The Incunabula 1440-1500

the word incunabula can describes the earliest stages in the development of anything , but it as come to stand particularly for those books produced before 1500.

An incunabulum 
is a book, single sheet, or image that was printed not handwritten before 1500 in Europe.

Printed Word And Movable Type
Johannes Gutenberg is the first to invent a metal movable type printing system in Europe. 
Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould.
The hand mould was the first practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in the vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable type printing process a viable enterprise.

Punchcutting: (pic)
If the glyph design includes enclosed spaces (counters), a counterpunch is made. 
The counter shapes are transferred in relief onto the end of a rectangular bar of mild steel using a specialized engraving tool called a graver.
The counterpunch is then struck against the end of a similar rectangular steel bar the letterpunch to impress the counter shapes as recessed spaces. 
One counterpunch and one letterpunch are produced for every letter or glyph making up a complete font.

Matrix: (pic)
The letterpunch is used to strike a blank die of soft metal to make a negative letter mould, called a matrix.

Casting: 
The matrix is inserted into the bottom of a device called a hand mould. The mould is clamped shut and molten type metal alloy consisting mostly of lead and tin, with a small amount of antimony for hardening, is poured into a cavity from the top. When the type metal has sufficiently cooled the mould is unlocked and a rectangular block extracted. Excess casting on the end of the sort, called the tang, is later removed to make the sort the precise height required for printing, known as “type height”, approximately 0.918 inches.

Typesetting: (pic)
A case of cast metal type pieces and typeset matter in a composing stick

Gutenberg Bible 1455 (pic)
printed in Mainz, Germany, the first book using movable type system, 
it is his major work, and has iconic status in the West as the start of the “Gutenberg Revolution” and the “Age of the Printed Book”.

Early Mainz Printers
Peter Schöffer and Johann Fust, German printers, formed the firm Fust and Schöffer by 1457. 
Famous work: The Latin Psalter 1457 (pic)

Schöffer is considered the author of many innovations such as dating books, introducing the printer’s device and Greek characters in print, developing the basics of punchcutting and type-founding and using colored inks in print.

Exodus of Mainz printer
14662 Mainz was attacked and partly burned by soldiers of Nassau.
One consequence was the spread of printers to other towns and country.
In that decade, there were presses in Strasbourg and Bamberg.

‘Edelstein’ (pic)
1461, first illustrated book by Albercht Pfister, printed in Bamberg
woodcut ant type were printed as a separate impression

Other Inacubulum (pic)
Examples showed are from the end of the 15th
Italy
Germany
France