Incunabula
Item
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Country
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GB
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
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Contact information: phone number
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0044 (0)1937 546060 (Customer Services)
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Contact information: email
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customer-services@bl.uk.
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Title (official language of the state)
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Incunabula
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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British Library
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Date note
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15th century
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Language(s)
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deu
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dut
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eng
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heb
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fra
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ita
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lat
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por
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spa
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others
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Extent
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c. 12,500 books
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The British Library holds an important collection of incunabula, including some printed in Jewish printing houses in Portugal and Spain before the late 15th-century expulsions. Some examples are the following:
C.50.c.22: Jacob ben Asher, Tur Orah Hayyim. Spain?, 1485.
C.49.c.1: Torah. Faro: Samuel Gacon, 1487.
C.50.c.16: David Abudraham, Perush Seder Tefillot. Lisbon: Eliezer Toledano, 1489.
C.50.d.3: Moses ben Nahman, Perush ha-Torah. Lisbon: Eliezer Toledano, 1489.
C.50.d.17 and C.9.c.7,8: Pentateuch with commentary of Rashi. Lisbon: Eliezer Toledano, 1491. Two copies.
C.50*.b.8: Hebrew Bible: Prophets, with commentary of David Kimhi. Lisbon: Eliezer Toledano, 1492.
C.50*.b.1: Hebrew Bible. Mishle, with commentaries of Menahem Meiri and Levi ben Gershom. Leiria: Samuel d'Ortas, 1492.
C.50.b.13: Jeshuah ben Joseph Halevi, Sefer Halikhot Olam; Jonah Gerondi, Sefer ha-Yirah ve-Sod ha-Teshuvah. Leiria: Samuel d'Ortas, 1492-6.
C.50*.d.6: Hebrew Bible. Neviim Rishonim, with commentaries of David Kimhi and Levi ben Gershom. Leiria: Samuel d'Ortas, 1494.
C.49.e.18: Jacob ben Asher. Tur Orah Hayyim. Leiria: Samuel d'Ortas, 1495.
IA.56710: Abraham Zacuto, Almanach perpetuum. Leiria: Samuel d'Ortas, 1496.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The British Library was founded in 1973 in the sequence of the British Library Act. Several organisations were brought together to create a national library, including the British Museum.
The British Museum was created in 1753 as "one general repository" to hold the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Robert Cotton, and Robert and Edward Harley. When it inherited the library of George III in 1823, its printed books doubled in number, prompting a move to the site of the current British Museum. Opening in 1857, the British Museum Library’s Round Reading Room became an iconic destination in the literary landscape of London. The room welcomed many famous visitors including Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and Virginia Woolf. During World War II, some of the British Museum Library's most precious treasures were moved to a secure cave in Aberystwyth, with round-the-clock guards.
The actual British Library's building in St Pancras opened its doors to the public in November 1997. The Library became the largest public building constructed in Britain in the last 100 years.
Over the last 250 years, the British Library has become one of the greatest libraries in the world. Its physical collections are growing all the time and so are its digital collections, which include Digitised Manuscripts, the UK Web Archive, and over one million rights-free images.
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(source: British Library — History of the British Library)
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Author of the description
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Joana Rodrigues and Carla Vieira, 2022
Linked resources
Items with "Collections (official language of the state): Incunabula"
| Title |
Class |
| British Library |
|
