The Collection of
Incunabula of the National Library of Colombia: Tracks and Silences in its Formation
(25) Colwell notes that the images of the
incunabula printed in Lyon were closely modeled on the woodcuts of Richel's edition, but they are in fact derived from the exact same woodblocks.
One artificial barrier that remains, probably for good reason, is the modern bibliographic distinction between
incunabula and sixteenth-century books.
Books published before 1501, called
incunabula ("swaddling clothes" in Latin, indicating their arrival during the "infancy of the art of printing"), tell a lot about the cultural history of their countries of origin.
The result of these collations and researches, then, is that Zimmerman puts greater faith in readings in Class I manuscripts, [phi], and also the
incunabula, which she has convincingly demonstrated may preserve genuine readings.
The poetic version of the novella of Gismonda and Guiscardo on which the present transcription is based is found in the Rare Book Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (
Incunabula 469.5).2 The book, in 4, is bound in red cardboard and contains 4 unnumbered folios, or leaves, no title or title page, and no colophon.
In the end, in her book, Stoppino achieves at least two results: she underscores some of Orlando Furioso's lesser known sources, and she does so through the direct study of manuscripts and
incunabula currently available only in a small number of libraries whose distance renders consultation outside the reach of many scholars.
The project, funded with a grant from the London-based Polonsky Foundation, will digitally reproduce a total of 1.5 million pages of manuscripts and ancient books from the Vatican Library and the Bodleian Libraries in three subject areas: Greek manuscripts,
incunabula and Hebrew manuscripts.
The results of her practice of resistance are
incunabula of feminist art--works such as Tapp und Tastkino (Tap and Touch Cinema), 1968, Am der Mappe der Himdigkeit (From the Portfolio of Doggedness), 1968, and Body Sign Action, 1970.
There are 69
incunabula - books that were printed in the first 50 years after the invention of the press in 1450 - 680 books from the 16th century, 6,250 from the 17th and approximately 12,500 from the 18th.