Vignette 135: Four incanabula

The printing press revolutionised the world; by decreasing the production costs of texts, it increased the number of texts in circulation. Any book, pamphlet or broadside printed in the first 50 years of moveable type printing is called an incunabulum. The University, through generous donations, holds four incunabula.

The oldest is Bruni’s Leonardi Arretini epistolarum familiarium liber primus feliciter incipit : Leonardi Arretini epistolarum familiarium liber octauus : et ultimus finit (1472), a collection of Bruni’s letters, originally published in Venice. Bruni was a central figure in the literary world of early 15th century Italy. This book was bequeathed in 1971 by Mrs Margaret Morris in memory of her brother, Reverend John Colville.

A volume from the Francisci Moneliensis de Genua in digestum vetus a se castigatum published in 1482, was donated by Sir Samuel Way. 

Justinian I was a 6th century Eastern Roman emperor whose rewriting of Roman legal principles remains a foundation of legal codes across Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

The Poeticon astronomicon : opus utilissimum foeliciter incipit : de mundi and sphere ac utriusque ptiu declaratione (1485), donated by Henry Kenneth Fry, is a Venetian publication on astrology and is the most visually rich of the Library’s incunabula, with colourful illuminated letters and woodcuts representing Ptolemaic constellations.

Naturalis hystoriae (1483) has been described as one of the most influential books ever published. This encyclopaedic work is a compilation of all the knowledge of the ancient world. It was donated by renowned United States geneticist Dr Ernest Robert Sears.

The University of Adelaide: 150 Years of Making History.  Preserving a legacy.  p.182