The more than 200 incunabula of Special Collections cover very different domains. Yet it will surprise no one that the religious and theological works make up about half of the collection: Bibles, books of hours, manuals for priests, sermons, saints' lives, ... In the other works the philosophical titles are the most numerous, not coincidentally a domain closely in line with theology. These works are followed at approximately the same level by books on law, (classical) literature, science and medicine, and history. Grammatical and pedagogical works conclude this list.

With this link, you get access to all digitized incunabula of KU Leuven Libraries.

Several incunabula were printed in Leuven. The oldest specimen (see photo) is a copy of the Ruralium commoda or Liber ruralium commodorum by Petrus de Crescentiis (Bologna, ca. 1235 - Urbizzano, 1321). This practical handbook on agriculture, completed around 1306, was very popular. More than 130 manuscripts have been preserved, and after the first edition in 1471, sixteen other editions followed for 1500 and 36 editions in the sixteenth century. This copy is one of those seventeen incunabel editions: it was printed in 1474 in Leuven by Jan van Westfalen, one of the most important printers in Leuven for 1500. After he had learned the printing business in Mainz or Cologne, he first worked in Northern Italy and Aalst before he was immatriculated on 7 June 1474 at the University of Leuven. After the departure of his competitor Jan Veldener in 1478, Van Westfalen was the only printer in Leuven and thus monopolized the printing of university works. Between 1474 and 1499 he printed some 200 titles. On the one hand, these are Latin books of various scientific nature for the various faculties, with the exception of the medicines. He also printed books in smaller formats, often in Dutch for a wider audience or as occasional printed matter. Also with the eleven incunabula acquired by Special Collections in 2016 thanks to the purchase of the Cras vives collection, Jan van Westfalen appears to have been the most productive printer, because this subcollection contains no less than eight copies printed by him, while three other printers (Egidius van der Heerstraeten, Jan Veldener and Rudolphus Loeffs de Driel) are each represented with one copy.