sb. pl. [L. cūnābula (neut. pl.) cradle, earliest abode. Cf. INCUNABULA.]
1. A cradle; fig. the place where anything is nurtured in its beginnings, the earliest abode.
1789. G. White, Selborne, I. xx. 176. The swallow and house-martin … raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as cunabula for their young.
1864. Webster, s.v., The cunabula of the human race.
2. Applied to the extant copies of the earliest printed books; = INCUNABULA.
1846. Worcester cites Athenæum.
