The colossal pair of marble "Horse Tamers" —often identified as Castor and Pollux —have stood since antiquity near the site of the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal Hill , Rome . Napoleon 's agents wanted to include them among the classical booty removed from Rome after the 1797 Treaty of Tolentino , but they were too large to be buried or to be moved very far. They are fourth-century Roman copies of Greek originals. They gave to the Quirinal its medieval name Monte Cavallo ( Italian for 'Horse Mountain'), which lingered into the nineteenth century. Their coarseness has been noted, while the vigor—notably that of the horses—has been admired. The Colossi of the Quirinal are the original exponents of this theme of dominating power, which has appealed to powerful patrons since the seventeenth century, from Marly-le-Roi to Saint Petersburg .
35-465: The huge sculptures were noted in the medieval guidebook for pilgrims, Mirabilia Urbis Romae . Their ruinous bases still bore inscriptions OPUS FIDIÆ and OPUS PRAXITELIS , hopeful attributions that must have dated from Late Antiquity (Haskell and Penny 1981, p 136). The Mirabilia confidently reported that these were "the names of two seers who had arrived in Rome under Tiberius, naked, to tell
70-409: A colophon or on the title page became more widespread. There are two types of printed incunabula: 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
105-435: A printed book as an incunable does not reflect changes in 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
140-679: 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
175-639: 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 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
210-487: 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
245-470: Is closely linked to the papacy , long the steward of Rome’s monuments and infrastructure, other versions from only a little later seem to come instead from the ambit of the Roman Senate, the key institution of the medieval commune then taking control of much of the city. None of the early versions have any clear connection with pilgrimage or travel. Starting in the 14th century, a re-elaboration of
280-439: 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 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
315-506: 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
350-657: The Anichkov Bridge has four colossal bronze Horse Tamer sculptures by Baron Peter Klodt von Urgensburg ( illustration, left ). In Brooklyn 's Prospect Park , at the Ocean Parkway ("Park Circle") entrance, stands a pair of bronze Horse Tamers sculptures (1899) by Frederick MacMonnies , installed as the newly combined City of New York was spreading across the Long Island landscape. Mirabilia Urbis Romae Mirabilia Urbis Romae (“Marvels of
385-566: The Curiosum urbis Romae, which the Mirabilia resembles. The Mirabilia begins with a description of the walls of Rome, detailing towers, fortifications, and gates; then triumphal arches, hills, baths, ancient buildings, theaters, places related to saints’ martyrdom; then bridges, cemeteries, and a few important ancient monuments and histories. There follows an itinerary from the Vatican to
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#1732772294781420-522: The Mausoleum of Augustus , was re-erected between them. (The present granite basin, which had served for watering cattle in the Roman Forum was set between them in 1818.) An interpretation of their subject as Alexander and Bucephalus was proposed in 1558 by Onofrio Panvinio, who suggested that Constantine had removed them from Alexandria, where they would have referred to the familiar legend of
455-581: The Mirabilia dubbed the Historia et descriptio urbis Romae began to appear in combination with the Indulgentiae ecclesiarum urbis Romae focusing on the churches of Rome, and the Stationes ecclesiarum urbis Romae that included a calendar listing masses at various Roman churches. These assemblages were clearly intended for pilgrims. The first important printed copy was compiled around 1475 under
490-466: The Mirabilia fall into the following sections, the title headings being taken from the "Liber Censuum": Incunabula An incunable or incunabulum ( pl. : incunables or incunabula , respectively) 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
525-481: The Mirabilia with new descriptions from a fresh point of view. Among them were Leon Battista Alberti with his Descriptio urbis Romae , written ca. 1433. Another was Flavio Biondo with Roma instaurata , written in 1444 and circulated in manuscript; it was printed in 1481. Modern critical attention was first drawn to the different versions of Mirabilia Urbis Romae by the 19th-century archaeologist of Christian Rome, Giovanni Battista de Rossi . The contents of
560-519: The Trastevere , although it focuses almost exclusively on ancient monuments — that is, it describes the ancient heritage of the city, not all points of interest. This textual nucleus correlates with the late antique concepts of decus (decorum) and ornatus (ornament), used to describe the infrastructure and monuments of Rome that were protected from scavenging and seen to represent the political power of Rome’s rulers. While Benedict’s compilation
595-620: 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,
630-485: The 'bare truth' that the princes of the world were like horses which had not yet been mounted by a true king." Between 1589 and 1591, Sixtus V had them restored and set on new pedestals flanking a fountain, another engineering triumph for Domenico Fontana , who had moved and re-erected the obelisk in Piazza San Pietro . In 1783-86 they were re-set at an angle, and an obelisk, which had recently been found at
665-512: 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
700-515: The City of Rome”) is a grouping of hundreds of manuscripts, incunabula , and books in Latin and modern European languages that describe notable built works and historic monuments in the city of Rome . Most of these texts were intended as guidebooks to the city for pilgrims and visitors. Before the fourteenth century, however, the core text seems instead to have served as a census of the built patrimony of
735-891: 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
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#1732772294781770-705: The Horse Tamers recommended them for other situations where the ruling of base natures by higher nature was iconographically desirable. The Marly Horses made by Guillaume Coustou the Elder for Louis XV at Marly-le-Roi were re-set triumphantly in Paris at the time of the French Revolution , flanking the entrance to the Champs-Elysées In the 1640s, bronze replicas were to flank the entrance to
805-558: The Louvre: moulds were taken for the purpose, but the project foundered. Paolo Triscornia carved what seem to have been the first full-scale replicas of the groups for the entrance of the Manège (the riding school of the royal guards) in St. Petersburg" (Haskell and Penny p 139). The standing of the heroic nudes had risen with the new approach to Antiquity of Neoclassicism : Sir Richard Westmacott
840-545: The city's founder. This became a popular alternative to their identification as the Dioscuri . According to a story long repeated by popular guides, they were created by Phidias and Praxiteles competing for fame, despite these two long preceding Alexander. About 1560 a second pair of colossal marble figures accompanied by horses were unearthed and set up on either side of the entrance to the Campidoglio . The fame of
875-486: The city, the decus Urbis . This inheritance represented the strength of Rome and the power of the institutions that controlled it. The first compilation in the Mirabilia tradition, produced in the early 1140s, is credited to a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica named Benedict. Benedict’s Mirabilia (though it did not yet have that title) constitutes a part of his Liber Polypticus , which also contains papal inventories and another, much earlier census of Roman built works,
910-538: 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 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
945-526: 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
980-812: The latter. The spread of printing to cities both in the North and in Italy ensured that there 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
1015-591: 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
1050-439: 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
1085-401: 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
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1120-471: The rise and progress of 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
1155-640: The title Mirabilia Romae velpotius Historia et descriptio urbis Romae . For the jubilee year of 1500, Roman printers stayed busy churning out editions in Latin, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. While earlier editions had included fanciful accounts of ancient history and misidentifications of the subjects of portrait statuary, the knowledge accumulated by Renaissance humanists allowed for an increasingly grounded and realistic rendering of Rome’s past. Although guides now included both ancient and Christian monuments, they stopped short of describing recent works of art and architecture. Some authors set out to supersede
1190-483: 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
1225-617: Was commissioned to cast a full-scale bronze of the "Phidias" figure, supplied with a shield and sword, as a tribute to the Duke of Wellington ; it was erected at Hyde Park Corner opposite the Iron Duke's London residence Apsley House , where some French affected to think it was the Duke himself, stark naked. Christian Friedrich Tieck placed copies of the figures, in cast iron, atop Karl Friedrich Schinkel 's Altes Museum, Berlin. In St Petersburg,
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