A Catalogue Of The Fifteenth Century Printed Books In Glasgow Libraries And Museums

The University of Glasgow Library has one of the richest rare book collections in the UK outside London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. There are 1042 incunabula (including many unique items). As witnesses of the first print revolution, these books are fascinating on many levels - as innovative survivors of the technological shift from manuscript to print, as late medieval texts available in duplicate to a commercial mass market for the first time, and as cultural artefacts containing over 500 years of ownership history. A well-presented catalogue is the key to accessing this rich resource for a wide range of historians and researchers. A further 64 incunabula in other Glasgow museums and libraries are also included. Bibliographically, incunabula have been well documented. The aim of the Glasgow catalogue is to concentrate on the unique aspects of the books. A short-title catalogue approach is taken in providing enough information to identify each edition (with reference to standard bibliographical works such as ISTC) presented in author order. The main focus of each record is on the copy specific features of the book, including full details of provenance (ownership), evidence of use from annotation and other marks, binding, decoration and any other idiosyncratic features (such as hand-colouring of woodcuts or manuscript waste used in endpapers.