Gutenberg Bible - wikipedia Gutenberg Bible Gutenberg Bible of the New York Public Library. Bought by James Lenox in 1847, it was the first copy to be acquired by a United States citizen. The Gutenberg Bible ( also known as the 42 - line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42 ) was the first major book printed using mass - produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the `` Gutenberg Revolution '' and the age of the printed book in the West. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status. Written in Latin, the Catholic Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Vulgate, printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, in present - day Germany, in the 1450s. Since its publication, 49 copies ( or substantial portions of copies ) have survived, and they are considered to be among the most valuable books in the world even though no complete copy has been sold since 1978. In March 1455, the future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible, being displayed to promote the edition, in Frankfurt. It is not known how many copies were printed, with the 1455 letter citing sources for both 158 and 180 copies. The 36 - line Bible, believed to be the second printed version of the Bible, is also sometimes referred to as a Gutenberg Bible, but is possibly the work of another printer. Contents 1 Text 2 Printing history 3 The production process : Das Werk der Bücher 3.1 Pages 3.2 Ink 3.3 Type 3.4 Type style 3.5 Rubrication, illumination and binding 4 Early owners 5 Influence on later Bibles 6 Forgeries 7 Surviving copies 7.1 Substantially complete copies of the 42 - line Bible 8 Recent history 9 See also 10 Bibliography 11 References 12 External links Text The Gutenberg Bible, an edition of the Vulgate, contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. It is mainly the work of Jerome who began his work on the translation in 380 AD, with emendations from the Parisian Bible tradition, and further divergences ( the Paris Bible, one of many Bible translations in the Middle Ages, is also known as the `` Thirteenth - Century Bible '', `` Old French Bible '' or, in French, `` Bible du XIIIe siècle '' ). Gutenberg Bible at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Printing history `` All that has been written to me about that marvelous man seen at Frankfurt ( sic ) is true. I have not seen complete Bibles but only a number of quires of various books of the Bible. The script was very neat and legible, not at all difficult to follow -- your grace would be able to read it without effort, and indeed without glasses. '' Future pope Pius II in a letter to Cardinal Carvajal, March 1455 The Bible was not Gutenberg 's first work. Preparation of the Bible probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455. It is not known exactly how long the Bible took to print. The first precisely datable printing is the Gutenberg 's 31 - line Indulgence which is known to already exist on 22 October 1454. Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process. The first sheets were rubricated by being passed twice through the printing press, using black and then red ink. This was soon abandoned, with spaces being left for rubrication to be added by hand. Spine of the Lenox copy Some time later, after more sheets had been printed, the number of lines per page was increased from 40 to 42, presumably to save paper. Therefore, pages 1 to 9 and pages 256 to 265, presumably the first ones printed, have 40 lines each. Page 10 has 41, and from there on the 42 lines appear. The increase in line number was achieved by decreasing the interline spacing, rather than increasing the printed area of the page. Finally, the print run was increased, necessitating resetting those pages which had already been printed. The new sheets were all reset to 42 lines per page. Consequently, there are two distinct settings in folios 1 - 32 and 129 - 158 of volume I and folios 1 - 16 and 162 of volume II. The most reliable information about the Bible 's date comes from a letter. In March 1455, the future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible, being displayed to promote the edition, in Frankfurt. It is not known how many copies were printed, with the 1455 letter citing sources for both 158 and 180 copies. Scholars today think that examination of surviving copies suggests that somewhere between 160 and 185 copies were printed, with about three - quarters on paper and the others on vellum. However, some books say that about 180 copies were printed and it took about three years to produce them. The production process : Das Werk der Bücher A vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress In a legal paper, written after completion of the Bible, Johannes Gutenberg refers to the process as `` Das Werk der Bücher '' : the work of the books. He had invented the printing press and was the first European to print with movable type, but his greatest achievement was arguably demonstrating that the process of printing actually produced books. Many book - lovers have commented on the high standards achieved in the production of the Gutenberg Bible, some describing it as one of the most beautiful books ever printed. The quality of both the ink and other materials and the printing itself have been noted. Pages First page of the first volume : The Epistle of St. Jerome from the University of Texas copy. The page has 40 lines. The paper size is ' double folio ', with two pages printed on each side ( four pages per sheet ). After printing the paper was folded once to the size of a single page. Typically, five of these folded sheets ( 10 leaves, or 20 printed pages ) were combined to a single physical section, called a quinternion, that could then be bound into a book. Some sections, however, had as few as four leaves or as many as 12 leaves. Some sections may have been printed in a larger number, especially those printed later in the publishing process, and sold unbound. The pages were not numbered. The technique was not new, since it had been used to make blank `` white - paper '' books to be written afterwards. What was new was determining beforehand the correct placement and orientation of each page on the five sheets to result in the correct sequence when bound. The technique for locating the printed area correctly on each page was also new. The folio size, 307 × 445 mm, has the ratio of 1.45 : 1. The printed area had the same ratio, and was shifted out of the middle to leave a 2 : 1 white margin, both horizontally and vertically. Historian John Man writes that the ratio was chosen to be close to the golden ratio of 1.61 : 1. To reach this ratio more closely the vertical size should be 338 mm, but there is no reason why Gutenberg would let this non-trivial difference of 8 mm go by in a work so detailed in other aspects. A single complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible has 1,286 pages ( usually bound in two volumes ) ; with four pages per folio - sheet, 322 sheets of paper are required per copy. The handmade paper used by Gutenberg was of fine quality and was imported from Italy. Each sheet contains a watermark left by the papermold. Ink In Gutenberg 's time, inks used by scribes to produce manuscripts were water - based. Gutenberg developed an oil - based ink that would better adhere to his metal type. His ink was primarily carbon, but also had a high metallic content, with copper, lead, and titanium predominating. Head of collections at the British Library, Dr Kristian Jensen, described it thus : `` if you look ( at the pages of The Gutenberg Bible ) closely you will see this is a very shiny surface. When you write you use a water based ink, you put your pen into it and it runs off. Now if you print that 's exactly what you do n't want. One of Gutenberg 's inventions was an ink which was n't ink, it 's a varnish. So what we call printer 's ink is actually a varnish, and that means it sticks to its surface. '' Type The first part of the Gutenberg idea was using a single, hand - carved character to create identical copies of itself. Cutting a single letter could take a craftsman a day of work. A single page taking 2500 letters made this way was impractical. A less labour - intensive method of reproduction was needed. Copies were produced by stamping the original into an iron plate, called a matrix. A rectangular tube was then connected to the matrix, creating a container in which molten type metal could be poured. Once cooled, the solid metal form was released from the tube. The fundamental innovation is that this matrix can be used to produce many duplicates of the same letter. The result of each molding was a rectangular block of metal with the form of the desired character protruding from the end. This piece of type could be put in a line, facing up, with other pieces of type. These lines were arranged to form blocks of text, which could be inked and pressed against paper, transferring the desired text to the paper. Each unique character requires a master piece of type in order to be replicated. Given that each letter has uppercase and lowercase forms, and the number of various punctuation marks and ligatures ( e.g. the sequence ' fi ' combined in one character, commonly used in writing ) the Gutenberg Bible needed a set of 290 master characters. It seems probable that six pages, containing 15600 characters altogether, would be set at any one moment. Type style The Gutenberg Bible is printed in the blackletter type styles that would become known as Textualis ( Textura ) and Schwabacher. The name texture refers to the texture of the printed page : straight vertical strokes combined with horizontal lines, giving the impression of a woven structure. Gutenberg already used the technique of justification, that is, creating a vertical, not indented, alignment at the left and right - hand sides of the column. To do this, he used various methods, including using characters of narrower widths, adding extra spaces around punctuation, and varying the widths of spaces around words. He also let the punctuation marks go beyond the vertical line using hanging punctuation, which was used to make the justification of the massive black characters stronger to the eye. Rubrication, illumination and binding Detail showing both rubrication and illumination. Initially the rubrics -- the headings before each book of the Bible -- were printed, but this practice was quickly abandoned, and gaps were left for rubrication to be added by hand. A guide of the text to be added to each page, printed for use by rubricators, survives. The spacious margin allowed illuminated decoration to be added by hand. The amount of decoration presumably depended on how much each buyer could or would pay. Some copies were never decorated. The place of decoration can be known or inferred for about 30 of the surviving copies. It is possible that 13 of these copies received their decoration in Mainz, but others were worked on as far away as London. The vellum Bibles were more expensive, and perhaps for this reason tend to be more highly decorated, although the vellum copy in the British Library is completely undecorated. There has been speculation that the `` Master of the Playing Cards, '' an unidentified engraver who has been called `` the first personality in the history of engraving, '' was partly responsible for the illumination of the copy held by the Princeton University library. However, all that can be said for certain is that the same model book was used for some of the illustrations in this copy and for some of the Master 's illustrated playing cards. Although many Gutenberg Bibles have been rebound over the years, nine copies retain fifteenth - century bindings. Most of these copies were bound in either Mainz or Erfurt. Most copies were divided into two volumes, the first volume ending with The Book of Psalms. Copies on vellum were heavier and for this reason were sometimes bound in three or four volumes. Early owners The Bible seems to have sold out immediately, with initial sales to owners as far away as England and possibly Sweden and Hungary. At least some copies are known to have sold for 30 florins - about three years ' wages for a clerk. Although this made them significantly cheaper than manuscript Bibles, most students, priests or other people of ordinary income would have been unable to afford them. It is assumed that most were sold to monasteries, universities and particularly wealthy individuals. At present only one copy is known to have been privately owned in the fifteenth century. Some are known to have been used for communal readings in monastery refectories ; others may have been for display rather than use, and a few were certainly used for study. Kristian Jensen suggests that many copies were bought by wealthy and pious laypeople for donation to religious institutions. Influence on later Bibles The Gutenberg Bible had a profound effect on the history of the printed book. Textually, it also had an influence on future editions of the Bible. It provided the model for several later editions, including the 36 Line Bible, Mentelin 's Latin Bible, and the first and third Eggestein Bibles. The third Eggestein Bible was set from the copy of the Gutenberg Bible now in Cambridge University Library. The Gutenberg Bible also had an influence on the Clementine edition of the Vulgate commissioned by the Papacy in the late sixteenth century. Forgeries Joseph Martini, a New York book dealer, found that the Gutenberg Bible held by the library of the General Theological Seminary in New York had a forged leaf, carrying part of Chapter 14, all of Chapter 15, and part of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel. It was impossible to tell when the leaf had been inserted into the volume. It was replaced in the fall of 1953, when a patron donated the corresponding leaf from a defective Gutenberg second volume which was being broken up and sold in parts. This made it `` the first imperfect Gutenberg Bible ever restored to completeness. '' In 1978, this copy was sold for $2.2 million USD to the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, Germany. Surviving copies Locations of known complete Gutenberg Bibles. As of 2009, 49 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist, but of these only 21 are complete. Others have pages or even whole volumes missing. In addition, there are a substantial number of fragments, some as small as individual leaves, which are likely to represent about another 16 copies. Many of these fragments have survived because they were used as part of the binding of later books. There are 12 surviving copies on vellum, although only four of these are complete and one is of the New Testament only. Copy numbers listed below are as found in the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, taken from a 1985 survey of existing copies by Ilona Hubay ; the two copies in Russia were not known to exist in 1985, and therefore were not catalogued. Substantially complete copies of the 42 - line Bible Country Holding institution Hubay no. Length Material Notes and external links Austria ( 1 ) Austrian National Library, Vienna 27 complete paper One of only two copies to contain the `` tabula rubricarum '' ( index of rubrics ) on four leaves at the end. Obtained from Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal in 1793. Online images ( in German ) Belgium ( 1 ) Library of the University of Mons - Hainaut, Mons incomplete paper Vol. I, 104 leaves missing, bequeathed by Edmond Puissant ( nl ) to the city of Mons in 1934, but not identified until 1950. Part of the same copy as the volume in Indiana ( see below ). Denmark ( 1 ) Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen 13 incomplete paper Vol. II, first leaf missing. Acquired in 1749. France ( 4 ) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris 15 complete vellum Sold to the library in 1788 by Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, and rebound in four volumes. Online images of vol. 1 vol. 2 vol. 3 vol. 4 17 incomplete paper Is distinguished by being inscribed with the earliest date that appears on any copy -- 24 August 1456 on the first volume and 15 August 1456 on the second volume, the dates on which the rubricator and binder ( Henricus Cremer ) completed his work. Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris 16 complete paper The first copy to be discovered around 1760 in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, hence the name Mazarin Bible, by Guillaume - François Debure and described in the first volume of his Bibliographie instructive : ou Traite de la connoissance des livres rares et singuliers devoted to theology, which was published in Paris in 1763. Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 ( in French ) Bibliothèque Municipale, Saint - Omer 18 incomplete paper Vol. I, one missing leaf. Acquired from the Abbey of Saint Bertin. Online images ( in French ) Germany ( 13 ) Gutenberg Museum, Mainz 18 incomplete paper The Shuckburgh copy, two volumes but imperfect, sold by Hans P. Kraus for $1.8 million in March 1978. Online images ( in German ) 19 incomplete paper Vol. II, the Solms - Laubach copy acquired in 1925. Hochschul - und Landesbibliothek Fulda ( de ), Fulda incomplete vellum Vol. I. Two individual leaves from Vol. II survive in other libraries. Leipzig University Library, Leipzig 14 complete vellum Vol. I through IV. Göttingen State and University Library, Göttingen complete vellum Online images Berlin State Library, Berlin incomplete vellum Bavarian State Library, Munich 15 complete paper One of only two copies to contain the `` tabula rubricarum '' ( index of rubrics ) on four leaves at the end. Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 ( in German ) Frankfurt University Library, Frankfurt am Main 16 complete paper Online images Hofbibliothek, Aschaffenburg 17 incomplete paper Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart 10 incomplete paper Purchased in April 1978 for 2.2 million US dollars from the General Theological Seminary. Online images Stadtbibliothek, Trier 11 incomplete paper Vol. I Landesbibliothek, Kassel 12 incomplete paper Vol. I Gottorf Castle, Schleswig - incomplete paper The Rendsburg Fragment Japan ( 1 ) Keio University Library, Tokyo 45 incomplete paper Originally part of the Estelle Doheny bequest to St. John 's Seminary in Camarillo, California. Vol. I, sold in October 1987 to Maruzen booksellers for $4.9 million ( plus an auction house commission of $490,000 ) for a total of 5.4 million US dollars. Purchased by Keio University in 1996. Online images Poland ( 1 ) Diocesan Museum in Pelplin 28 incomplete paper The only existing copy in two volumes surviving in its original 15th - century binding. See : digitized sample page images from both volumes including print ( vol. 1 ) and binding ( vol. 2 ). It has a blot on page 46 and it lacks a page 217 in Volume Two. Portugal ( 1 ) Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon 29 complete paper Formerly owned by Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne. Russia ( 2 ) Moscow State University, Moscow 49 complete paper Looted in 1945 from the library of the University of Leipzig. Russian State Library, Moscow 48 incomplete vellum Acquired in 1886 by the German Museum of Books and Writing, Leipzig, as part of the book collection of Heinrich Klemm ( de ). At the end of World War II, it was taken as war booty and transferred to the Russian State Library in Moscow, where it remains today. Spain ( 2 ) Biblioteca Universitaria y Provincial, Seville 32 incomplete paper New Testament only Online images ( in Spanish ) Biblioteca Pública Provincial, Burgos 31 complete paper Switzerland ( 1 ) Bodmer Library, Cologny 30 incomplete paper United Kingdom ( 8 ) British Library, London 19 complete vellum The Grenville copy. Bought for 6260 francs in 1817 by Thomas Grenville, who bequeathed his collection to the British Museum in 1846. Online images 21 complete paper Online images National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh 26 complete paper Online images Lambeth Palace Library, London 20 incomplete vellum New Testament only Eton College Library, Eton College 23 complete paper John Rylands Library, Manchester 25 complete paper Acquired for £ 80 by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer some time before 1814, Enriqueta Augustina Rylands bought it in 1892 for the John Rylands Library. Online images of 11 pages Bodleian Library, Oxford 24 complete paper Bought in 1793 for £ 100 from Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne. Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 Cambridge University Library, Cambridge 22 complete paper Acquired as part of a gift in 1933. Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 United States ( 11 ) The Morgan Library & Museum, New York 37 incomplete vellum PML 13 & PML 818. Acquired in 1815 by Mark Masterman - Sykes. 38 complete paper PML 19206 -- 7 44 incomplete paper PML 1. Old Testament only Online images Library of Congress, Washington DC 35 complete vellum Online images New York Public Library 42 incomplete paper Widener Library, Harvard University 40 complete paper Beinecke Library, Yale University 41 complete paper The Melk copy, a gift from Mrs. Edward S. Harkness in 1926. Scheide Library, Princeton University 43 incomplete paper The Brinley - Cole - Ives - Ellsworth - Scheide copy, one of three existing copies in its original binding. Online images Lilly Library, Indiana University 46 incomplete paper New Testament only, 12 leaves missing. Part of the same copy as the volume in Mons ( see above ). Online images Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California 36 complete vellum Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin 39 complete paper Purchased in 1978 for 2.4 million US dollars. Online images Vatican City ( 2 ) Vatican Library 33 incomplete vellum Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 34 incomplete paper Vol. I. Recent history Binding of the copy at the University of Texas at Austin Today, few copies remain in religious institutions, with most now owned by university libraries and other major scholarly institutions. After centuries in which all copies seem to have remained in Europe, the first Gutenberg Bible reached North America in 1847. It is now in the New York Public Library. In the last hundred years, several long - lost copies have come to light, considerably improving the understanding of how the Bible was produced and distributed. In 1921 a New York rare book dealer, Gabriel Wells, bought a damaged paper copy, dismantled the book and sold sections and individual leaves to book collectors and libraries. The leaves were sold in a portfolio case with an essay written by A. Edward Newton, and were referred to as `` Noble Fragments ''. In 1953 Charles Scribner 's Sons, also book dealers in New York, dismembered a paper copy of volume II. The largest portion of this, the New Testament, is now owned by Indiana University. The matching first volume of this copy was subsequently discovered in Mons, Belgium. The only copy held outside Europe or North America is the first volume of a Gutenberg Bible ( Hubay 45 ) at Keio University in Tokyo. The Humanities Media Interface Project ( HUMI ) at Keio University is known for its high - quality digital images of Gutenberg Bibles and other rare books. Under the direction of Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, the HUMI team has made digital reproductions of 11 sets of the bible in nine institutions, including both full - text facsimiles held in the collection of the British Library. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, which sold for $2.2 million. This copy is now in Stuttgart. The price of a complete copy today is estimated at $25 − 35 million. Individual leaves now sell for $50,000 -- $150,000, depending upon condition and the desirability of the page. Eight leaves ( Book of Esther ) from the fragment owned by the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York were sold in June 2015 by Sotheby 's for $970,000. A two - volume paper edition of the Gutenberg Bible was stolen from Moscow State University in 2009 and subsequently recovered in a FSB sting operation in 2013. This particular copy had been looted by the Soviet Army after World War II from the Library of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and is estimated to be worth in excess of $20.4 million. See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gutenberg Bible. Incunable 36 Line Bible Printing press Jikji Bibliography Niels Henry Sonne. America 's Oldest Episcopal Seminary Library and the Needs It Serves. New York ? : General Theological Seminary, 1953. St. Mark 's Library ( General Theological Seminary ). The Gutenberg Bible of the General Theological Seminary. New York : St. Mark 's Library, the General Theological Seminary, 1963. References ^ Jump up to : Davies, Martin ( 1996 ). The Gutenberg Bible. British Library. ISBN 0 - 7123 - 0492 - 4. ^ Jump up to : MSNBC : In the book world, the rarest of the rare ^ Jump up to : Luxist.com : The World of Rare Books : The Gutenberg Bible, First and Most Valuable Jump up ^ `` The text of the Bible ''. bl.uk. British Library. Retrieved 6 November 2016. Jump up ^ Childress 2008, p. 62 ^ Jump up to : Man, John ( 2002 ). Gutenberg : How One Man Remade the World with Words. New York : John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ISBN 0 - 471 - 21823 - 5. Jump up ^ `` The Gutenberg Bible ''. utexas.edu. Jump up ^ Wagner, Bettina ; Reed, Marcia ( 2010 - 12 - 23 ). Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceeding of the Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19 - 21 August 2009. p. 11. ISBN 9783110255300. ^ Jump up to : British Library, Three phases in the printing process accessed 4 July 2009 Jump up ^ British Library, The differences in line lengths per page : pictures showing differences between the Keio copy ( 40 lines per page ) and the British Library copy ( 42 lines per page ) in Genesis 1. Accessed 10 July 2009 Jump up ^ British Library, Gutenberg 's life : the years of the Bible accessed 10 July 2009 ^ Jump up to : White, Eric Marshall ( 2002 ). `` Long Lost Leaves from Gutenberg 's Mons - Trier II Bible ''. Gutenberg Jahrbuch. 77 : 19 -- 36. Jump up ^ Lane Ford, Margaret ( 2010 ). `` Deconstruction and Reconstruction : Detecting and Interpreting Sophisticated Copies ''. In Wagner, Bettina ; Reed, Marcia. Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceedings of the Conference Organized by the Ifla Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19 - 21 August 2009. De Gruyter Sur. pp. 291 -- 304. ISBN 978 - 3 - 11 - 025324 - 5. Jump up ^ British Library, Gutenberg Bible : background accessed 10 July 2009 Jump up ^ British Library, Making the Bible : the gatherings accessed 10 July 2009 Jump up ^ `` Fast Facts : The Gutenberg Bible ''. utexas.edu. Jump up ^ British Library, Making the Bible : the ink accessed 18 October 2009. Jump up ^ BBC Radio 4 programme `` Gutenberg : In the Beginning Was the Printer '' first broadcast 21 - 10 - 2014 Jump up ^ Television presentation, `` The Machine that Made Us '', presenter : Stephen Fry Jump up ^ `` InDesign, the hz - program and Gutenberg 's secret ''. ^ Jump up to : Kapr, Albert ( 1996 ). Johann Gutenberg : The Man and His Invention. Scolar Press. ISBN 1 - 85928 - 114 - 1. Jump up ^ `` Gutenberg Bible : The Copy on Paper - the Decoration ''. bl.uk. ^ Jump up to : Estes, Richard ( 2005 ). The 550th Anniversary Pictorial Census of the Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg Research Center. p. 151. ^ Jump up to : Jensen, Kristian ( 2003 ). `` Printing the Bible in the fifteenth century : devotion, philology and commerce ''. In Jensen, Kristian. Incunabula and their readers : printing, selling and using books in the fifteenth century. British Library. pp. 115 -- 38. ISBN 0 - 7123 - 4769 - 0. Jump up ^ Shestack, Alan ( 1967 ). Fifteenth Century Engravings of Northern Europe. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. LCCN 67029080. Jump up ^ van Buren, Anne H. ; Edmunds, Sheila ( March 1974 ). `` Playing Cards and Manuscripts : Some Widely Disseminated Fifteenth Century Model Sheets ''. The Art Bulletin. 56 ( 1 ) : 12 -- 30. doi : 10.1080 / 00043079.1974. 10789835. ISSN 0004 - 3079. JSTOR 3049193. ^ Jump up to : White, Eric Marshall ( 2010 ). `` The Gutenberg Bibles that Survive as Binder 's Waste ''. In Wagner, Bettina ; Reed, Marcia. Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceedings of the Conference Organized by the Ifla Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19 - 21 August 2009. De Gruyter Sur. pp. 21 -- 35. ISBN 978 - 3 - 11 - 025324 - 5. Jump up ^ McGrath, Alister ( 2001 ). In the Beginning : The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. Anchor Books. p. 15. ISBN 0 - 385 - 72216 - 8. Jump up ^ Cormack, Lesley B. ; Ede, Andrew ( 2004 ). A History of Science in Society : From Philosophy to Utility. Broadview Press. p. 95. ISBN 1 - 55111 - 332 - 5. Jump up ^ Needham, Paul ( 1999 ). `` The Changing Shape of the Vulgate Bible in Fifteenth - Century Printing Shops ''. In Saenger, Paul ; Van Kampen, Kimberly. The Bible as Book : the First Printed Editions. British Library. pp. 53 -- 70. ISBN 0 - 7123 - 4601 - 5. Jump up ^ Needham, Paul ( 2010 ). `` Copy Specifics in the Printing Shop ''. In Wagner, Bettina ; Reed, Marcia. Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceedings of the Conference Organized by the Ifla Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19 - 21 August 2009. De Gruyter Sur. pp. 9 -- 20. ISBN 978 - 3 - 11 - 025324 - 5. ^ Jump up to : St. Mark 's Library ( General Theological Seminary ). The Gutenberg Bible of the General Theological Seminary. New York : St. Mark 's Library, the General Theological Seminary, 1963. Jump up ^ `` Gutenberg Bible Census ''. Jump up ^ Estelle Betzold Doheny ( 1987 ). The Estelle Doheny Collection : Fifteenth - century books, including the Gutenberg Bible. 1. Christie, Manson & Woods International. pp. 23 --. Jump up ^ `` British Library -- Incunabula Short Title Catalogue ''. Retrieved 12 June 2016. Jump up ^ Das Antiquariat... ( in German ). 7. W. Krieg. 1951. pp. 122 --. Das Exemplar enthält das älteste festgestellte Da * tum, das im Zusammenhang mit der Gutenberg * Bibel steht... Mit der `` tabula rubricarum '', auf 4 Blättern am Schluß des Werkes gedruckt... Das Exemplar gehörte früher Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, dem Kurfürsten von Mainz, dessen Bibliothek 1793 aufgeteilt wurde. ^ Jump up to : Bettina Wagner ; Marcia Reed ( 23 December 2010 ). Early Printed Books as Material Objects : Proceeding of the Conference Organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Munich, 19 - 21 August 2009. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 15 --. ISBN 978 - 3 - 11 - 025530 - 0. As has been known for decades, the Gutenberg Bible shop printed not just the Bible itself, but also a separate rubric guide... Gutenberg Bible at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, and at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. ^ Jump up to : The AB Bookman 's Yearbook. Bookman 's weekly. 1956. p. 392. This copy contains the earliest recorded date associated with the Gutenberg Bible. At the end of both volumes are notes... With the `` tabula rubricarum '' ( index of rubrics ) printed on 4 leaves at the end. These additional leaves occur in only one... Jump up ^ Antiquarian Bookman. 14 - 26. 18. R.R. Bowker. 1956. pp. 1410 --. The example of the Gutenberg Bible in Mons is quite incomplete, containing only 220 leaves of Volume I. Folio 1 is... end of the Book of Ruth ( folio 128 verso ) and chapter 5 of Kings II ( folio 149 recto ) These comprise the 104 missing leaves. Jump up ^ Josef Stummvoll ( 1971 ). Die Gutenberg - Bibel ( in German ). Österreichisches Institut für Bibliotheksforschung. pp. 26 --... Kanonikus Edmond Puissant in Mons. 1934 beim Tode Puissants an die Stadt Mons gekommen. Wurde erst 1950 vom Bibliothekar Dr. M.A. Arnould identifiziert. Nur bei Norman ( 20 ) und Stöwesand ( 14 ) verzeichnet. Aufbewahrt in der... Jump up ^ Kongelige Bibliotek ( Denmark ) ; Harald Ilsøe ( 1 January 1993 ). On parchment, paper and palm leaves -- : treasures of the Royal Library, Denmark : a presentation in pictures and words on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the opening of the library to the public. Royal Library. pp. 30 --. ISBN 978 - 87 - 7023 - 621 - 8. Then, in 1713, Gottorp was captured during the war with Danmark and the library made the property of the Danish king. At that... was volume 2 of the famous 42 - line Bible, Johan Gutenberg 's first great work of the art of printing done at Mainz c... Jump up ^ Harald Ilsøe ( 1999 ). Det kongelige Bibliotek i støbeskeen : studier og samlinger til bestandens historie indtil ca. 1780 ( in Danish ). Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 65 --. ISBN 978 - 87 - 7289 - 550 - 5. Med et eksemplar af bind 2 af Gutenberg - biblen trykt i Mainz ca... af bøger til forsendelse trak ud, blev biblioteket først endeligt modtaget i København 1749. Jump up ^ Veröffentlichung der Gutenberg - gesellschaft ( in French ). 5 -- 9. 1908. pp. 58 --. Cédé en 1767 par les Bénédictins de Mayence à Dom Maugérard, pour Dupré de Geneste, Administrateur des Domaines à Meç, dont la bibliothèque fut vendue en 1788 par le cardinal Loménie de Brienne à la BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE... Jump up ^ AB Bookman 's Yearbook. Bookman 's weekly. 1956. pp. 391 --. It is hoped these emendations will bring this revision of the Gutenberg Bible list totally up to date. The compiler... In 1788 or shortly afterwards, it was rebound in red morocco, with the arms of Louis XVI stamped in gilt on the covers, in 4 vols. Jump up ^ Das Antiquariat... ( in German ). 7. W. Krieg. 1951. pp. 122 --. Am Schlüsse der beiden Bände sind Vermerke des Rubrikators und Buchbinders Henricus Cremer über die Voll * endung seiner Arbeit eingetragen : ( Bd. I... 24. August 1456 ; Bd. II... 15. August 1456 ). Jump up ^ Howard, Nicole ( 2005 - 09 - 30 ). The Book : The Life Story Of A Technology. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 31. ISBN 978 - 0 - 313 - 33028 - 5. Retrieved 23 August 2012. Jump up ^ Frederick Richmond Goff ( 27 July 1971 ). The permanence of Johann Gutenberg. Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin ; ( distributed by University of Texas Press. pp. 18 --. Jump up ^ Harold Rabinowitz ; Rob Kaplan ( 18 December 2007 ). A Passion for Books : A Book Lover 's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books. Crown / Archetype. pp. 229 --. ISBN 978 - 0 - 307 - 41966 - 8. The story of the resurrection of the Gutenberg Bible, after Francois Guillaume de Bure recognized its importance when he came upon a copy in 1763 in the Mazarin library, is however not a part of the history of the Bible in English and must... Jump up ^ Talbot Wilson Chambers ; Frank Hugh Foster ( 1890 ). Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge : Biblical, Doctrinal, Historical, and Practical. Christian Literature Company. pp. 553 --. Mazarin Bible, The, or Gutenberg Bible, Mentz, 1450 -- 55, the first book printed with movable types. It was discovered by De Burc in the Mazarin Library at Paris about 1760. Six copies on vellum are known and 81 on paper. One of the latter is in... Jump up ^ Alexandre Saint - Léger ( 1984 ). Revue du Nord. 261 - 263 ( in French ). 66. pp. 637 --. Nous ne saurions bien évidemment passer sous silence un volume de la Bible à 42 lignes de Gutenberg, conservé à Saint - Omer et venant de l'abbaye de Saint - Bertin ' 3, mais le catalogue relève également les éditions de Pierre Schoeffer à... Jump up ^ The Living Church. 176. Morehouse - Gorham Company. January 1978. pp. 75 --. A Gutenberg Bible has been sold by New York book dealer Hans P. Kraus for $1.8 million, the same price for which he bought it in 1970... Known as the Shuckburgh Bible, the Kraus copy was named after Sir George Shuckburgh, its 18th century owner, who... Jump up ^ Sandra Kirshenbaum. Fine Print. S. Kirshenbaum. pp. 102 --. Early in March Mr. Kraus sold his Bible, known as the Shuckburgh copy, to the Gutenberg Museum of Mainz for $1,800,000, the highest price ever paid... Jump up ^ Gutenberg - Gesellschaft ( 1979 ). Aloys Ruppel, 1882 -- 1977 : Würdigung bei der Gedächtnisfeier des Fachbereichs 16 Geschichtswissenschaft der Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz und der Gutenberg - Gesellschaft am 21. Juni 1978 ( in German ). Verlag der Gutenberg - Gesellschaft. pp. 26 --. Als wir 1925 das silberne Jubiläum des Gutenberg - Museums vorbereiteten, rief mich Ministerialrat Hassinger vom... von Solms - Laubach wolle sein Exemplar verkaufen und habe bereits ein Angebot von einem Leipziger Antiquar erhalten. Jump up ^ `` Vor ungefähr 600 Jahren wurde Gutenberg geboren. Mainz ehrt ihn auf verschiedene Weisen : Heute für Stielaugen ''. Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 5 March 2016. Jump up ^ White, Eric Marshall ; Rosenstein, Natalee ; Travis, Trysh ; Adams, Peter W. ; Baensch, Robert E. ( 2003 ). `` Book reviews ''. Publishing Research Quarterly. 19 ( 2 ) : 65 -- 72. doi : 10.1007 / s12109 - 003 - 0009 - 3. ISSN 1053 - 8801. Jump up ^ `` Ellensburg Daily Record -- Google News Archive Search ''. google.com. ^ Jump up to : `` Gutenberg Bible : The HUMI Project ''. The Morgan Library and Museum. The Morgan Library and Museum. Retrieved 13 May 2016. Jump up ^ Muzeum Diecezjalne ( 2017 ). `` Biblia Gutenberga '' ( The Gutenberg Bible ). Pelplin. Google translate. Jump up ^ Polska Biblioteka Internetowa ( 2012 ), Sample page from vol. 1. Internet Archive. Sample binding from vol. 2. ( in Polish ) Jump up ^ `` German Museum of Books and Writing `` Signs - Books - Networks '' ``. Retrieved 10 April 2016. Jump up ^ Georg Jäger ( 30 July 2010 ). Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Band 1 : Das Kaiserreich 1871 - 1918 ( in German ). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 218 --. ISBN 978 - 3 - 11 - 023238 - 7. Jump up ^ `` Buch - und Schriftkultur : Das Geisterhaus - Kultur - Tagesspiegel '' ( in German ). Retrieved 10 April 2016. Jump up ^ Johann Wetter ( 1836 ). Kritische Geschichte der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst durch Johann Gutenberg zu Mainz, begleitet mit einer, vorhin noch nie angestellten, genauen Prüfung und gänzlichen Beseitigung der von Schöpfiin und seinen Anhängern verfochtenen Ansprüche der Stadt Strassburg, und einer neuen Untersuchung der Ansprüche der Stadt Harlem und vollständigen Widerlegung ihrei Verfechter Junius, Meerman, Koning, Dibdin, Otley und Ebert ( in German ). J. Wirth. pp. 520 --. Jump up ^ Henry Noel Humphreys ( 1867 ). A History of the Art of Printing : From Its Invention to Its Wide - spread Development in the Middle of the 16th Century : Preceded by a Short Account of the Origin of the Alphabet and the Successive Methods of Recording Events and Multiplying Ms. Books Before the Invention of Printing. B. Quaritch. pp. 62 --. Jump up ^ Donald Kerr ( 1 January 2006 ). Amassing Treasures for All Times : Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector. Oak Knoll Press. pp. 95 --. ISBN 978 - 1 - 58456 - 196 - 5. Jump up ^ Thomas Frognall Dibdin ( 1814 ). Bibliotheca Spenceriana ; Or a Descriptive Catalogue of the Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century, and of Many Valuable First Editions in the Library of George John Earl Spencer. 1. pp. 6 --. Jump up ^ Albert Charles Robinson Carter ( 1940 ). Let Me Tell You. Hutchinson & Company. pp. 202 --. Jump up ^ `` Bod - Inc online ''. Retrieved 5 March 2016. Jump up ^ `` Cambridge University Library -- Addendum ''. Addendum. Retrieved 5 March 2016. Jump up ^ Peter Fox ( 27 August 1998 ). Cambridge University Library : The Great Collections. Cambridge University Press. pp. 65 --. ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 62647 - 7. Jump up ^ Takami Matsuda ; Richard A. Linenthal ; John Scahill ( 1 January 2004 ). The medieval book and a modern collector : essays in honour of Toshiyuki Takamiya. D.S. Brewer. pp. 448 --. ISBN 978 - 4 - 8419 - 0348 - 5. Jump up ^ Allen Kent ; Harold Lancour ; Jay E. Daily ( 29 January 1982 ). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science : Volume 33 -- The Wellesley College Library to Zoological Literature : A Review. CRC Press. pp. 315 --. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8247 - 2033 - 9. Perhaps the most outstanding volume in the Beinecke collection is the Melk copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness. The Gutenberg Bible is thought to have been the first book printed with movable type and was... Jump up ^ Christopher Morley ; Ken Kalfus ; Walter Jack Duncan ( January 1990 ). Christopher Morley 's Philadelphia. Fordham Univ Press. pp. 76 --. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8232 - 1270 - 5. Jump up ^ Randolph G. Adams ( 1939 ). The Americanists. pp. 49 --. This particular Bible came from Erfurt, in Germany. 24 It was handled by a Berlin dealer, A. Asher, who also had a... So Brinley got a Gutenberg Bible at, £ 637 - 15 - 0, and, as Stevens said, `` Cheap at the price. '' 25 But... Brinley -- Hamilton Cole -- Brayton Ives -- James W. Ellsworth -- A.S.W. Rosenbach -- John H. Scheide. Jump up ^ Grolier Club ( 1966 ). Gazette of the Grolier Club. pp. 116 --. There were three main type groups represented in the exhibition : The type of the 42 - line Bible. The type of the 36 - line... THE 4'2 - LINE BIBLE This work is the masterpiece of Johann Gutenberg. Mr. Goff has... now owned by Arthur A. Houghton Jr. ; and the Brinley - Cole - Ives - Ellsworth copy, now owned by William H. Scheide. Jump up ^ The Princeton University Library Chronicle. 37 - 39. Friends of the Princeton University Library. 1976. pp. 77 --. sold the Bible a year later for $46,000 to the late John H. Scheide, the father of the present owner. The Brinley - Cole - Ives - Ellsworth - Scheide copy was brought to Princeton from Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1959, where it had remained for 35 years... Hellmut Lehmann - Haupt in his Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards ( New Haven and London, 1966 ) has shown the relationship of a number of... Jump up ^ Princeton Alumni Weekly. 61. princeton alumni weekly. 1960. pp. 86 --. PRNC : 32101081976894. Jump up ^ Frank P. Leslie ( 1960 ). The 46th Gutenberg. Vagabond Press. Jump up ^ The Friends of the Lilly Library Newsletter. 29 - 32. Indiana University Foundation. 1998. pp. 5 --. The second volume of the Gutenberg Bible from which the Lilly Library New Testament would eventually be extracted was discovered in 1828 in a farmhouse... The copy had 116 leaves of the original 128 of a full Gutenberg New Testament. Jump up ^ Lotte Hellinga ; Martin Davies ( 1999 ). Incunabula : studies in fifteenth - century printed books presented to Lotte Hellinga. British Library. pp. 341 --. ^ Jump up to : Clausen Books Gutenberg Bible Census accessed 7 July 2009 Jump up ^ `` Incunabula Leaf Biblia Latina ( ca 1450 ) Gutenberg ''. The McCune Collection. 31 August 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014. Jump up ^ http://lbis.kenyon.edu/sca/exhibits/incunabula/z241b58.phtml Jump up ^ Pearson, David ( 2006 ). Bowman, J, ed. British Librarianship and Information Work 1991 - 2000 : Rare book librarianship and historical bibliography. Aldershot : Ashgate Publishing Ltd. p. 178. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7546 - 4779 - 9. Jump up ^ `` Russia sentences secret agents over theft of Gutenberg Bible ''. BBC News. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg Digital Public access to digitised copy of the Gutenberg Bible held by the Göttingen State and University Library in Germany Treasures in Full : Gutenberg Bible Information about Gutenberg and the Bible as well as online images of the British Library 's two copies Gutenberg Bible Census Details of surviving copies, including some notes on provenance The Munich copy of the Gutenberg Bible on bavarikon Tabula rubricarum ( in German ) Image of rubricators ' instructions from the Munich copy The Gutenberg Bible at the Beinecke Podcast from the Beinecke Library, Yale University The Gutenberg Leaf Image and information about a single `` Noble Fragment '' held by the McCune Collection in Vallejo, California History in the Headlines : 7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible History.com, February 23, 2015 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gutenberg_Bible&oldid=809230297 '' Categories : 1450s books Early printed Bibles 15th - century Christian texts Incunabula Mainz Memory of the World Register Johannes Gutenberg 15th - century Latin books Hidden categories : CS1 German - language sources ( de ) CS1 Danish - language sources ( da ) CS1 French - language sources ( fr ) Articles with Polish - language external links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2014 Articles with German - language external links Interlanguage link template link number Articles with French - language external links Articles with Spanish - language external links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara Français Frysk 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Italiano עברית ქართული Latviešu मराठी Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Suomi Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 7 November 2017, at 22 : 00. 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Question: when was the first edition of the bible written
Answer: in the 1450s