Page "Incunable" Paragraph 1

Incunable, or sometimes incunabulum ( plural incunables or incunabula, respectively ) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside ( such as the Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474 ) that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe.

" Incunable " is the anglicised singular form of " incunabula ", Latin for " swaddling clothes " or " cradle " which can refer to " the earliest stages or first traces in the development of anything.

" A former term for " incunable " is " fifteener ," referring to the fifteenth century.