Early modern languages in Bodleian incunabula
Douce 66, fol. l3v
Inc. d. S6.1500.1, fol. a1r
Auct. 2Q 5.5 fol. a1r
S. Seld. d.10, fol. a1r
Inc. d. I4.1480.1
Auct. 2Q 5.7 fol. l1r
S. Seld. c.2
S. Seld. d.5
Article: 

As of writing, the Bodleian has digitized 475 incunabula for the Polonsky Project. Most of them are in Latin, because most incunabula are in Latin; Maximilian Dörrbecker's breakdown of the language data in the Incunable Short Title Catalogue indicates that about 70% of catalogued incunabula are in Latin. Because today is Whan That Aprille Daye 2016—a day for celebrating old languages and paleography—we would like to call attention to the other 30%: pre-1501 printed books in medieval and early modern forms of modern European languages. This is not a complete list—we've digitized 67 incunabula in Italian alone—but it provides a few places to start.

 

English

Auct. 1Q 5.28Revelation of St Nicholas to a Monk of Eynsham

Douce 180: Christine de Pisan's Faits d'armes et de chevalerie

Douce 218: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Douce 218

Douce V 245: The hystorye of Reinard the foxe

Douce MM 493Life of St Margaret in French and English verse

Inc. d. E1.13: Statues of Henry VII

S. Seld. d.4Chronicles of England

S. Seld. d.5The Myrrour of the Worlde

S. Seld. d.5

S. Seld. d.6The Play of Chess

S. Seld. d.10The Life of Our Lady (with English marginalia)

S. Seld. d.10, fol. a1r

S. Seld. d.11The Art and craft to know well to die

S. Seld. d.17The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Heraldry and Chronicles of England

8° Rawl. 167*: The Ghost of Guy (fragment)

 

Dutch

Ashm. 1768: Jacobus de Voragine's Sermonen op die evangelien van de zondagen door dat gehele jaar

Auct. V 3.6-7: Bible

Auct. 2Q 5.7: Jacobus de Cessolis's Boek dat men hiet scaecspel [The Play of Chess]

Auct. 2Q 5.7 fol. l1r

Auct. 2Q inf. 2.76Vocabularius, Gemmula vocabularum, cum addito (Latin and Dutch)

Inc. e. N14.3: Ordinancie Van der Munten

 

French

Auct. 2Q 2.29: Flavius Josephus's De la bataille judaique

Auct. 2Q 4.4: La première partie de Lancelot; La seconde partie de Lancelot

Auct. 2Q 4.5La tierce partie de Lancelot; La partie du Saint Graal; La dernière partie de la Table Ronde

Auct. 2Q 5.5Catholicon abbreviatum (Latin and French)

Auct. 2Q 5.5 fol. a1r

Douce 38Quatres Choses

Douce 161: Compost et kalendrier des bergiers

Douce 177: Ponthus et la belle Sydonie

Douce 224: Le roman du noble et vaillant Chevalier Tristan

Douce L subt. 64Les vigilles de la mort de Charles VII

 

German

Auct. 3Q 4.33: Die Ordnung der Gesundheit

Auct. 6Q 6.87: Proverbia communia metrice conscripta (Latin and Low German)

Bib. Germ. 1485 d.1: Bible

Douce 66: Sebastian Brant's Das Narrenschiff

Douce 66, fol. l3v

Douce 184Barlaam et Josaphat

Douce 262: Stephan Fridolin's Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtümer des Heils

 

Italian

Auct. 1Q 5.71: Hieronymus Savonarola's Predica fatta il sabato dopo la seconda domenica di quaresima l'anno 1497

Auct. 2Q 4.30: Petrarch's Canzoniere et Trionfi

Auct. 2Q 6.79: Caesar Tortus's Sonetti ed altre poesie

Auct. 2Q 6.84Sonetti e canzoni

Auct. 2Q inf. 2.43: Antonio Cornazzano's Dell'arte militare

Auct. 4Q 3.22: Guilelmus de Saliceto's La ciroxia vulgarmente fata

Auct. 4Q 5.69: Giordano Ruffo's Arte di conoscere la natura dei cavalli

Auct. 6Q 6.13*Ars memorativa

Auct. 6Q 6.30La storia di Merlino

Auct. 7Q 6.34: Catharina Senensis's Epistole (XXXI)

Don. d.131: Giovanni Boccaccio's La Fiammetta

Douce 244: Bible

Inc. d. I4.1480.1: Guido de Cauliaco's Chirurgia

Inc. d. I4.1480.1

Inc. e. I9.14: Luca Pulci's Pistola in rime al Lorenzo de' Medici

Inc. e. I22.1493.1: Baverius de Baveriis's Reggimento nel tempo della peste

Inc. f. I9.1496.1: Johannes Bernardus's Vocabulista ecclesiastico (Italian and Latin)

S. Seld. c.2: Giovanni Boccaccio's Decamerone and Masuccio Salernitano's Novellino

S. Seld. c.2

 

Spanish

Inc. d. S4.1491.1Las obras de Seneca

Inc. d. S6.1500.1Leyes del estilo

Inc. d. S6.1500.1, fol. a1r