incunabula: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	incunabulum

Photos

A page from the Gutenberg Bible printed in blackletter type, featuring two columns of Latin text with headings Liber VI and Pars II at the top. The page edges are yellowed with age.

Illuminated manuscript The Gould Hours by Marc Coussin open to pages with Latin script, intricate floral borders, and a colorful religious scene in a decorated frame.

Open illuminated manuscript showing two pages of French text in columns, each topped with a colorful miniature illustration and decorative border, from Le Miroir de Humaine Saluation.

Franciscan missal

Antiphonarium Basiliense, printed by Michael Wenssler in Basel, c. 1488. Marginalia suggests its use as a choir book into the 19th century.

Tractatus rationis et conscientiae by Mathaeus de Cracovia, printed in Mainz, c. 1469.

A Benedictine monk restoring incunabula at the monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Tuscany, Italy.

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