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44-685: The founder of the library, Cardinal Jules Raymond Mazarin (1602–1661), was born Giulio Ramondo Mazzarino in Pescina in the Kingdom of Naples, into a noble but poor family. He went into the church and studied at the Jesuit College in Rome, though he declined to join their order. He went into the Papal service, where he became known for his diplomatic, political and military skills, and was assigned as

88-574: A nuncio to the French court from 1634 to 1636. His talents brought him to the elder Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister of Louis XIII , who made him a member of the council of State of the King. When he came from Rome to Paris, he brought with him a library of five thousand books which he had kept in his palace on the Quirinal Hill in Rome. With the death of Louis XIII in 1643, Mazarin became

132-571: A cause. However, as with all previous earthquakes, the earthquake was caused by the movement and release of pent-up energy of an important tectonic fault. Like most other areas of Italy, Pescina still has a diaspora in North America. The families of Galli and Villanucci , which have had a presence in Pescina since at least 1880, have members in at least two American cities: Portland, Maine and Providence, Rhode Island . Pescina borders

176-402: A passage in his work Batavia (written in 1569; published posthumously in 1588). He referred to a period " inter prima artis [typographicae] incunabula " ("in the first infancy of the typographic art"). The term has sometimes been incorrectly attributed to Bernhard von Mallinckrodt (1591–1664), in his Latin pamphlet De ortu ac progressu artis typographicae ("On the rise and progress of

220-679: 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. In terms of format , the 30,000-odd editions comprise: 2,000 broadsides , 9,000 folios , 15,000 quartos , 3,000 octavos , 18 12mos, 230 16mos, 20 32mos, and 3 64mos. 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). Apart from migration to mainly North American and Japanese universities, there has been little movement of incunabula in

264-487: Is Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle ("Liber Chronicarum") of 1493, with about 1,250 surviving copies (which is also the most heavily illustrated). 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 relatively common (though extremely valuable) edition. Counting extant incunabula is complicated by the fact that most libraries consider

308-468: Is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were produced before the printing press became widespread on the continent and are distinct from manuscripts , which are documents written by hand. Some authorities on the history of printing include block books from the same time period as incunabula, whereas others limit

352-452: Is decorated with a large rose window. The base is decorated with a porch and three gates. The interior has three Renaissance and Baroque naves and retains some medieval frescoes. The bell tower is a large three-story tower that houses an ancient bell dedicated to Berardo dei Marsi. The old village of Pescina was the oldest part of the town, built in the 14th century . The village also had a castle, later dismantled, from which today survives

396-402: Is located at 23 quai de Conti. It is open to the public every day, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10:00 until 18:00. It is closed each summer from August 1 until August 15. 48°51′26″N 2°20′13″E  /  48.85722°N 2.33694°E  / 48.85722; 2.33694 Pescina Pescina ( pronounced [peʃˈʃiːna] ) is a township and comune in

440-533: Is the anglicised form of incunabulum , reconstructed singular of Latin incunabula , which meant " swaddling clothes", or " cradle ", which could metaphorically refer to "the earliest stages or first traces in the development". A former term for incunable is fifteener , meaning "fifteenth-century edition". The term incunabula was first used in the context of printing by the Dutch physician and humanist Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe, 1511–1575), in

484-506: 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 , Johann Amerbach of Basel , William Caxton of Bruges and London, and Nicolas Jenson of Venice . The first incunable to have woodcut illustrations

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528-738: The Collège des Quatre-Nations , a new college of the University of Paris that he founded for the sons of noble families from four provinces recently added to France. The new library building was constructed on the exact site of the medieval Tour de Nesle , or Nesle Tower, on the banks of the Seine. On the fronton is the inscription in Latin: Bibliotheca a fundatore mazarinea (Library founded by Mazarin). The original bookcases of his library, decorated with carved Corinthian columns and with

572-553: The Mercalli intensity scale , while the initial aftershock was estimated to be VII ( Very strong ) on the Mercalli intensity scale. It was felt throughout all of central Italy. The earthquake completely destroyed Pescina, with 5,000 people dying out of a total population of 6,000. The few who survived were generally severely injured and remained homeless since all the town buildings were destroyed. The earthquake completely isolated

616-620: The UK , the term generally covers 1501–1520, and for books printed in mainland Europe , 1501–1540. The data in this section were derived from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC). The number of printing towns and cities stands at 282. These are situated in some 18 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,

660-507: The block book , printed from a single carved or sculpted wooden block for each page (the same process as the woodcut in art, called xylographic ); and the typographic book , made by individual cast-metal movable type pieces on a printing press . Many authors reserve the term "incunabula" for the latter. The spread of printing to cities both in the North and in Italy ensured that there

704-541: The province of L'Aquila , Abruzzo , central Italy. It is a part of the mountain community Valle del Giovenco. The earthquake of 13 January 1915 affected the Marsica area, situated in the interior of Abruzzo. It was one of the most catastrophic earthquakes to strike the region, killing 30,000 people in Avezzano and the surrounding area. The main shock occurred at 7:48 AM local time and was judged to be X ( Extreme ) on

748-512: The 17th 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 19th century, Ludwig Hain published the 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

792-891: The Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Hungary (see diagram). The following table shows the 20 main 15th century printing locations; as with all data in this section, exact figures are given, but should be treated as close estimates (the total editions recorded in ISTC at August 2016 is 30,518): 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). Only about one edition in ten (i.e. just over 3,000) has any illustrations, woodcuts or metalcuts . The "commonest" incunable

836-501: The Library has received donations of numerous large collections, and since 1926 has also been the depository of publications relating to the history of the regions of France. The library today contains about 600,000 volumes. The oldest part of the collection, brought together by Mazarin, contains about 200,000 volumes on all subjects. The more modern collections specialize in French history, particularly religious and literary history of

880-568: The Middle Ages (12th–15th centuries) and the 16th and 17th centuries. Other specialities are the history of the book and the local and regional history of France. Among the library's collection of 2,370 incunabula is a Gutenberg Bible known as the Bible Mazarine . The original is kept in a vault, while a facsimile copy is on display in the reading room. The manuscript collection of Mazarin comes from an exchange made in 1668 with

924-724: The Royal Library of France, now the National Library of France . The collection now contains 4 600 manuscripts, including 1,500 medieval manuscripts, many of which are illuminated, which were largely confiscated from French nobles after the French Revolution. It also has the most important collection of the Mazarinade , a type of political tract from the period of the Fronde . In the 19th and 20th centuries.

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968-474: The ancient tower of the Piccolomini family. In 1915 the earthquake destroyed much of the old town; buildings collapsed, and only the bell tower remained standing. The writer Ignazio Silone set his novel Fontamara in Pescina. Today a portion of the old village has been partially restored and renovated. The Museum of Ignazio Silone was built in his birthplace, and was one of the few buildings to survive

1012-569: The area, and news of the disaster was only learned in the late afternoon. Rescuers left on the evening of the 13th, arriving only the day after because landslides and debris caused the roads to be impassable. The seismic event brought to light the lack of preparedness of the Italian state. Eminio Sipari , member of Parliament for the electoral district of Pescina, protested that many victims would have been saved if proper precautions were in place. The continuation of World War I , which had begun in

1056-479: The autumn of 1914, brought troops to the region and secured permanent forces in the affected area. The earthquake also created interest in the Appennine Mountains , which had not seen such disastrous earthquakes before 1915. People with no geological competence developed theories to explain the earthquake, blaming human activities in the area. In this case, the drainage of Lake Fucino was credited as

1100-563: The coat of arms of the Cardinal, were moved to the new location in the east wing of the college, along rue de Richelieu. The new library opened for Easter in 1689. The library continued to grow during the 18th century, from 36,000 volumes in 1730 to 50,000 in 1771. The French Revolution did no harm to the collection, and in fact greatly increased its size; the librarian, Gaspard Michel, bought books which had been confiscated from monasteries and from nobles who had gone into exile, and increased

1144-568: The collection to more than 60,000 volumes. He also collected works of art, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, gilded bronze chandeliers, Louis XVI commodes, a globe of the heavens by Gastellier from 1694, and other objects which decorate the reading room today. In 1805, under Napoleon I , The Collège des Quatre-Nations became the Palace of the Institut de France , the headquarters of the French scholarly and scientific academies. Since that time

1188-462: The communes of Celano , Collarmele , Gioia dei Marsi , Ortona dei Marsi , Ortucchio , Ovindoli , San Benedetto dei Marsi , and Trasacco . Located in the flatland areas of the province, Pescina has a milder climate compared to other towns and cities in Abruzzo, with temperatures averaging between 2.5 °C (36.5 °F) in the colder months (such as January) to 22.9 °C (73.2 °F) in

1232-591: The earthquake of 1915. It contains several manuscripts and original letters from the author. Cardinal Jules Mazarin was a famous man of the Church who worked in Paris alongside Cardinal Richelieu. His fame was such that the writer Alexandre Dumas included him as a character in his novels The Viscount Brangelonne and Twenty Years After , which deal with the Three Musketeers . The original home of Mazarin

1276-517: The largest library in Europe at the time, with forty thousand volumes. The library nearly came to an end in January and February 1652 with the outbreak of the Fronde , an uprising by several powerful nobles against the authority of Mazarin. Mazarin and the young King were forced to flee Paris. The palace was looted and thousands of books were burned, lost or sold. Fortunately Naudé succeeded in hiding

1320-526: The last five centuries. None were printed in the Southern Hemisphere , and the latter appears to possess less than 2,000 copies, about 97.75% remain north of the equator. However, many incunabula are sold at auction or through the rare book trade every year. 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

1364-600: The library received donations of important collections, including the archives of Pierre-Antoine Lebrun , Joseph Tastu, Arsène Thiébaut de Berneaud; and the library and archives of the scientists Albert Demangeon and of Aimé Perpillou (geography); the library of Marcel Chatillon (History of the Antilles) and a part of the archives of the Chevalier de Paravey (voyages); of Jean-Jacques Ampère (Nordic civilizations) and of Prosper Faugère (Pascal and Jansenism). The Library

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1408-591: The medieval tradition formed the bulk of the earliest printed works, but as books became cheaper, vernacular works (or translations into vernaculars of standard works) began to appear. Famous incunabula include two from Mainz , the Gutenberg Bible of 1455 and the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam of 1486, printed and illustrated by Erhard Reuwich ; the Nuremberg Chronicle written by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in 1493; and

1452-465: The most valuable volumes in his apartment in the Abbey of Saint-Genevieve. When Mazarin was finally able to return to Paris and to power in 1653, Naudé was able to get back many of the books which had been sold or stolen. Mazarin then began a second library with what was left of the first, assisted by the successor to Naudé, François de La Poterie. Since 1643, Mazarin had opened his library to scholars. It

1496-635: The new Prime Minister, with the support of the Queen, Anne of Austria . He immediately began constructing a palace for himself on rue de Richelieu in Paris, with an enormous chamber fifty-eight meters long designed especially to house his library. Visitors, including Frederick III , the King of Denmark, came from around Europe to see his library, and to model their own royal libraries after his. Between 1642 and 1653, Mazarin's librarian, Gabriel Naudé , traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and Holand, buying entire libraries for Mazarin's collection, making it

1540-439: The printed book evolved fully as a mature artefact with a standard format. After about 1540 books tended to conform to a template that included the author, title-page, date, seller, and place of printing. This makes it much easier to identify any particular edition. As noted above, 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

1584-401: 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." For books printed in

1628-482: The printing process, and many books printed for some years after 1500 are visually indistinguishable from incunables. The term " post-incunable " is now used to refer to books printed after 1500 up to 1520 or 1540, without general agreement. From around this period the dating of any edition becomes easier, as the practice of printing the place and year of publication using a colophon or on the title page became more widespread. There are two types of printed incunabula:

1672-486: The term to works printed using movable type . As of 2021, there are about 30,000 distinct incunable editions known. The probable number of surviving individual copies is much higher, estimated at 125,000 in Germany alone. Through statistical analysis, it is estimated that the number of lost editions is at least 20,000. Around 550,000 copies of around 27,500 different works have been preserved worldwide. Incunable

1716-505: The typographic art"; 1640), but he was quoting Junius. The term incunabula came to denote printed books themselves in the late 17th century. It is not found in English before the mid-19th century. Junius set an end-date of 1500 to his era of incunabula , which remains the convention in modern bibliographical scholarship. This convenient but arbitrary end-date for identifying a printed book as an incunable does not reflect changes in

1760-558: The warmer months. Rainfall is relatively heavy, averaging 820 millimetres (32.3 in) annually and occurring primarily in the late autumn. In the winter, snowfall can also be relatively abundant. Pescina Cathedral was built in the 15th century . From 1526 the crypt housed the relics of Berardo dei Marsi . In 1915 it was damaged by the earthquake in Avezzano, and restored after the Second World War . The church itself blends various architectural styles. The Renaissance facade

1804-483: Was Ulrich Boner 's Der Edelstein , printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg in 1461. A finding in 2015 brought evidence of quires , as claimed by research, possibly printed in 1444–1446 and possibly assigned to Procopius Waldvogel of Avignon , France. Many incunabula are undated, needing complex bibliographical analysis to place them correctly. The post-incunabula period marks a time of development during which

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1848-608: Was great variety in the texts and the styles which appeared. Many early typefaces were modelled on local writing or derived from various European Gothic scripts, but there were also some derived from documentary scripts like Caxton 's, and, particularly in Italy, types modelled on handwritten scripts and calligraphy used by humanists . Printers congregated in urban centres where there were scholars , ecclesiastics , lawyers , and nobles and professionals who formed their major customer base. Standard works in Latin inherited from

1892-868: Was open on Thursdays, and each week some eighty to one hundred came to do research. By the 1660s, the library held 25,000 volumes. The collection was matched by only three other libraries in Europe: the Bodleian Library of Oxford; the Ambrosian Library in Milan and the Angelique Library in Rome. After his experience with the Fronde, Mazarin wanted to assure that his library remained intact after his death. In his will written March 6, 1661, three days before his death, he bequeathed his library to

1936-447: Was shaped like a castle, but it was destroyed by the earthquake in 1915. The new house was rebuilt respecting the original architectural style of the home but has some differences. The house contains precious memories and manuscripts of the French cardinals and houses a private collection of Baroque art. Pescina is twinned with: Incunabulum An incunable or incunabulum ( pl. : incunables or incunabula , respectively)

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