incunable

[ in-kyoo-nuh-buhl ]

noun

1. a book constituting part of a collection of incunabula.

Word History and Origins

Origin of incunable¹

1885–90; < French < Latin incūnābulum. See incunabula

Example Sentences

“Artists we’ve never heard. This is like the incunable of books. For the most part gone. Not to be found. It’s not out there.”

From Washington Post

Not only is the book an “incunable” – printed before 1501, when the ink was still wet on moveable type – but this deluxe copy was printed on vellum, or animal skin.

From The Guardian

He has the distinction of having printed the smallest English incunable of which any trace has come down to us, an edition of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, finished in April, 1500, measuring only an inch by an inch and a half.

From Project Gutenberg

What constitutes a true incunable cannot be defined in a sentence.

From Project Gutenberg

Any book which thus lets us into the secrets of the early printing offices possesses in a very high degree the charm which should attach to an incunable, if that hardly used word is to retain, as it should, any reference to the infancy of printing.

From Project Gutenberg