Bernhard von Mallinckrodt


Bernhard von Mallinckrodt, dean of Münster Cathedral, was a bibliophile from a noble family of Protestants, who converted to Catholicism.
In 1639 he issued a pamphlet at Cologne to mark the bicentennary of the invention of printing by moveable type in Europe, defending the priority of Gutenberg; it was titled De ortu et progressu artis typographicae, that includes the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing". This gave rise to the term incunabula, which is still used to describe books and broadsheets printed before 1500, the arbitrary cut-off date selected by Mallinckrodt.