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Moreover, collectors today who look somewhat wistfully on the mounting prices of fifteenth century editiones principes (which means first editions) of Gutenberg Bibles even in single leaves, or of that familiar favorite, the Nuremberg Chronicle, are probably unaware that many incunabula are still available for much less than $100. The elusiveness and high price of all incunabula are as much a fiction as the belief that it is impossible to identify individual volumes.
It is generally admitted that there are in existence some 40,000 separate editions of books published during the fifteenth century. No one has yet had the hardihood to attempt to count all the known copies of these editions. One of the best modern efforts to gauge their extent was that of K. W. Hiersemann in his “Verlagskatalog”, Leipzig, 1924. He estimated that there were at least 450,000 pieces of incunabula around, or an average of more than eleven copies of each known edition.
In undertaking to investigate the present-day holdings of incunabula in all countries, Fremont Rider, librarian of the Olin Library at Wesleyan University, reported that Germany, the birthplace of printing and native home of most incunabula, is still, according to the latest available records, the largest holder of such books. With 105 libraries owning a hundred volumes or more, it registers a total of 115,927 volumes. Italy ranks second with 70,721. France makes a poor third with 35,278, just nosing out Great Britain’s 34,045. Austria comes next, outranking the United States, which can muster 22,166 volumes. Poland, Switzerland, Czecho-Slovakia, Spain, Holland and Russia follow next in order. In the 25 countries listed with libraries of a hundred or more volumes, Mr. Rider has located 380,750 titles.
The outstanding single collection of incunabula is in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at Munich, with its 16,000 volumes. The British Museum comes second with 11,500, the Bibliotheque Nationale third with 10,000. The Huntington Library’s 5,200 take sixth place, while the 3,600 in the Library of Congress entitle it to rank seventeenth among the libraries of the world. Despite the great influx of incunabula into this country in recent years, the resources of the European collections are incomparable. It is perfectly true that most American libraries regard the acquisition of a single incunabulum as a rare treasure, while many unheard-of European libraries of religious orders or princely families own far more volumes than our largest and richest universities.
JAMES F. DRAKE, Inc.
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