incunabula

[ in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing- ]

plural noun

, singular in·cu·nab·u·lum [in-ky, oo, -, nab, -y, uh, -l, uh, m, ing-].

1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

incunabula

/ ˌɪnkjʊˈnæbjʊlə /

plural noun

1. any book printed before 1501
2. the infancy or earliest stages of something; beginnings

Derived Forms

• ˌincuˈnabular, adjective

Other Words From

• incu·nabu·lar adjective
• postin·cu·nabu·la adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of incunabula¹

First recorded in 1815–25; from Latin: “straps holding a baby in a cradle, earliest home, birthplace,” probably equivalent to unattested *incūnā(re) “to place in a cradle” ( in- in- ² + unattested -cūnāre, verbal derivative of cūnae “cradle”) + -bula, plural of -bulum suffix of instrument; incunabula def 1 as translation of German Wiegendrucke

Word History and Origins

Origin of incunabula¹

C19: from Latin, originally: swaddling clothes, hence beginnings, from in- ² + cūnābula cradle

Example Sentences

Among the library’s greatest treasures are nine incunabula — books made between 1450 and 1500 with Gutenberg’s first printing techniques — and volumes by Galen and Vesalius, who are renowned for their contributions to the study of medicine.

From Seattle Times

The cases also contained a variety of popular chess books and some incunabula printed in German.

From Literature

There are the incunabula — very early books, printed before 1500 — and, in a class by itself, the Kelmscott Chaucer, after the Gutenberg Bible probably the most famous feat of book printing ever.

From New York Times

She is not an elegist for print: her extraordinary grasp of every development in book history, from incunabula to beach reads, monasteries to bookmobiles, suggests that a love of printed matter need not be a form of nostalgia.

From The New Yorker

He had arrived in Macondo during the splendor of the banana company, fleeing from one of many wars, and nothing more practical had occurred to him than to set up that bookshop of incunabula and first editions in several languages, which casual customers would thumb through cautiously, as if they were junk books, as they waited their turn to have their dreams interpreted in the house across the way.

From Literature