Did you know the first mass-printed book using movable type printing press technology, was the Gutenberg Bible in 1455? As you can imagine, a complete edition of this book will sell for millions at auction. Such early books printed before 1500 are commonly known as incunabula. Although a complete Gutenberg Bible hasn't come up for auction in years, other incunabula do appear at auctions and can be just as interesting and quite valuable. Today we're going to answer a few questions about incunabula: where did they come from and how successful are they on our weekly Books auction? Find out here!
Origin Story
The term 'incunubula' refers to books printed before 1500 using metal type. That’s not to say that as of 1501 incunabula became extinct and book styles changed drastically - the date to define the period was chosen out of convenience more than anything else. The term comes from the Latin for 'cradle' or 'origin' and actually only came into use around 1640, the bicentennial anniversary of the invention of the printing press.
Did You Know...
...the most influential producers of incunabula were Italy, who monopolised the market on legal and scientific texts, and German speaking countries, who produced the most printed religious texts? Incunabula were also printed in fewer quantities in France, Spain, Portugal, the low countries and England.
3 Auction Results at Catawiki
These rare and diverse books occasionally come up for Catawiki's book auctions and although they may not fetch Gutenberg Bible prices, they do sell quite well. In the past year, a few exceptional examples were sold at our Books auction. First up is this copy of ‘Summa Angelica de Casibus Conscientiae’ which was printed by Georgius Arrivabenus on the 4th of June, 1492, in Venice. Arrivabenus started a printing press together with Bernardinus Benalius and Paganinus de Paganinis in 1483, but began printing incunabula on his own from 1484 and printed approximately 50 incunabula independently. Martin Luther burnt an exemplar of the Summa, which he called Diabolica, in a protest against catholic penitential discipline in 1520. Although any remaining charred pages from this protest would be an amazing historical find, this intact copy appeared in our Books auction. Can you guess how much this historic book sold for? The answer is here.
Next we'd like to highlight this rare commentary on Aristotle (pictured on the left), the first and only incunabula edition, published in 1489. How much did it sell for? Find out here. The final great result was these 2 rare Parisian works bound together in one volume and published in 1494. Did it bring in more, less, or the same as the commentary? Find out here.
Although rare, it’s not impossible to find an incunable at auction. So whether you'd like to add one of these original printed books to your personal library or sell one and try to top some of our best results, our Books auction is your destination. You can register here to become a seller and start offering up books today.