''A Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library'' (cited as Bod-inc.) is a

short-title catalogue A short-title catalogue (or catalog) is a bibliographical resource that lists printed items in an abbreviated fashion, recording the most important words of their titles. The term is commonly encountered in the context of early modern books, which ...

of more than 5,600

incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural 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 pro ...

held in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Bod-inc. stands out among incunabula catalogues for its detailed listing of the contents of each edition being described. It was published on 7 July 2005 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in six

volumes Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The defi ...

History

L. A. Sheppard began work on a catalogue of Bodleian incunabula in 1955 but he left Oxford in 1971 before the work could be completed; his slip catalogue was bound into seven volumes and served as a base of information for the Bod-inc. project. In the mid-1980s, Kristian Jensen, as the Bodleian Library's specialist in early printed books, decided that a new catalogue was needed and that its descriptions should follow the standards of detail expected in catalogues of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

s. Early in the project, Jensen was assisted by Bettina Wagner and Alan Coates beginning in 1992. Work on Bod-inc. was undertaken over the thirteen-year period between January 1992 and January 2005 by a team of cataloguers. From 1992 to 1999, Jensen headed the cataloguing team; he was succeeded by Alan Coates who headed the project from 2000 to its completion, during which time Jensen served as a consultant. Bod-inc. was published in the 400th anniversary year of the publication of the first catalogueBodleian Library, ''Catalogus librorum bibliothecae publicae quam vir ornatissimus Thomas Bodleius eques auratus in Academia Oxoniensi nuper instituit'' (Oxford: J. Barnes, 1605);

English Short Title Catalogue The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is a union short-title catalogue of works published between 1473 and 1800, in Britain and its former colonies, notably those in North America, and primarily in English, drawing on the collections of the ...

br>record
of the Bodleian Library in 1605.

Aims of the catalogue

The aims of Bod-inc. are summarized in the catalogue's introduction:

Bod-inc. is divided into six volumes:

Volume 1

Dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days fr ...

to L. A. Sheppard *

Preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

by Reginald Carr *List of organizations and individuals who sponsored the cataloguing project *List of members of the cataloguing team *List of academic advisers * Acknowledgements *Bibliographical

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

s *General abbreviations *"The Bodleian Library and Its Incunabula" by Alan Coates *"Form of the Entries in the Catalogue" by Alan Coates and Kristian Jensen *Descriptions by Nigel F. Palmer of

blockbooks Block books or blockbooks, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text (usually) and illustrations. The content ...

and

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

and

metalcut Metalcut was a relief printmaking technique, belonging to the category of old master prints. It was almost entirely restricted to the period from about 1450 to 1540, and mostly to the region around the Rhine in Northern Europe, the Low Countries, ...

single sheets *Descriptions of incunabula arranged

alphabetically Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...

by author or

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

, A

Volume 2

*Descriptions of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author or title, B–C

Volume 3

*Descriptions of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author or title, D–H

Volume 4

*Descriptions of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author or title, I–O

Volume 5

*Descriptions of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author or title, P–S

Volume 6

*Descriptions of incunabula arranged alphabetically by author or title, T–Z *Inventory by Silke Schaeper of

Hebrew incunabula The Hebrew incunabula are a group of Jewish religious texts printed in Hebrew language, Hebrew in the 15th century. Only about 100 incunabula are determined to have been definitively printed before 1500. There are eight of which either no copy is ...

Indexes Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

**Index of authors,

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, dedicatees **Index of provenances, owners,

donors A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as rep ...

, and other names **Index of

printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * Jame ...

and

publishers Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

* Appendices **Items recorded by Sheppard, but not included in the Catalogue **Items included in ISTC, but excluded from the Catalogue **List of items in Schreiber, ''Woodcuts from Books of the 15th Century''

Reviews

* *

Notes

External links

Bodleian Incunable Catalogue website
– directory of links to

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

files of the entire text of Bod-inc. in parts
Bodleian Library Incunable Cataloguing Project websiteLibrary of Congress Catalog Record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catalogue Of Books Printed In The Fifteenth Century Now In The Bodleian Library 2005 non-fiction books Bodleian Library collection Oxford University Press reference books Short title catalogues Incunabula