Incunabula are books printed before 1501, the semi-official date for this category of books. Some of our books are in their original bindings and offer the collector a glimpse at what books looked like in the 1400’s. The single sheet of block printed or movable type printed is called an incunabulum and the plural, incunabula means ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes’ for books printed and bound in the infancy of book publishing and making. The date of 1500 is arbitrary as later dated books can be found as far forward in time as 1510 to 1520, where the older presses and type as well as printing and binding process were still being used by a few of the printing houses. All of these books are rare and the category post 1501 as an incunabula is difficult for some book dealers and book aficionados to willingly accept. It is safer to stick with the accepted designation date of pre-1501, even though it is an arbitrary point in the time line of book printing and binding.
It all started with Gutenberg's famous printing of the Bible and it was an explosion of printers across Europe after that. Close to Gutenberg's first printing is a well known German printer by the name of Anton Koberger, who was Albrecht Durer's Godfather and so many of Koberger's work had the young hand of Durer at the engravings. There are many other fine printing houses that sprung up and many failed, printing only a handful of books, making these editions rare and quite valuable.