incunabulum

plural incunabula

1. mediaA book, single sheet, or image that was printed before the year 1501 in Europe.

   Sebastian, a profound student of such lore, had long believed that the book was a mere medieval legend; and he had been startled as well as gratified when he found this copy on the shelves of a dealer in old manuscripts and incunabula.

   August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, “The Treader of the Dust”, in Weird Tales

   1 more example

   Something about him reminded me of one of those figures from old-fashioned playing cards or the sort used by fortune-tellers, a print straight from the pages of an incunabulum: his presence was both funereal and incandescent, like a curse dressed in its Sunday best.

   2004, Luisa Graves, The Shadow of the Wind, translation of original by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

   Synonyms: fifteener

2. in pluralThe cradle, birthplace, or origin of something.