Incunable
An 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 15th century.
The first recorded use of incunabula as a printing term is in the Latin pamphlet De ortu et progressu artis typographicae ("Of the rise and progress of the typographic art", Cologne, 1639) by Bernhard von Mallinckrodt, which includes the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing", a term to which he arbitrarily set an end of 1500 which still stands as a convention. The term came to denote the printed books themselves in the late 17th century. John Evelyn, in moving the Arundel Manuscripts to the Royal Society in August 1678, remarked of the printed books among the manuscripts: "The printed books, being of the oldest impressions, are not the less valuable; I esteem them almost equal to MSS."
Incunabula (album)
Incunabula is the debut album by British electronic music duo Autechre, released by Warp Records on 29 November 1993 and is the seventh album in the Artificial Intelligence series. The album's title has also been typeset as (Incunabula), as all Artificial Intelligence releases were. Incunabula is a Latin word, the plural of incunabulum, the term used for printed books published prior to 1501; or more generally for something in its infancy or early stages of development.
Sean Booth and Rob Brown have claimed that Incunabula, rather than a deliberate attempt at an album, is actually a compilation made by Warp right after they were signed. Despite this, the album was a hit and produced "Basscadet", the only single released by Autechre that has been taken from one of their albums. "Kalpol Introl" was used in Darren Aronofsky's debut film π. The track "Lowride" samples "The Doo Bop Song" by Miles Davis, which in turn samples Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness". The track "Bike" is featured in the game Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City on "Self-Actualization FM".
Incunabula (publisher)
Incunabula is the name of a quality small press based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is under the sole proprietorship of Ron Drummond, who serves as publisher, editor, and production manager. The company's distinctive logo, consisting of a photograph of pieces of type arranged in two vertical columns that spell out the company name, was designed by Nick Gregoric from an idea by Drummond. Though the press is often mistakenly referred to as "Incunabula Press", the correct name in fact consists of just the single word.
Incunabula was originally active during the years 1992-1996, during which time it published three books and one broadside: They Fly at Çiron by Samuel R. Delany (July 1993); Antiquities: Seven Stories by John Crowley (October 1993), short-listed for the 1994 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection; "Solutions to Everything" by Michael Ventura (10 September 1994); and Atlantis: Three Tales by Samuel R. Delany (July 1995). Çiron and Antiquities were both published in trade editions of 1,000 copies and limited editions of 77 signed, numbered, hand-bound copies. The Ventura broadside was published in a private edition of approximately 200 copies on the occasion of the marriage of Penny Deerfield and John Vik (about half the copies were distributed as a gift from the bride and groom to their guests); it carries a publisher's acknowledgment explicitly requesting that copies be given and received freely and without the exchange of money. Atlantis was published in a single limited edition of 334 signed, numbered copies; Incunabula also produced a trade edition of Atlantis for Wesleyan University Press.
