INCUNABULA

incunabula, a latin neuter-plural meaning "swaddling-clothes," a "cradle," "birthplace," and so the beginning of anything, now curiously specialized to denote books printed in the 15th century. its use in this sense may have originated with the title of the first separately published list of 15th-century books, cornelius a beughem's _incunabula typographiae_ (amsterdam, 1688). the word is generally recognized all over europe and has produced vernacular forms such as the french incunables, german _inkunabeln_ (_wiegendrucke_), italian _incunaboli_, though the anglicized _incunables_ is not yet fully accepted. if its original meaning had been regarded the application of the word would have been confined to books printed before a much earlier date, such as 1475, or to the first few printed in any country or town. by the end of the 15th century book-production in the great centres of the trade, such as venice, lyons, paris and cologne, had already lost much of its primitive character, and in many countries there is no natural halting-place between 1490 and 1520 or later. the attractions of a round date have prevailed, however, over these considerations, and the year 1500 is taken as a halting-place, or more often a terminus, in all the chief works devoted to the registration and description of early printed books. the most important of these are (i.) panzer's _annales typographici ab artis inventae origine ad annum md._, printed in five volumes at nuremberg in 1793 and subsequently in 1803 carried on to 1536 by six additional volumes; (ii.) ham's _repertorium bibliographicum in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum md. typis expressi ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius, recensentur_ (stuttgart, 1826-1838). 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. in hain's _repertorium_ the books are arranged under their authors' names, and it was only in 1891 that an index of printers was added by dr konrad burger. in 1898 robert proctor published an _index to the early printed books in the british museum: from the invention of printing to the year