What does incunabulum mean?
An incunabulum is a book printed before 1501, usually in Europe, during the formative period of movable-type printing. The word is especially associated with early printed editions of religious, legal, and classical texts that are now valued for their historical importance, rarity, and evidence of early printing practices. In ordinary conversation, people are more likely to say incunable, a closely related term, but incunabulum remains important in bibliographical scholarship and rare-book collecting. Its singular form refers to one such book, while the plural incunabula is the customary form when referring to the wider class of early printed books. The term is more precise than simply calling an object an old book: it identifies books produced before the conventional cutoff year of 1501 and is normally reserved for historically significant examples.
nounA book printed before 1501, especially one printed in Europe during the earliest period of movable-type printing. The term is chiefly used by bibliographers and collectors for books of exceptional historical and bibliographical importance.
- A book printed before 1501, especially in Europe during the earliest period of movable-type printing.
"The library acquired a remarkably well-preserved incunabulum printed in Venice in 1495."
"A scholar identified the text as an incunabulum produced shortly after Gutenberg's printing technology reached Mainz."
"The exhibition displayed several incunabula alongside medieval manuscripts and later printed editions."
The plural is regular and is more common than the singular in bibliographical and collecting contexts.
"The museum's collection includes several incunabula from the earliest years of European printing."
An incunabulum is a book that has survived from the first half-century of European printing, when every copy was a rare and precious object.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does incunabulum come from?
The word comes from Latin incunabula, meaning “cradle” or “swaddling clothes,” used metaphorically for books produced in the infancy of printing. The singular form incunabulum was later established in English by adding the neuter Latin suffix -um to the plural stem incunabul-. French incunable and the English adjective incunabular reflect the same Latin origin. The term refers to the early period of European printing because these books are imagined as the “cradle” or infancy of printed culture.
Related word forms
How incunabulum is actually used
The singular is relatively uncommon in modern general use, while the plural form incunabula is more familiar in bibliographical and collecting contexts. The term is primarily scholarly and is not normally used for every old or rare printed book.
Easily confused with incunabulum
Incunable is a closely related term and is often used interchangeably, but incunabulum more specifically emphasizes an individual book or the class of books printed before 1501.
An incunabulum is a printed book, whereas a manuscript is a text handwritten by hand, usually before or outside the period of early European printing.