About the Collection
Incunabula, or incunables, are books printed with moveable type in Europe before 1501. Bridwell Library holds over 1,090 incunabula in its special collections; the majority of these are in the fields of theology, classical literature, history, and philosophy. Notable holdings include 31 leaves of the Gutenberg Bible, Gutenberg’s Catholicon, and Anton Koberger’s Nuremberg Chronicle.
More than one third of Bridwell’s incunabula holdings are printed first editions or the first translations of these texts. Nine languages are represented, along with more than 60 different well-known printing towns. Many volumes are illustrated, and approximately 160 titles retain their original sixteenth-century bindings.