An "incunable" or "incunabulum" is a book or pamphlet printed in Europe before 1501. A handwritten manuscript does not come into this category.

The word is not only used historically, but was used more or less contemporaneously, although it did not become a recognised definition of such printed matter until the famous diarist John Evelyn used it in the late 17th century. It is an interesting word linguistically, as its root meaning is "swaddling clothes". Our present day word "incubator" is from the same source.

Logically enough, as the printing press was invented in Germany, many examples of incunables/incunabula (either plural form is acceptable) also originate there; the most famous perhaps being the "Gutenberg Bible" called for the inventor of printing himself.

In the early days of printing there was no standardised typeface, or font, as we would say nowadays (it is tempting to link the word "font" to the "swaddling" derivation, but there is no evidence for that!) and it often resembled the handwriting of the relevant country.

Despite some still surviving wonderful woodcut illustrations, illustrations of these books was relatively rare.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org