His review of bibliographies of incunabulalays a foundation for a history of such works,[136] and so also does his survey of bibliographies of medicine.
His bibliographies of incunabulaand of medical, juridical, and historical writings as well as his survey of articles in journals (a Poole's Index at the end of the seventeenth century!
From the almost complete absence of scholarly books in the lists of English Incunabula it would be too much to conclude that there was no demand for such books in England.
A study of lists of incunabula enables a student to see just what works this included, and the degree of their popularity.
In any attempt to estimate the extent to which the incunabulastill in existence represent the total output of the 15th-century presses, a sharp distinction must be drawn between the weightier and the more ephemeral literature.
In Panzer's Annales the first principle of division is that of the alphabetical order of the Latin names of towns in which incunabula were printed, the books being arranged under the towns by the years of publication.
The total number of incunabula printed in England was probably upwards of four hundred, of which Caxton produced fully one-fourth.
From the total of about twenty-three thousand incunabula thus registered considerable deductions must be made for duplicate entries and undated editions which probably belong to the 16th century.
Unfortunately the neglect of these old classics during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries did more than all the other inimical elements put together in reducing the number of medical incunabula that we might have had.
For information respecting incunabulaherbals in American libraries I am indebted to Dr.
With the exception of the Arbolayre, copies of all the incunabula herbals mentioned below are to be found in the British Museum.
The printer of this work, Philippus Condam Petri (Philippo de Piero Veneto) is one of the earliest and most famous of Venetian printers, and produced several of the incunabula which we now prize so highly.
The earliest book printed here was in 1480, and many other incunabula came from this renowned press.
It possesses some interesting incunabula and a few MSS.
The difficulties that beset one in the case of early-printed books are immense; but with the inconstancies of incunabula we are not concerned here.
These are generally rare books, such as incunabula and the higher class English literature of the seventeenth century, and are to be found in the libraries of wealthy collectors who are also learned men.
Dr Aufrecht and Professor Palmer, and of theincunabula by the late librarian, Mr Sinker.
Many other special catalogues have been issued, including one of the Thomason Collection of Civil War pamphlets, Incunabula (vol.
Special mention should be made of the excellent catalogue of the incunabula published in 1856.
The catalogues of incunabula and manuscripts are printed: P.
There are fine collections of Aldines and Elzevirs, and the numerous incunabula are instructively arranged.
The incunabula and block books form an important series.
A considerable part, in fact half of the allotted time, is given to description of incunabula according to the rules formulated by Prof.
Apart from the importance of incunabula for the history of printing, they are particularly suited to bring out questions of various kinds relating to bibliography and librarianship.
The magnificent library which he and his son Sir John Hayford Thorold formed at Syston Park contained some of the rarest incunabula in existence.
Cunabula and incunabula are formed on the same noun stem cunae, the latter with the preposition in prefixed.
Most of the other Spanish incunabula with woodcuts, which I have seen, were printed at Seville by Meinardo Ungut and Stanislao Polono.
Many incunabula were enriched with drawings by artists of the French, German, Spanish and Italian schools.
The examination and collation of books to discover whether they are perfect and in their original condition are especially important in the case of rare books, like incunabula and first editions, piracies and spurious imprints.
A few illustrated incunabulawere issued at Chambery, and isolated books elsewhere, but with the exception of Lyon and Abbeville no French provincial town produced any notable work.
Conrad Haebler, who has already done such admirable work in recording Spanish incunabula and printing facsimiles of their types, will some day complete his task by publishing a similar volume of facsimiles of Spanish cuts?
Owing to this fact, that the early presses were so largely occupied with printing the works of the previous three centuries, there is comparatively little human interest in incunabula on their literary side.
And yet, from what may be called the logical as opposed to the chronological standpoint, incunabula little, if at all, less interesting are still to be obtained at quite small prices by any one who knows for what to look.
At Milan upwards of eight hundred incunabula were produced, mostly by its earliest printer, Antonius Zarotus, and two Germans, Leonhard Pachel and Ulrich Scinzenzeler.
To enable small differences to be shown they are quoted in the British Museum Catalogue of Incunabula by the measurements of twenty lines, and many of the early Mainz and Strassburg types range closely round the number 120.
Thus the total number of English incunabula at present known is about 360, but Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde were both large printers in the sixteenth century.
The capacity of the new art had been demonstrated to the full, and taken as a group these early Fust and Schoeffer incunabula have never on their own lines been surpassed.
