Change of post-incunabula's formal features: case of vilnius university library collection

Culturally, the post-incunabula is one of the most interesting categories of books – the book as a source of knowledge and a material object. Understanding of the ancient book as a practical thing allows viewing many other features of book ordinance (binding, printing, title page, marginalia, illustrations, etc.). Invention of printing in 15th century evoked the revolution in information culture, greatly increasing the number of books in circulation. The intellectual influence of the Renaissance culture had an impact on this transformation. The regenerative culture was unable to reflect these times in books. For the first time, the printing of books of that period manifested as a powerful means of agitation, education and fight for spiritual and political ideas. In the beginning of 16th century, books were the most glaring monuments of the Great Epoch. Necessity to examine them comprehensively is beyond any doubts. The post-incunabula are the books printed from 1 January 1501 to 1 January 1551, the books attributable to the oldest and the most valuable prints of the world. The post-incunabula are the books of the transitive period with the features both of manuscripts and modern books. In the practice of international book science, a particular attention is given to studies of incunabula. Among the researches of the book history, the studies of incunabula take a great place, herewith giving less attention to investigations of the post-incunabula. The aim of the present research is to ascertain the changes of formal features of the post-incunabula present in Vilnius University Library. The chosen theme is one of the least investigated sections of the book history, thus, presently, new investigations are very relevant. The paper aims at answering to uneasy questions by setting the following objectives: 1. To present the historic epoch and circumstances determining transformation of books; 2. To analyse the epochal features of incunabula and post-incunabula; 3. To discuss the concept “post-incunabula” and other theoretical aspects; 4. To establish the dating of the concept “post-incunabula” in different regions, tendencies of its use, and its features; 5. To present the structure and specifics of formation of the VUL catalogue; 6. To perform an empirical analysis the VUL collection. For the Master’s Thesis we applied the research method of comparative analysis of scientific literature. The empirical investigation was done by analysing the bibliographical inventory of VUL catalogue of post-incunabula. The research revealed that there was no unified opinion about the beginning and the end of the post-incunabula dating as that was the period when a book contained the elements both of incunabula and a modern book, which were combined together. Practically, the post-incunabula of the VUL distinguish insubstantially for their formal features; especially this applies to the books published within 2-3 decades of the 16th century. Only during the next decades, features of modern books became more and more visible. However, in 4-5 decades of the 16th century, the features characteristic of the incunabula, which did not vanish during the period of post-incunabula of 50 years-long, were still observable. A book banished the features of incunabula in 17th century. The post-incunabula can be considered to be modernising incunabula. Changing thinking of society, new ideas, progress of science and increased demand of books promoted printers to replace the old manuscript book with publications printed faster and more convenient for people to read. The period of post-incunabula from 1501 to 1551 is a transitory period of the book history, a combination of an old (manuscript) book and a modern one. The collection of the VUL post-incunabula reflects the change of formal features from incunabula to the beginning of formation of a modern book