Incunabula: Ancestors of the Printed Book

It started with incunabula, books printed during the first 50 years of the printing press, between 1450 and 1501. The word incunabula, Latin for “swaddling clothes” or “cradle,” was first used by Dutch physician and humanist Hadrianus Junius (also called Adriaen de Jonghe, 1511–1575) to reference the infancy of printing. Like our own ancestors from centuries ago, incunabula were products of their time; they may look like books but don’t necessarily have a lot in common with their modern mass-produced progeny.

Before incunabula, before the printing press, all the text and illustrations in documents were done by hand. These handwritten documents and books are considered manuscripts and came in the form of scrolls or in bound pages, known as a codex. They were often enriched with elaborate and colorful miniature illustrations, border decorations, and embossed letters, and were known as illuminated manuscripts.

manuscripts

By 1440, Johannes Gutenberg had invented a press using moveable type, but it was not widespread and a standard format had not yet been developed, so the first press-made books—the rare incunabula—were all quite unique projects.

The intention of incunabula was to create books that still retained the appearance of a contemporary handwritten manuscript. Note how the font used on the incunabulum (below right) resembles text written by hand in the manuscript (below left).

manuscript and incunabulum

Use the zoom tool to look more closely at the handwritten text (left) and the printed text (right).

Interestingly, manuscript copying of books continued for at least a century after the printing press due to the expensive nature of printing.

Three of the oldest books in the Ryerson and Burnham Library, which houses hundreds of titles published before the year 1800, were all published before 1500, making them prime examples of 15th-century incunabula.

Calendarium (1476)

This book, written in Latin, covers topics in astronomy and 16th-century ephemerides (celestial navigation) as well as serving as a personal calendar to the families who owned. It was created by Johannes Regiomontanus (1436–76), a mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer of the German Renaissance.

Regiomontanus’s Calendarium represents the first application of the modern scientific method of astronomical calculation and observation. The work contains a 24-page calendar with initials and names of saints and figures printed in red, as well as 60 woodcut images depicting the various stages of lunar and solar eclipses hand-colored in yellow. At the end of the book are four scientific instruments meant to calculate various astronomical components throughout Europe. 

The “instrument of unequal hours” uses an attached string to tell time. The “instrument of the true movement of the moon” uses a movable lunar volvelle diagram with a stack of moving dials to demonstrate the motion of the moon. The last two instruments are a “horizontal clock face” and a “general hour face” designed with an articulated brass arm and string to determine one’s latitude.

Der Seelen Wurzgarten (1483)

This illustrated incunabulum was created and printed by Conrad Dinckmůt at his press in Ulm, Germany. The colloquial title of the work is The Herb Garden of Souls, and it compiles subjects on devotional literature and Christianity.

This is the first complete edition and the first published illustrated copy of this work, with the majority of the volume being composed of 134 full-page woodcut illustrations done by an unknown artist. The illustrations feature a variety of religious topics, covering subjects like original sin, angels and devils, the arrival of the Messiah, the antichrist, and the culminating apocalypse.

Peregrinatio In Terram Sanctam (1486)

This Latin first edition incunabulum, created by politician Bernhard von Breydenbach, is best described as a travel report of Breydenbach’s pilgrimage to Palestine and Mount Sinai in 1483–84. The book recounts how Breydenbach brought Erhard Reuwich, a “skillful artist,” with him to make drawings of the sights. The pilgrimage began in April 1483 when they traveled to Venice and then sailed for Corfu, Modon, Candia, and Rhodes. They were able to see Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and other sights of the Holy Land before continuing on to Mount Sinai and Cairo, traveling down the Nile to Rosetta, and finally sailing back to Venice. 

Peregrinatio In Terram Sanctam was the first illustrated travel book. Along the route, Reuwich created the woodcut illustrations, the most notable being five fold-out woodcut views of cities, including a five-foot-long panoramic view of the city of Venice. In addition to the cities, Reuwich documented some of the first printed studies of Near Eastern dress and the Arabic alphabet. He also included illustrations of animals reportedly seen on the journey, such as a camel, a crocodile, and a unicorn.

The crown jewel of the prints is a three-block map of Palestine and Egypt, with the central view of Jerusalem. This is the oldest known printed map of Jerusalem. The travelers returned to Mainz in 1484, and Reuwich published the travel book in February 1486.

After 1501, printed books were no longer considered incunabula. (The aforementioned physician and humanist Hadrianus Junius set an end date of 1500 to his era of incunabula as it was a clean cut-off date.) Their legacy is more than just the tangible remnants of the earliest days of the printing revolution; they are the precursors to the mass communication and intellectual movements that continue to shape our world. From illuminated manuscripts to early printed books, the transition from hand-copying to mechanical printing marked a profound shift in how knowledge was shared, preserved, and disseminated. Today, these rare volumes stand as both a testament to the ingenuity of early printers and a window into a transformative period in history. As we continue to embrace new technologies in our own era, the incunabula reminds us of the enduring power of the written word and the revolutionary changes that can be sparked by the simplest of inventions.

—Mazzy Teich, McMullan Arts Leadership Intern, Research Center

If you’d like to make an appointment to see these books in person, visit the Ryerson and Burnham Library’s Discover Our Collections.

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