INCUNABULA SHORT TITLE CATALOG
Incunabula: the printing revolution in Europe, 1455-1500 [microform]/ editor-in-chief Lotte Hellinga. Woodbridge, Ct.: Research Publications, 1992-present.
DESCRIPTION
7000-11,000 microfiche in approximately 20 units [one unit = one looseleaf binder): 350-550 microfiche per binder; positive; silver halide microfiche; 30 frames or 56 frames per fiche (20X-32X lenses are suitable).
Accession in progress: set is still being published.
From the printed guides accompanying this set, it appears that the microfiche reproduce other facsimile items (viz. 35 mm microfilm, perforated roll film, 4X4 cm negatives, and photographic facsimiles), rather than original items.
COVERAGE
Microfiche collection, "the largest and most comprehensive collection of early European printed materials from 1455-1500 ever reproduced in full text facsimile", deriving from the British Library's
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue [ISTC]. It is anticipated that the set will provide "an overall coverage of up to one third of all ISTC titles".
ARRANGEMENT
The set is expected to be released in twenty numbered units, one unit per "microbook" looseleaf binder. By mid-2007, the set has grown considerably beyond its prospectus, with seventy-eight units:
| Unit | Title | Fiche symbol |
| 1 | Printing in Mainz to 1480 | (no symbol) |
| 2 | The classics in translation | (no symbol) |
| 3 | The image of the world: geography and cosmography | (no symbol) |
| 4-5 | Chronicles and historiography | CH |
| 6 | The image of the world: travellers' tales | TT |
| 7-10 | Printing in Italy before 1472 | PI |
| 11-15, 21 | Medical incunabula | IM |
| 16-17 | Incunabula Hebraica | IH (see Units 24-25) |
| 18-20 | Printing in the Baltic area | BA |
| 22-23 | Rhetoric incunabula | RH |
| 24-25 | Italian humanism | IH (see Units 16-17) |
| 26-28 | Philosophy: ancient, medieval and Renaissance | PH |
| 29-30, 40 | Schoolbooks: grammar | GR |
| 31-33, 73 | Sermons | SM |
| 34-39 | Law incunabula | LW |
| 41-44 | Science | SCI |
| 45 | Printing in Greek | GK |
| 46-47 | German vernacular literature | GV |
| 48-49 | Printing in England | EN |
| 50-51 | Liturgy | LT |
| 52-53 | Current affairs | CA |
| 54-55 | Iberian printing | SP |
| 56-59, 67, 78-79 | Bibles and commentaries | BC |
| 60-62 | Academic theology | TH |
| 63-64, 74 | Romances | RM |
| 65-66, 70 | Printing in French | FR |
| 68 | Printing in Dutch | DU |
| 69 | (Not published, as of March 2007) | |
| 71-72, 75 | Printing in Florence | FL |
| 76-77, 80 | Printing in Venice | VE |
FINDING AIDS
- Incunabula microform guide. Thomson/Gale.
- [Incunabula subsets via Thomson/Gale Web]
- Unit checklists in PDF- and RTF-formats.
- ISTC - The Incunable Short Title Catalogue
- [Hand Press Book Database via Penn Library Web]
- Bibliographic records for all kinds of printed books printed in Europe with movable type before 1501, documenting nearly every pre-1501 book known with approximately 30,000 editions. The contents include the up-to-date national censuses of incunabula in the British Isles, the USA, Canada, Italy (including the Vatican Library), Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Japan. Scandinavia and South America are comprehensively covered. Incuabula in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Polish, Hungarian and Czech libraries (among others) are at present less fully recorded, though new reports from all over the world are added every month. In Hand Press Book Database, ISTC records are identified as "Location UKBY - British Library ISTC"; ISTC records will contain a note indicating inclusion in Incunabula, providing microbook unit number.
- Short title union catalogues for multi-library collections can be found in Franklin using subject heading searching: "incunabula--bibliography--union lists". Short title catalogues and bibliographies for individual collections can be found in Franklin using keyword expert searching: "skey incunabula and skey bibliography and [your subject word]".
- Individual titles reproduced in this set are not listed in Franklin. However, original or reprint editions in the library's general or special collections will be listed in Franklin and/or the main card catalog.
COMPARABLE RESOURCES
No single set contains the breadth of
Incunabula. However, the Penn Library owns a number of microform sets that, by including pre-1501 printed materials by subject or country of origin, overlap parts of this set.
- EEBO (Early English Books Online)
- [EEBO via Penn Library Web]
- Early English books, 1475-1640
- [Van Pelt Microforms: Microfilm STC]
- French books before 1601
- [Van Pelt Microforms: Microfilm 2105]
- Bibliotheca Palatina: druckschriften
- [Van Pelt Microforms: Microfiche 763]
- Landmarks of science
- [Van Pelt Microforms: Microfiche 866]
LOCATION
Van Pelt Microforms: Microbook 34.
