Digital Collection Incunabula and Blockbooks

New in the digital handset (in German): Campbell, Marinus Frederik Andrés Gerardus: Annales de la typographie néerlandaise au XVe siècle/[Hauptband]. - 1874

Original image size Einbandfotos vom Vorderdeckel und Buchschnitt mit Maßstab Foto: Simon Epp
Einbandfotos vom Vorderdeckel und Buchschnitt mit Maßstab Foto: Simon Epp
Original image size Titelblatt von "Bertholdus: Zeitglöcklein des Lebens und Leidens Christi"
Titelblatt von "Bertholdus: Zeitglöcklein des Lebens und Leidens Christi"
Original image size Blatt des Blockbuchs "Biblia pauperum" um 1465
Blatt des Blockbuchs "Biblia pauperum" um 1465
Original image size Blatt des Blockbuchs "Apocalypsis" um 1465
Blatt des Blockbuchs "Apocalypsis" um 1465
Original image size Titelblatt von Kölnische Chronik 1499
Titelblatt von Kölnische Chronik 1499

PRESENTATION OF THE COVERS

We are now photographing interesting bindings of our digitized prints. Usually we present the front and back covers, the spine and the front trim, in special cases also the head and foot trim. The bindings are taken in the photo studio of our digitisation centre.
Durantis, Guilelmus: Rationale divinorum officiorum

The Digital Collection Incunabula and Blockbooks

The University and City Library of Cologne has a rich collection of incunabula; this is the term used to describe printed works that were created up to the year of publication 1500 by the technique of printing with movable letters invented by Johannes Gutenberg.
In the 15th century, Cologne was an important city in which the university and the clergy provided sufficient education for people to read and write. This was an important prerequisite for the development of the new technology of letterpress printing, and more than 20 printers and officers soon settled here.

Ulrich Zell, who had been trained by Peter Schöffer in Mainz, was the first printer in Cologne. In 1466 his edition of "Super psalmo quinquagesimo `Miserere mei deus`“ by Johannes Chrysostomus appeared as the first Cologne print. A total of about 1280 prints were published in Cologne until the end of 1500.

Incunabula in the UCL

In the 19th century, the holdings of incunabula from the Wallraf Collection , the Gymnasiaum Library, also from the Syndicate Library and some other collections (e.g. the Mevissen Collection ) were separately listed in the former scientific municipal library and recorded in a handwritten catalogue, which, however, does not contain any more specific statements, e.g. on provenances, bindings etc.

Today the University and City Library of Cologne owns about 2350 prints of the 15th century. Around 600 of these editions (available in approx. 740 copies) have been printed in Cologne; prints from Basel, Strasbourg, Nuremberg and from other German, Dutch and northern Italian printing locations are also available.

Approximately 385 of these prints are already available as full digitised documents on the internet today; they were digitised with DFG funds in 2005/06 and indexed in the "Distributed Digital Incunabula Library" in cooperation with Prof. Manfred Thaller at the Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Informationsverarbeitung (HKI) ("Historical-Cultural Science Information Processing"). Since 01.08.2015 the server of the " Verteilten Digitale Inkunabelbibliothek " has been out of operation.
The digitised documents of the University and City Library Cologne can still be reached via: http://www.ub.uni-koeln.de/sammlungen/inkunabeln/index_ger.html.
The digitised documents of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel can be reached via the digital service at: http://www.hab.de/de/home/wissenschaft/forschungsprofil-und-projekte/verteilte-digitale-inkunabelbibliothek.html

The Cologne incunabula are successively processed, placed on the net and the digitised documents are recorded with short descriptions in the OPAC. As well as improving availability and usability, this also helps to conserve the holdings and secure the prints.

Blockbooks

The UCL Cologne owns two copies of the extremely rare blockbooks of the 15th century:

Apocalypse (Main region around 1465)
Biblia pauperum (Netherlands around 1465)

Blockbooks are made from wooden blocks, which are hand-printed with rubbers. The double sheets are usually printed on one side only, folded and glued together. They may contain text and image from a printing block, only image representations supplemented by handwritten texts, or more rarely text and image printed in two passes. The production time of the European block books is presumed to be between 1460 and 1530, i.e. quite parallel to the expansion of printing with movable metal type. Fabrics printed with wooden stamps and single-sheet prints, playing cards and similar commercial prints had already been produced before.

Today, 33 works are known, about 100 of them have survived. In addition to religious themes (e.g. Biblia pauperum), they include calendars and textbooks. Wikisource contains a compilation of digitally available blockbooks. The Munich State Library provides a database of blockbooks from Bavarian collections in which the watermarks are also displayed.

Digital handset incunabula: Campbell, Cappelli, Voullième, Ennen and Co. (German)

The listed works are from the handset of the former "Distributed Digital Incunabula Library" (VdIB), which we provide digitally:

Special features of digitisation

Explanations and abbreviations for our incunabula digitised documents (German)

Anhand der Endung des Scans erkennt man die Struktur eines Druckes:

Endung eines Scans Erläuterung Beispiel

BL                                                   Blanko                                        ENNEN99
BS                                                  Buchschnitt                                 MEVI72
BR                                                  Brief, Brief an den Leser             GBV169+b
CP                                                  Capitula                                       GBIV6246
DR                 Druckermarke                              GBIV3493
ER                                                 Einbandrücken                             MEVI72
FR                                                 Fragment                                      GBIV8264
HS                                                 Handschrift                                   ENNEN81
Il                                                    Illustration                                     AD+S306
IN                  Inhaltsverzeichnis                         ENNEN114+C
MS                                                Maßstab                                        AD+BL76
PL                                                 Prologus                                       ENNEN177
PR                                               Praefatio                                       ENNEN165
RG                                              Registrum                                     GBIV5006+a
PV                                                Provenienz                                     GBII+c723+a
TB                                                Tabula                                             MEVI72
TI                                                 Titelblatt                                          GBIV8573
VD                     Vorderdeckel                                   GBIV8264

WI                                               Widmung
RD                                               Rückdeckel                                     GBIV8264
RS                                             Rückwärtiger Spiegel                      GBIV8264
VR                                             Vorrede                                            GBIV267
VS                                             Vorderer Spiegel                              GBIV8264
#                      linke Seite                                        MEVI72

Fortlaufende Blattnummerierung:

[21] - 1 = 21. Scan, rechte Seite, Blatt a1
[22] - # = 22. Scan, linke Seite, Blatt a2

Fortlaufende Blattnummerierung:

[5] - 1 = 5. Scan, rechte Seite, Blatt 1a Beispiel: ENNE13

[6] - # = 6. Scan, linke Seite, Blatt 1b Beispiel: ENNE13

[7] - 2 = 7. Scan, rechte Seite, Blatt 2a Beispiel: ENNE13

[8] - # = 8. Scan, linke Seite, Blatt 2b Beispiel: ENNE13

Fortlaufende Blattnummerierung
Scanbezeichnung	Erläuterung	Beispiel
[5] - 1	5. Scan, rechte Seite, Blatt 1a	ENNE13
[6] - #	6. Scan, linke Seite, Blatt 1b	ENNE13
[7] - 2	7. Scan, rechte Seite, Blatt 2a	ENNE13
[8] - #	8. Scan, linke Seite, Blatt 2b	ENNE13

Anhand der Endung des Scans erkennt man die Struktur eines Druckes:
Endung eines Scans	Erläuterung	Beispiel
BL	Blanko	ENNEN99
BS	Buchschnitt	MEVI72
BR	Brief, Brief an den Leser	GBV169+b
CP	Capitula	GBIV6246
DR	Druckermarke	GBIV3493
ER	Einbandrücken	MEVI72
FR	Fragment	GBIV8264
HS	Handschrift	ENNEN81
IL	Illustration	AD+S306
IN	Inhaltsverzeichnis	ENNEN114+C
KD	Kalendarium	ENNEN201
MS	Maßstab	AD+BL76
PL	Prologus	ENNEN177
PR	Praefatio	ENNEN165
RD	Rückdeckel	GBIV8264
RG	Registrum	GBIV5006+a
RS	Rückwärtiger Spiegel	GBIV8264
PV	Provenienz	GBII+c723+a
TB	Tabula	MEVI72
TI	Titelblatt	GBIV8573
VD	Vorderdeckel	GBIV8264
VR	Vorrede	GBIV267
VS	Vorderer Spiegel	GBIV8264
WI	Widmung
#	linke Seite, Blatt 4b	MEVI72

This work (Digital Collection Incunabula and Blockbooks), which was identified by the University and City Library of Cologne, is not subject to any known copyright restrictions.

If you use our digitised documents, we would be pleased about the citing of our name.

This collection is marked with Open Access.

Open Access refers to the worldwide free access to scientific publications on the Internet, subject to copyright protection. No legal or financial barriers should stand in the way of the reader worldwide.

Open Access at the University and City Library of Cologne