Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • The cradle or early abode; the place in which a thing had its earliest development, as a race, an art, etc.; hence, first trace; beginning; origin.
  • In ornithology, a breeding-place; the resort of a bird to breed.
  • In bibliography, books printed in the infancy of the art; generally, books printed before the year 1500: in this sense rarely with a singular incunabulum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of incunabulum.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The primitive woodcuts in incunabula are now almost too highly appreciated.

    Book Collecting 1995

  • Sallenave was an avid collector of butterflies, as well as Old Master prints and rare books, particularly those printed before 1501, so-called incunabula.

    The Art Thief Noah Charney 2007

  • Red Witch miscellaneous notes on Wiccan 'incunabula': curious and interesting stories from newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and books, press photos and postcards and other items relating to influential witches and the infancy of the modern witchcraft movement.

    Archive 2007-08-01 Christopher 2007

  • Red Witch miscellaneous notes on Wiccan 'incunabula': curious and interesting stories from newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and books, press photos and postcards and other items relating to influential witches and the infancy of the modern witchcraft movement.

    The Witch As An Erotic Motif Christopher 2007

  • So maybe at the outset of this 'incunabula' period, you are doing exactly what needs be done.

    The Application Becomes the Platform Mark 2005

  • 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.

    The Book-Hunter at Home P. B. M. Allan

  • These truly remarkable collections include a notable collection of rare atlases; a good cross-section of 'incunabula' (i.e. early books printed in Europe pre-1501); an important collection of early printed Bibles; key English and European texts from the Protestant Reformation; a substantial collection of scarce political tracts from the Civil War; rare books on natural history, geography, and so on, and so on.

    Archivalia 2008

  • Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. A kind friar has called it to my attention that three incunabula containing Dominican liturgical materials are now available in digital form on the web.

    Fifteenth-Century Dominican Breviary in Digital Form 2009

  • He had repaired all types of books, from Bibles to incunabula with pages on the point of turning to dust.

    Yoani Sanchez: "The Murmurs Overlap... Everyone Spies on Everyone." 2010

  • I have published a few articles on untranslatable incunabula without bothering to offer any solutions, a few reviews of what is current in glyptology, cryptology, and cryptanalysis.

    Excerpt from Codex Infinitum Kane X. Faucher 2010

Comments

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  • From the Latin "cunae" (cradle)--as in the "cradle days" of printing; referring to books and other printed material produced using moveable type (usu. before 1501).

    February 20, 2007

  • “As a young man Mr. Friedlaender had collected stamps in a serious way. In 1970 he began collecting rare books, specializing in incunabula — European books printed before 1501 — and medieval illuminated manuscripts.�?

    The New York Times, H. N. Friedlaender, Bibliophile, Dies at 95, by William Grimes, November 30, 2008

    December 2, 2008