Incunabula
incunabula
[ in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing- ]SHOW IPA
plural noun, singular in·cu·nab·u·lum [in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh m, ing-] .
extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
the earliest stages or first traces of anything.
This word, incunabula, was used in a lecture I attended late last year. I wrote it down and forgot about it. When I came across it again today, I remembered my trip to Philadelphia and the incunabula I got to see while I was there.
In 2018, I was lucky enough to get a look at a page from the Gutenberg Bible. My husband and I were visiting Philadelphia for a sculpture conference he was attending, and while he was at the conference, I explored the city. One of my favorite places was the Philadelphia Free Library (Parkway Central Branch). What a magnificent building. It was magical. I wandered up to the Rare Books Department to see an installation and the librarian at the desk asked if I wanted to join a tour of the rare books collection. There was no way I was going to turn that down. I saw some amazing things, and just as the tour was ending, one of the other participants asked about the Guttenberg Bible. The tour guide got a little giddy and was more than happy to pull it out for us to view this leaf from the Gutenberg Bible (Exodus).