52 



INCUBUS INCUNABULA. 



this art has been carnal to a high degree of perfec- 

 tion. The ovens intended for this purpose are made 

 of brick, and sunk some depth in the earth. They 

 consist of two stories, connected with each other, 

 and divided into several apartments. In a corner of 

 the building is an oven, which is heated daily three 

 to four hours, for ten days in succession, with cow 

 and camel's dune, the usual fuel of the country. 

 The heat is regulated by the feeling of the superin- 

 tendent The temperature to be produced is com- 

 pared with the warmth of baths. When the heat is 

 too great, some passages are opened for the air. 

 The floors of the divisions or apartments are covered 

 with mats, and a layer of straw thereupon, on which 

 the eggs are laid, so, however, as not to touch each 

 other. They are turned twice by day, and as often by 

 night. After eight or ten days, the eggs are examined 

 with a lamp, to ascertain the progress of the process 

 of fecundation. Those which appear to be unfruitful 

 are thrown away; the others, on the fourteenth day, 

 are put in the upper story. On the twentieth or 

 twenty-first day, the young bird issues out. The 

 owner of the oven receives a third part of the eggs 

 for his trouble. The inhabitants of a village called 

 Berme, in the Delta, are the persons who carry on 

 this art throughout the country. In China, also, 

 artificial hatching is practised. The eggs there are 

 put in wooden boxes, which are filled with sand, and 

 placed upon heated iron plates. Of late, a French- 

 man has published a work on this subject, in which 

 he seeks to introduce the Egyptian ovens on an 

 improved plan. He heats his ovens with boiling 

 water. 



INCUBUS (Latin, incubus, one who lies upon); a 

 spirit, to whom was ascribed the oppression known 

 by the vulgar name of nightmare, in Greek ephialtes 

 (from i-ri and aXXa^a/, I leap upon. The English 

 nightmare is from mair, an old woman or hag, in which 

 form the spirit was generally supposed to appear, 

 pressing upon the breast, and impeding the action 

 of breathing. The French cauchemar or cochemar 

 (qui couche sur) is of the same character and origin. 

 These daemons play an important part in the super- 

 stitions of the middle ages, having been, perhaps, not 

 unfrequently employed, like the elder gods of Greece, 

 to cloak the advances of earthly lovers. The nuns 

 and other young ladies of the middle ages were 

 not always safe from their violence or their persua- 

 sions, as numberless tales and grave histories abun- 

 dantly prove. Augustin (De Civil. Dei) mentions 

 the fact that Sylvanos, Panes, et Faunas, quos vulgo 

 Incubos vacant, improbos seepe extitisse mulieribus, et 

 earum appetisse ac peregisse concubitum. The word 

 is also used for the oppression or feeling of suffoca- 

 tion which sometimes comes on during sleep. The 

 sufferer experiences a short period of intense anxiety, 

 fear, horror, &c.; feels an enormous weight on his 

 breast; is pursued by a phantom, monster, or wild 

 beast, whom he cannot escape; is on the brink of a 

 precipice, from which he cannot remove, or is, per- 

 haps, rolling down it without being able to make 

 any exertion for his safety, and his limbs refuse to 

 do their office, until he suddenly awakens himself by 

 starting from his recumbent posture, or by a loud 

 cry; he is then in a state of great terror, and the 

 body is often covered with sweat. It is generally 

 owing to repletion and indigestion, and is often 

 superinduced by lying on the back. It is most com- 

 mon in those seasons of the year which most increase 

 the volume of the fluids in spring and autumn. 

 Homer (//. xxii. 200) and Virgil (&n. xii. 908) have 



fivrn striking pictures of its benumbing power, and 

 u*>Ii has represented its agonies. He is said to 

 have eaten nn immoderate supper of raw pork, for the 

 purpose of obtaining a vivid conception of his subject. 



INCUNABULA (from the Latin, signifying cradle) 

 is a term applied to those editions of books which 

 were printed previously to the year 1 500. Peignot ex- 

 plains it as signifying editions, gui touchent au bcrceau 

 de rimprimerie. The term is most properly confined to 

 the period above-mentioned, because the art of iirint- 

 ing was completely formed, in all its principal parts, 

 in that period. Panzer's work conies down. in. Iced, 

 to 1536, and Mattaire's still later ; but this forms no 

 objection to our limitation, because these two writers 

 had regard to the history of printing in general, 

 rather than to the history of the incunabula in par- 

 ticular. A knowledge of them is important, as they 

 are the best, and often the only sources, from which 

 a minute history of the early progress of the art of 

 printing can be drawn ; but notwithstanding the 

 investigations of bibliographers, much remains to be 

 done in determining the particular characteristics and 

 mutual relations of these works. Many of these 

 works, too, are important and interesting, on account 

 of the illustration which they afford of the history of 

 the art by their ornaments, and on account of the value 

 of the first editions (editiones principes,) of ancient and 

 modern classics in a critical respect. We shall here 

 treat of them in reference to their value to professed 

 collectors. 



1. The first beginnings and attempts at printing 

 will naturally be objects of their search, among which 

 are the xylographic specimens, and the earliest im- 

 pressions bearing date, which begin with the indul- 

 gences of Nicholas V., 1454; although the oldest 

 printed book, whose date is undoubted, is the Psalter 

 of 1457. 



2. Next to these are the first impressions of par- 

 ticular countries and places, which are generally not 

 less rare than the preceding. 



3. The first books printed in a particular language 

 or with certain types. The oldest impressions are 

 in the Gothic type, as it is called ; the round or 

 Roman character, which afterwards became the most 

 common, particularly in Italy, came into use some- 

 what later. Single Greek words, cut in wood, were 

 first used in 1465, in Cicero's De Officiis, and in the 

 edition of Lactantius of the same year. The first 

 book printed entirely in the Greek type, was 

 Laskaris's Greek Grammar, which appeared at Milan, 

 1476. 



4. Editions from those presses which did not do 

 much, and, from the more fertile presses, those 

 editions which are peculiarly rare ; e. g., the Mentel 

 editions of the old Roman classics. 



5. Editions in which certain typographical im- 

 provements were first introduced ; as J. Nideri 

 Preeceptorium divines Legis (Cologne, Koelhof, 1472, 

 folio), the first book printed with signatures ; Sermo 

 ad Populum pradicabilis (Cologne, t/ier Jieernen, 

 1470, 4to), the first with the pages numbered ; 

 Cicero De Officiis (1465), the first in quarto ; and tlie 

 Ojficium Beatee Maries Virg. (Venice, Jenson, 1473, 

 32mo), the first in the smallest form. Title pages 

 first appeared after the year 1485. 



6 Editions with the first, or with remarkable 

 attempts to apply the arts to the ornamenting of 

 books. The first printed book with copper-plates 

 is A i! ion in da Siena's Monte Santo di Dio (Florence, 

 1477, fol.) The most remarkable wood-cuts, of 

 which the Strasburg printer, Gruninger, was very 

 fond, are to be foundin German and Italian editions. 

 In this division may also be included copies with 

 excellent miniature engravings. 



7. Single copies which are celebrated on account 

 of some particular circumstances; e. g., those 

 printed on parchment and with gold letters, of 

 which we have some from the fifteenth century), &c. 

 Of the impressions on parchment, on which whole 



