The collection of incunables, with more than 1200 editions for a total of about 1600 specimens, offers a wide view of the first years of printing in Europe and, more specifically, in Italy. This is attested by the Rationale divinorum officiorum of Guillaume Durand (in an illuminated specimen for the Bishop of Turin Domenico Della Rovere), the De officiis and other works of Cicero and the Institutiones of Justinian with the commentary of Accursius printed in Mainz by Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, respectively in 1459, 1465 and 1468, as well as by some volumes published in Rome by the Italian proto-typographers Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz.
Even the first printings of Aldo Manuzio – including some printings in Greek characters (as the Aristotle in three volumes) and the famous Hypnerotomachia Polyphili of 1499 – and the illuminated incunables set up in the workshops of Antoine Verard are significant: among the works of Verard, the Ogier le Danois stands out. It was published in Paris probably before the 25 October 1499.
Unfortunately, the fire of 1904 ravaged the section designated for the preservation of the volumes printed in the territory of Piedmont, destroying unique or rare specimens, fundamental for the study of the introduction of the typographic technique in the region.
The incunable editions of the National University Library of Turin are listed in the database ISTC https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search: the descriptions of the specimens are ongoing, once they will be completed, they will be available on the portal MEI https://data.cerl.org/mei, as well as on the Opac SBN https://opac.sbn.it/ricerca-avanzata.
