Lithuania’s Martynas Mažvydas National Library has discovered an incunabulum – a rare book published before printing houses proliferated in Europe. According to the Library, incunabula, the earliest printed books published before 1501, are considered to be a particularly important part of documentary heritage. The newly identified incunabulum is a Latin publication entitled Commentaries on the Psalms (Postilla super Psalterium) by the French theologian Hugo de Sancto Caro (c.
1200–1263). It was published in 1496 in Venice, by one of the largest printers of the brothers Giovanni and Gregorio de Gregori, in folio format at the expense of Stefano and Bernardino de Nalli. The incunabulum in the National Library was identified by the researcher Viktorija Bargailienė.
The De Gregori brothers’ printing house in Venice operated between 1480 and 1505, mainly publishing large-format publications for universities. According to the Berlin State Library, the printing house produced a total of around 330 books, 145 of which were published between 1482 and 1505. The printer’s output was characterised by the variety of woodcut illustrations and the abundance of typefaces.
Lithuanian libraries hold only six incunabula published by the Venetian printers, according to the National Library. The newly identified incunabulum is decorated with printed initials in the Venetian fashion. The publication is, however, missing four pages in the beginning and seven in the end.
This is one of .