Incunable

As wikipedia explains, an incunable "is a book, or even a single sheet of text,[1] that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe." Some books were printed by carving the words or picture into wood (or other material) and other books were printed by movable type set into an ironframe which was the advent of modern printing. Both types of books are considered incunable. I think the block book (woodcuts) and typographic book (movable type) are very different so it's a little strange to me that the same word can define both books. When I first read the word incunable, I thought they must be intrinsically different like before movable type or something. As wiki explains, the cutoff date of 1500 is a bit arbitrary so it's anything that was printed before then. The Gutenberg Bible is considered an incunable.

From my point of view because I am researching Tudor books for Renaissance Island in Second Life, this is important because since the period stretches from 1457-1603, for the first 50 years books in the Tudor periods would be also defined as incunables and then the last 150 years, they would be considered books.


Armorial Bindings