scholars such as Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy and others were often published in the fifteenth century. This made it possible to popularize the natural sciences and increase the education of society.