Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schöffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter "U" and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the "Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani" (Hamburg).

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"^[1] which can refer to "the earliest stages or first traces in the development of anything."^[2] A former term for "incunable" is "fifteener," referring to the fifteenth century.

The first recorded use of incunabula as a printing term is in a Latin pamphlet by Bernhard von Mallinckrodt, De ortu et progressu artis typographicae ("Of the rise and progress of the typographic art", Cologne, 1639), which includes the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing", a term to which he arbitrarily set an end, 1500, which still stands as a convention.^[3] The term came to denote the printed books themselves in the late seventeenth century.

The end date for identifying a printed book as an incunable is convenient but was chosen arbitrarily. It does not reflect any notable developments in the printing process around the year 1500, and many books printed for a number of years after 1500 continued to be visually indistinguishable from incunables. The term "post-incunable" is sometimes used to refer to books printed after 1500 up to another arbitrary end date such as 1520 or 1540.

As of 2008, there are between 28,000 and 30,000 distinct incunable editions known to be extant, while the number of surviving copies in Germany alone is estimated at around 125,000.^[4][5]

Types[link]

There are two types of incunabula in printing: the Block book printed from a single carved or sculpted wooden block for each page, by the same process as the woodcut in art (these may be called xylographic), and the typographic book, made with individual pieces of cast metal movable type on a printing press. Many authors reserve the term incunabula for the typographic ones only.^[6]

The spread of printing to cities both in the north and in Italy ensured that there was great variety in the texts chosen for printing and the styles in which they appeared. Many early typefaces were modelled on local forms of writing or derived from the various European forms of Gothic script, but there were also some derived from documentary scripts (such as most of Caxton's types), and, particularly in Italy, types modelled on handwritten scripts and calligraphy employed by humanists.

Printers congregated in urban centres where there were scholars, ecclesiastics, lawyers, nobles and professionals who formed their major customer base. Standard works in Latin inherited from the medieval tradition formed the bulk of the earliest printing, but as books became cheaper, works in the various vernaculars (or translations of standard works) began to appear.

Examples and collections[link]

First incunable with illustrations, Ulrich Boner's Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister, Bamberg, 1461.

Incunabula include the Gutenberg Bible of 1455, the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam of 1486—printed and illustrated by Erhard Reuwich—both from Mainz, the Nuremberg Chronicle written by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in 1493, and the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili printed by Aldus Manutius with important illustrations by an unknown artist. Other printers of incunabula were Günther Zainer of Augsburg, Johannes Mentelin and Heinrich Eggestein of Strasbourg, Heinrich Gran of Haguenau and William Caxton of Bruges and London. The first incunable to have woodcut illustrations was Ulrich Boner's Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg in 1461.^[7]

The British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue now records over 29,000 titles, of which around 27,400 are incunabula editions (not all unique works). Studies of incunabula began in the seventeenth century. Michel Maittaire (1667–1747) and Georg Wolfgang Panzer (1729–1805) arranged printed material chronologically in annals format, and in the first half of the nineteenth century, Ludwig Hain published, Repertorium bibliographicum— a checklist of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author: "Hain numbers" are still a reference point. Hain was expanded in subsequent editions, by Walter A. Copinger and Dietrich Reichling, but it is being superseded by the authoritative modern listing, a German catalogue, the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, which has been under way since 1925 and is still being compiled at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. North American holdings were listed by Frederick R. Goff and a worldwide union catalogue is provided by the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue.^[8]

The largest collections, with the approximate numbers of incunabula held, include:

Statistical data[link]

Printing towns

Distribution by region

Distribution by language

The data in this section were derived from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue.^[47]

• Printing towns: The number of printing cities stands at 282. These are situated in some 20 countries in terms of present-day boundaries. In descending order of the number of editions printed in each, these are: Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, England, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro, Balearic Islands, Hungary, and Sicily (see diagram below).
• Languages: The 18 languages that incunabula are printed in, in descending order, are: Latin, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Catalan, Czech, Greek, Church Slavonic, Portuguese, Swedish, Breton, Danish, Frisian, and Sardinian (see diagram below).
• Illustrations: Only about one edition in ten (i.e. just over 3000) has any illustrations, woodcuts or metalcuts.
• Survival: The 'commonest' incunable is Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle ("Liber Chronicarum") of 1493, with c 1250 surviving copies (which is also the most heavily illustrated). Very many incunabula are unique, but on average about 18 copies survive of each. This makes the Gutenberg Bible, at 48 or 49 known copies, a rather common (though extremely valuable) edition.
• Total number of volumes: Counting extant incunabula is complicated by the fact that most libraries consider a single volume of a multi-volume work as a separate item, as well as fragments or copies lacking more than half the total leaves. A complete incunable may consist of a slip, or up to ten volumes.
• Formats: In terms of format, the 29,000 odd editions comprise: 2000 broadsides, 9000 folios, 15,000 quartos, 3000 octavos, 18 12mos, 230 16mos, 20 32mos, and 3 64mos.
• Caxton: ISTC at present cites 528 extant copies of books printed by Caxton, which together with 128 fragments makes 656 in total, though many are broadsides or very imperfect (incomplete).
• Dispersal: Apart from migration to mainly North American and Japanese universities, there has been remarkably little movement of incunabula in the last five centuries. None were printed in the Southern Hemisphere, and the latter appears to possess less than 2000 copies – i.e. about 97.75% remain north of the equator. However many incunabula are sold at auction or through the rare book trade every year.

Post-incunable[link]

The end date for identifying a printed book as an incunable is convenient but was chosen arbitrarily. It does not reflect any notable developments in the printing process around the year 1500. Books printed for a number of years after 1500 continued to look much like incunables, with the notable exception of the small format books printed in italic type introduced by Aldus Manutius in 1501. The term post-incunable is sometimes used to refer to books printed "after 1500 — how long after, the experts have not yet agreed."^[48] For books printed on the Continent, the term generally covers 1501–1540, and for books printed in England, 1501–1520.^[48]

See also[link]

• Block book
• Book collecting
• Global spread of the printing press

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Incunabula

• Centre for the History of the Book
• British Library worldwide Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
• Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW), partially English version
• History of Incunabula Studies
• UIUC Rare Book & Manuscript Library
• Grand Valley State University Incunabula & 16th Century Printing digital collections

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since May 2011. It is an autobiography, or has been extensively edited by the subject or an institution related to the subject, and may not conform to Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy. Tagged since October 2011.

Jozef van Wissem (born 1962 in Maastricht) is a Dutch minimalist composer and lute player.^[1]

Composer and lutenist Jozef van Wissem is devoted to what he terms “The Liberation of the Lute”. Taking an experimental approach to Renaissance and Baroque forms of lute music, his compositions for the instrument have involved a dynamic mix of conceptual, minimalist, classical and improvisational strategies, seamlessly bridging the language of 17th century music with that of the 21st, without compromising the timbre and resonance of traditional lute playing techniques. Over the last two decades, van Wissem has variously used cut-and-paste tactics, field recordings, free improvisation, and created palindromic compositions by playing pieces forwards and then backwards. The resulting sound world is at once meditative and surprising, new and arcane. Mirror image melodies are formed that step up and then back down seemingly without end, thus eschewing traditional linear progression and climax, instead maintaining a constant level of intensity. This music doesn’t demand concentrated listening, but rather brings the listener into a state of concentrated listening. His music is uncluttered and direct, with a viscerally hypnotic and emotional impact,delivered with an ascetic intensity reflected both in his Biblical titles and his No Wave influences. An incessantly touring musician, van Wissem’s hypnotic live shows have taken him all over the world. He has records out on Important Records and his own Incunabulum label and has collaborated with James Blackshaw, Keiji Haino and Jim Jarmusch amongst others. Van Wissem studied lute in New york with Pat O’Brien and released a classical lute CD A Rose By Any Other Name consisting of anonymous lute pieces. He lectures on “The Liberation of the Lute” (at Harvard, Wesleyan University, Mills College amongst others) and was commissioned by The National Gallery of London to compose a sound piece to Hans Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors. His work is featured more and more in documentaries and feature films and he recently composed pieces for lute and voice for the new Sims Medieval video game'. - from the official website of the artist.

Discography[link]

• 2000: Jozef van Wissem - Retrograde, A Classical Deconstruction (Persephone 002)
• 2001: Jozef van Wissem - Narcissus Drowning (Persephone 003)
• 2002: Gary Lucas and Jozef van Wissem - Diplopia (BVHaast 0103)
• 2003: Jozef van Wissem - Simulacrum (BVHaast 0104);
• 2004* Tetuzi Akiyama and Jozef van Wissem - Proletarian Drift (BVHaast 0404)
• 2004: Gary Lucas and Jozef Van Wissem - The Universe of Absence (BVHaast 0105); The Wire Tapper 12, Wire Magazine CD compilation; Reduce stress in just over an hour- WFMU Radio CD compilation
• 2005: Lost in the Afternoon - WFMU radio CD compilation; Jozef van Wissem - Objects in Mirror are closer than they appear (BVHaast 0905)
• 2006: Jozef van Wissem - A Rose By Any Other Name, Anonymous Lute Solos Of The Golden Age (Incunabulum 001)
• 2007: Jozef van Wissem and Tetuzi Akiyama - Hymn for a Fallen Angel (Incunabulum 003)
• 2007: Jozef van Wissem - Stations of the Cross (Incunabulum 004)
• 2008: Brethren of the Free Spirit - All Things are from him, through him and in him CD/LP (audioMER 2008)
• 2008: Jozef van Wissem - A Priori ( Incunabulum 009/Audiomer CD/LP)
• 2008: Various 'The Garden of Forking Paths - (Important Records)
• 2008: Brethren of the Free Spirit - The Wolf also shall dwell will the Lamb (Important Records CD/LP)
• 2009: Jozef van Wissem - It Is All That Is Made (Important Records CD)
• 2007: Maurizio Bianchi/MB and Jozef van Wissem - "Das Platinzeitalter" (Incunabulum 002) reissued on Weird Forest as 2lp.(2009)
• 2009: Jozef van Wisssem - Ex Patris (Important Records LP)
• 2010: Jozef van Wissem - Ex Patris (Important Records CD)
• 2011: Jozef van Wissem - "The Joy That Never Ends " ( Important Records CD/LP)
• 2012: Jozef van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - "Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity" (Important Records CD/LP)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jozef van Wissem on Myspace
• Jozef van Wissem at Allmusic
• Jozef van Wissem (classical) at Allmusic

Tetuzi Akiyama (Akiyama Tetsuji) (born 13 April 1964) is a Japanese guitarist, violinist, and instrument-maker.

Akiyama formed the improvisation group Madhar in 1987, and the classical ensemble Hikyo String Quintet in 1994 (which also included Taku Sugimoto on cello). In 1995, Akiyama and Sugimoto formed a guitar duo, and played at venues in New York City, Chicago, and Detroit. During this time, Akiyama was also a member of Keiji Haino's Nijiumu outfit. Akiyama also formed Sutekina Tea Time (a duo with Takashi Matsuoka) and Mongoose (a trio with Taku Sugimoto and Utah Kawasaki).

In 1998 Akiyama began organising a monthly concert series, The Improvisation Meeting, with Toshimaru Nakamura. In December 2006 he began a regular duo with Hervé Boghossian (France), they toured in Europe (France, Portugal, Switzerland, England) several times in 2007 (in May, October & December) & also played in Tokyo during Hervé Boghossian Japanese tour in August/September 2008. In 2009 he worked with David Sylvian.

Discography[link]

Solo[link]

• Relator (Slub Music, 2001)
• Resophonie (A Bruit Secret, 2002)
• Enha 4 (with Yoko Naito) (Enha, 2003)
• Don't Forget to Boogie (Idea, 2003)
• Playback 08 (Commune-Disc, 2004)
• Playback 09 (Commune-Disc, 2004)
• Route 13 the Gates of Hell: Live in Tokyo (Headz, 2005)
• Pre-Existence (Locust, 2005)
• Terrifying Street Trees (Esquilo, Portugal, 2006)
• Striking Another Match (Utech, 2006)
• The Ancient Balance to Control Death (Western Vinyl, 2008)

Duets[link]

• International Domestic (Corpus Hermeticum, 2003)
• Tetuzi Akiyama / Richard Francis (with Richard Francis) 7" (CMR, 2003)
• Proletarian Drift (with Jozef van Wissem) (BVHaast, 2004)
• Playback 087 (with Paul Hood) (Commune-Disc, 2004)
• Oimacta (with Martin Ng) (Improvised Music From Japan, 2004)
• Points And Slashes (with Günter Müller) (Erstwhile, 2005)
• Till We Meet Again (with Jason Kahn) (For 4 Ears, 2005)
• Vinegar and Rum (with Donald McPherson^{[disambiguation needed ]}) (Bo'Weavil, 2006)
• Hymn For A Fallen Angel (with Jozef van Wissem) (Incunabulum, 2007)
• Semi-Impressionism (with Toshimaru Nakamura) (Spekk, 2009)
• 13 & 14 for Guitars (with Taku Sugimoto) (slubmusic tengu, 2009)

Trios[link]

• At Penguin House (with Mongoose) (Slub Music, 1999)
• Hokou (with Taku Sugimoto and Bo Wiget) (Corpus Hermeticum, 2001)
• Luwa (with Utah Kawasaki and Jason Kahn) (Rossbin, 2001)
• Bject (with Utah Kawasaki and Masahiko Okura) (Hibari Music, 2002)
• Futuro (with Tim Barnes and Masafumi Ezaki (Quakebasket, 2004)
• Object 4 (Locust, 2004)
• Ailack (with Jason Kahn and Utah Kawasaki) (Creative Sources, 2005)
• Willow Weep And Moan For Me (with Oren Ambarchi and Alan Licht) (Antiopic, 2006)

Quartets[link]

• Akiyama/Taxt/Lønning/Reinertsen: Varianter av døde trær" (SOFA, 2008)
• Nero's Expedition (with Johan Arrias, Leo Svensson and Henrik Olsson) (mono, 2009)

Quintets[link]

• Koboku Senjû: Selektiv hogst (SOFA, 2010)

Compilations[link]

• Spectra: Guitar in the 21st Century (Quiet Design, 2009)

Listening[link]

• Solo performance June 2006 at SASSAS sound. concert archives

External links[link]

• Tetuzi Akiyama page at Locust Music
• Tetuzi Akiyama page at Japan Improv
• Tetuzi Akiyama's bio on Koboku Senjû website