Published before 1501, the first printed editions, known as incunabula, first captured the interest of booklovers, researchers, and librarians three centuries ago. Today, knowledge of the output from these first fifty years is more widespread as a result of national and international bibliographical research. An inventory of some 30,000 incunabular books has been compiled, which represents around fifty million copies which circulated over a period of roughly fifty years. This summer school will aim to make the attendees aware of the issues surrounding the act of describing, cataloguing, computerising, and digitalising incunabula. It is intended to highlight how interesting it is to approach them scientifically, for example by focusing on the conditions in which they were produced and on their content, and also by reconstructing their journey into the present day through studying their binding and marks of their origins.
The course, accommodation and food are completely free for students. The travel costs as well as meals on Monday evening and Saturday lunchtime are, however, to be borne by the participants.