7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible - History in the Headlines 7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible February 23, 2015 By Evan Andrews Share The Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed in Western Europe using movable metal type, introducing text reproduction to the masses. Share this: 7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible Author 7 Things You May Not Know About the Gutenberg Bible URL Google Scholars often cite February 23, 1455 as the original publication date for the “Gutenberg Bible,” the first mass-produced book in Europe. This elegant, two-volume Latin Bible was one of the earliest works made using movable metallic type, a system of individual letters and character pieces that could be rearranged and reused during printing. Its popularity signaled a global revolution for the written word. Books previously had to be laboriously copied by hand, yet only a half-century after the Gutenberg Bible became the world’s first printed bestseller, millions of different volumes were flying off presses across Europe. Explore seven fascinating facts about one of the rarest and most influential books in world history. It wasn’t the world’s first printed book.

A copy of the Gutenberg Bible in the collection of the New York Public Library While the Gutenberg Bible helped introduce printing to the West, the process was already well established in other parts of the world. Chinese artisans were pressing ink onto paper as early as the second century A.D., and by the 800s, they had produced full-length books using wooden block printing. Movable type also first surfaced in the Far East. Sometime around the mid-11th century, a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng developed a system of individual character types made from a mixture of baked clay and glue. Metal movable type was later used in Korea to create the “Jikji,” a collection of Zen Buddhist teachings. The Jikji was first published in 1377, some 75 years before Johannes Gutenberg began churning out his Bibles in Mainz, Germany. Johannes Gutenberg didn’t make any money off the Bibles. Johannes Gutenberg has been called the most influential figure of the last millennium, yet he stands as one of the great question marks of history. Scholars don’t know when he was born, whether he married or had children, where he is buried or even what he looked like.

Almost all the information about Gutenberg comes from legal and financial papers, and these indicate that the printing of his Bibles was a particularly tumultuous affair. According to one 1455 document, Gutenberg’s business partner Johann Fust sued him for the return of a large sum of money loaned to help in the production of his Bibles. Gutenberg lost the lawsuit, and the final ruling stipulated that he had to turn his printing equipment and half the completed Bibles over to Fust, who went on to peddle them along with one of Gutenberg’s former assistants, Peter Schoeffer. Gutenberg was driven into financial ruin. He later started a second print shop, but it’s unlikely that he ever turned a profit off his most famous work. The print run was surprisingly small. Credit: Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images By studying the size of Gutenberg’s paper supply, historians have estimated that he produced around 180 copies of his Bible during the early 1450s. That may seem miniscule, but at the time there were probably only around 30,000 books in all of Europe.

The splash that Gutenberg’s Bibles made is evident in a letter the future Pope Pius II wrote to Cardinal Carvajal in Rome. In it, he raves that the Bibles are “exceedingly clean and correct in their script, and without error, such as Your Excellency could read effortlessly without glasses.” Thanks to their obvious quality, the Bibles all sold before Gutenberg and Fust had even finished printing them. Some copies supposedly went for around 30 Florins—an enormous sum at the time. There are several different variations of the Gutenberg Bible. Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike. Of the 180 copies, some 135 were printed on paper, while the rest were made using vellum, a parchment made from calfskin. Due to the volumes’ considerable heft, it has been estimated that some 170 calfskins were needed to produce just one Gutenberg Bible from vellum. The books also vary in their typography and degree of decoration. Gutenberg originally used red ink to print title headings, or rubrics, before each of the books of the Bible.

When this process proved too time consuming, he abandoned it in favor of simply leaving a blank space in the margins. Professional scribes later added unique title and chapter headings by hand, and many owners also hired artists to add lavish illustrations and written characters into their copies. The Soviet Red Army looted two copies from Germany During WWII. Drawing of what Johannes Gutenberg may have looked like During the Soviet occupation of Germany at the end of World War II, the Red Army organized “Trophy Brigades” to seize priceless cultural artifacts from museums and libraries. The Russians considered the plunder an act of revenge for Germany’s own looting and war crimes, and they eventually confiscated millions of book and works of art. Chief among the booty were two copies of the Gutenberg Bible, which were taken from the German Book and Script Museum and the University of Leipzig. The Soviets denied any knowledge of the missing Bibles’ whereabouts until the 1980s, when it was revealed that they were being held in libraries in Moscow. Since then, the German government has made several unsuccessful attempts to secure their return. In 2009, a Russian government agent stole one of the looted Bibles and tried to unload it on the black market for $1.5 million.

The man was later captured, however, and Russian authorities recovered both volumes. A thief once tried to steal a Gutenberg Bible from Harvard University’s library. Conjectural model of Gutenberg's press (Credit: SSPL/Getty Images) In 1969, a man named Vido Aras hid in a bathroom in Harvard’s Widener Library until after the building had closed. He then slinked to the roof and used a rope to climb into the window of the room where the University kept its copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Aras succeeded in prizing the two volumes from their case and stashing them in his knapsack, but when he tried to climb back up the rope, he found that the 70-pound tome weighed him down. After struggling for a time, the would-be thief lost his grip and tumbled six stories to the ground below, where he was found the next morning. The Gutenberg Bible was recovered with only minor damage. Aras, on the other hand, suffered a fractured skull. Only 49 copies have survived to today. Out of some 180 original printed copies of the Gutenberg Bible, 49 still exist in library, university and museum collections.

Less than half are complete, and some only consist of a single volume or even a few scattered pages. Germany stakes the claim to the most Gutenberg Bibles with 14, while the United States has 10, three of which are owned by the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, when a copy went for a cool $2.2 million. A lone volume later sold for $5.4 million in 1987, and experts now estimate a complete copy could fetch upwards of $35 million at auction. Tags Gutenberg's Legacy Gutenberg's Legacy VIEW ENLARGED PDF An illustration of the Mandrake, or Mandragora plant. Mandrake was used as anesthetic during the Middle Ages. It was believed that the root, which was thought to resemble a man, shrieked when pulled from the ground, and would drive anyone who heard it insane. This is from an herbal called the Hortus Sanitatis, printed by Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg's former assistant, in 1485. Herbals were manuals used to identify plants for medicinal purposes.

An illustration of an elephant from an herbal called the Hortus Sanitatis, printed by Peter Schoeffer in 1485. Some herbals included beasts, like this one. The Infancy of Printing Books printed on presses before the year 1501 are called incunabula , which comes from a word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace" in Latin. Although printing was certainly in its infancy prior to 1501, the actual printing process of using movable type on a wooden press did not change a great deal over the next 350 years. There were, however, changes made to the format of books, such as the addition of title pages where medieval scribes simply added their own name, the date of completion, and perhaps a small prayer to the end of their manuscripts. Also, by the beginning of the 16th century, page numbers had made their appearance. Because medieval readers expected books to contain a combination of text and images, printers quickly began to incorporate woodcut images between blocks of text. This innovation eliminated the need for hand painting and saved both time and money while sustaining the text and illustration format that continued to be important during the Renaissance.

It is estimated that a third of all incunabula were illustrated, and images continued to be hand-colored into the 18th century. VIEW ENLARGED PDF Aristotole's Works, edited and printed by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1495. These smaller, more affordable books were the first to use italic type, which allowed the printer to pack more text on each page. The Aldine Press was one of the first to print regular runs of 1000 copies of their books. The usual output of a printer at this time was probably around 200. Aldine Collection, HRC. The Spread of Printing Gutenberg's printing technology quickly spread from Mainz to Subiaco in Italy (1465), Paris (1470), and London (1476). By the beginning of the 16th century, there were approximately 240 printing shops in Europe. The first press in the Americas was set up in Mexico City less than 50 years after Columbus's first voyage.

The first press in what is now the United States was set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1638 and began printing in 1639, only 19 years after the arrival of the Mayflower. The first items printed were a Freeman's Oath, an almanac for 1639, and in 1640 the Bay Psalm Book. It has been estimated that there were perhaps 30,000 books in all of Europe before Gutenberg printed his Bible; less than 50 years later, there were as many as 10 to 12 million books. Although many of the first books printed were the popular religious texts of the medieval period, many classical Greek and Roman texts were also published, fueling the rediscovery of the ancient world so crucial for Renaissance humanists. After all, Renaissance means "rebirth," and while interest in the classical writers existed during the middle ages, the sheer number of copies rolling off the printing presses broadened access of these books to more people than ever before. The printers during this time were also scholars who were not happy with merely copying texts word for word, as did medieval scribes; they corrected the errors they found in the manuscripts.

One of the greatest scholar printers was Aldus Manutius in Venice, who published cheaper, portable, easy-to-read versions of classical literature for scholars and students. VIEW ENLARGED PDF The end of the Cook's Tale and the beginning of the Man of Law's Prologue from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This is a page from the first published edition of The Canterbury Tales printed in Westminster by William Caxton around 1478. Caxton moved his press from Flanders to England in 1476. Caxton was unusual for his time, because he printed most of his books in English rather than Latin. Consequently, he was able to eliminate competition from printers in other countries. The Vernacular More and more books began to be published in local languages, rather than Latin. Before the year 1500, three quarters of all books were written in Latin. This figure would quickly be reversed. English editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Italian editions of Dante's Divine Comedy were some of the early successes. Printing in the local language made reading available to people who did not know Latin, including many women. Moreover, spelling started to become standardized.

Local languages were strengthened, and translations became common, leading to a decline in the use of Latin, apart from in the Church and universities. VIEW ENLARGED PDF The Tower of Babel from Hartmann Schedel's The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber chronicarum), 1493. Printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger, and illustrated by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleyenwurff. There are 1809 illustrations made from 645 woodblocks, meaning that some images were repeated several times. For example, several cities were represented by the same woodblock print. Albrecht Dürer, perhaps the greatest German artist of the Renaissance period, was an apprentice in Wolgemut's studio, and may have had a hand in creating some of the illustrations. Censorship The Catholic Church quickly realized the potential of the printing press as a challenge to its influence. Censorship was introduced into the print shop in 1487, when Pope Innocent VIII required that Church authorities approve all books before publication. The Church had censored books for centuries, though it became much more difficult to do so after the invention of printing.

Controlling a dozen painfully copied manuscripts of a forbidden text may have been a manageable task, but controlling the thousands of copies churning off the presses every year was quite another matter. One of these forbidden texts was the Bible printed in any other language than Latin. Illustration of burning books from Hartmann Schedel's The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber chronicarum), 1493. The illustrations were colored by hand. Koberger published both a Latin and a German edition of the Chronicle in the same year. The Reformation The Protestant Reformation movement began in 1517 with Martin Luther and his insistence that all Christians be able to read the Bible in their own language. The printing press helped to spread his message and eventually end the hold of the Catholic Church over much of northern Europe. The press as a tool of political and cultural change ensured the world would never be the same again. News of scientific and geographic discoveries now quickly circulated. Medical texts were published with detailed anatomical illustrations. Mass communication became possible on a scale that was unparalleled. Gutenberg the man may still be a mystery, but his invention helped to enlighten the world in a way that was impossible with manuscripts.

Johann Gutenberg English Bible History Johann Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation. GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c.

1398—1468), German printer, is supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at Mainz of well-to-do parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother Elsgen Wyrich, whose birthplace “Gutenberg”, was the name he adopted. The Germans, and most other people, contend that Gutenberg was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types. Early Life of Johann Gutenberg Gutenberg's father was a man of good family. Very likely the boy was taught to read. But the books from which he learned were not like ours; they were written by hand. A better name for them than books is "manuscripts," which means "hand-writings." While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block. This had to be very carefully done.

When it was finished the printer had to cut away the wood from the sides of every letter. This left the letters raised, as the letters are in books now printed for the blind. The block was now ready to be used. The letters were inked, paper was laid upon them and pressed down. With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one page. Gutenberg enjoyed reading the manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends had; and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books. Finally he determined to contrive some easy and quick way of printing. Gutenberg did a great deal of his work in secret, for he thought it was much better that his neighbors should know nothing of what he was doing. He looked for a workshop where no one would be likely to find him. Gutenberg was now living in Strasburg, and there was in that city a ruined old building where, long before his time, a number of monks had lived. There was one room of the building which needed only a little repairing to make it fit to be used.

So Gutenberg got the right to repair that room and use it as his workshop. All his neighbors wondered what became of him when he left home in the early morning, and where he had been when they saw him coming back late in the twilight. Gutenberg did not care much what people had to say, and in his quiet room he patiently tried one experiment after another, often feeling very sad and discouraged day after day because his experiments did not succeed. At last the time came when he had no money left. Gutenberg Meets Fust He went back to his old home, Mainz, and there met a rich goldsmith and lawyer named Joahann Fust (or Faust). Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply, and how he had now no more money to carry on his experiments. Fust became greatly interested and gave Gutenberg what money he needed. First of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood. Each type was a little block with a single letter at one end. Such types were a great deal better than block letters. The block letters were fixed. They could not be taken out of the words of which they were parts.

The new types were movable so they could be set up to print one page, then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages. But type made of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly, so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried metal types. This worked much better, and Gutenberg was progressing well toward the completion of the first book ever printed by movable type: the Bible in Latin. Gutenberg Loses His Business Fust, however, was losing patience. He quarreled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending money. At last he brought suit against him in the court, and the judge decided in favor of Fust. So everything in the world that Gutenberg had, even the tools with which he worked, came into Fust's possession. Soon a Latin Bible was printed. It was in two volumes, each of which had three hundred pages, while each of the pages had forty-two lines. The letters were sharp and clear. They had been printed from movable types of metal. The news that books were being printed in Mainz went all over Europe. Before Gutenberg died, printing-presses like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the continent.

The Gutenberg Bible Between 1450 and 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was completed. Early documentation states that a total of 200 copies were scheduled to be printed on rag cotton linen paper, and 30 copies on velum animal skin. It is not known exactly how many copies were actually printed. Today, only 22 copies are known to exist, of which 7 are on velum. If an entire Gutenberg Bible should become available on the world market, it would likely fetch an estimated 100 million dollars! Even an individual leaf (a single two-sided page) from the original Gutenberg Bible can fetch around $100,000. Gutenberg’s work is the most rare and valuable printed material in the world. The Death of Johann Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg died in Mainz, Germany in 1468. Ironically, the inventor of the most important invention in history never profited from his invention and died in poverty… though the proceeds from the sale of just one single leaf from his Bible in today’s market would have provided Gutenberg with enough money to live out his last years comfortably.

He was buried in a Franciscan church, which was demolished and replaced with another church, which was also subsequently demolished. While Gutenberg sadly went without reward for producing the machine that changed the world, history recognizes him as holding this honor. Without his invention, the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible. Gutenberg Bible History - Origin of the Gutenberg Bible Did you ever wonder what was the first mass produced book? The first mass produced printed book was the Bible, a version based on the Latin edition from about 380 AD.. The Bible was printed at Mainz, Germany by Johannes Gutenberg from 1452 -1455.. Although German bibliographers claim that it was may also have been finished and perfected by Johann Fust, a wealthy financier who gained Gutenberg's share of the business in a lawsuit; and Peter Schï¿½ffer, Gutenberg's assistant. The first copy that attracted attention was discovered about 1760 among the books of the French statesman Cardinal Jules Mazarin. The book is the first volume known to have been printed with movable metal type. At least one book of the Bible has been published in 1,808 languages since the Bible was first printed.

The history of the printed Bible with movable type is the subject of considerable scholarly debate. Fragments of earlier bibles have also been found - they are differentiated by the number of lines of text on a page. Scholars have identified several variants and attempted to work out the sequence of development on the basis of the quality of the individual pieces of type. The oldest surviving Bible printed with movable type is often called the Gutenberg Bible (named after its printer Johannes Gutenberg), or the 42-line Bible (so called because with few exceptions, each page has 42 lines of print), or the Mazarin Bible (because the first copy to recapture attention in 1760 was found in the library of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, in Paris). In 1440, German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press process that, with refinements and increased mechanization, remained the principal means of printing until the late 20th century. The inventor's method of printing from movable type, including the use of metal molds and alloys, a special press, and oil-based inks, allowed for the first time the mass production of printed books.

The Bible, printed at Mainz, probably required several years of work; it began in 1452 and was completed not later than 1455 and printed in an edition of about 180 copies. The text of the Bible is Latin. Colored initials and other illuminations were hand drawn after the pages were printed. The Gutenberg Bible lacks many print features that modern readers are accustomed to, such as pagination, word spacing, indentations, and paragraph breaks. The Bible was large comprising over 1280 pages, and the text was laid out in two columns. The German Gothic type-style was modeled on manuscripts of the period. The columns of text are tightly justified right and left. This is possible because Latin words can be abbreviated by replacing letters with symbols. The printed text was black, with red and blue headers and initials being added later by an illuminator. The edition includes both vellum and paper copies. In design and workmanship, the Gutenberg Bible holds its place as one of the finest of all printed books. The very first pages Gutenberg printed had only 40 lines per column.

Later in the course of printing, Gutenberg realized the paper could accommodate 42 lines and so the pages were reset and printed again in the new format. The original pages of 40 lines were included in the very first issue of the Gutenberg Bible. As of 2003, the Gutenberg Bible census includes 11 complete copies on vellum, 1 copy of the New Testament only on vellum, 48 substantially complete integral copies on paper, with another divided copy on paper, and an illuminated page (the Bagford fragment). To Learn More Gutenberg Bible History History Of The Gutenberg Bible Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg (a.k.a. “John Gutenberg”) wasis supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at Mainz of well-to-do parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother Elsgen Wyrich, whose birthplace “Gutenberg”, was the name he adopted. The books from which Gutenberg learned to read as a young boy were not like books today; they were written by hand.

A better name for them than books is "manuscripts," which means "hand-writings." While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block. The letters were inked, paper was laid upon them and pressed down. With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one page. Gutenberg determined to contrive a better way of printing. While living in Strasburg, Gutenberg found a room in an old monastery to use as his private workshop. Day after day, he tried different approaches to moveable-type printing, but his efforts did not meet with success. At last the time came when he had no money left. Gutenberg went back to his old home, Mainz, and there met a rich goldsmith and lawyer named Joahann Fust (or Faust).

Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply, and how he had no more money to carry on his experiments. Fust became greatly interested and gave Gutenberg the money he needed. First of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood. Each type was a little block with a single letter at one end. Such types were a great deal better than block letters. The block letters were fixed. They could not be taken out of the words of which they were parts. The new types were movable so they could be set up to print one page, then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages. But type made of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly, so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried metal types. This worked much better, and Gutenberg was progressing well toward the completion of the first book ever printed by movable type: the Bible in Latin. Fust, however, was losing patience. He quarreled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending money. At last he brought suit against him in the court, and the judge decided in favor of Fust.

So everything in the world that Gutenberg had, even the tools with which he worked, came into Fust's possession. Soon a Latin Bible was printed. It was in two volumes, each of which had three hundred pages, while each of the pages had forty-two lines. The letters were sharp and clear. They had been printed from movable types of metal. The news that books were being printed in Mainz went all over Europe. Before Gutenberg died, printing-presses like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the continent. Between 1450 and 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was completed. Early documentation states that a total of 200 copies were scheduled to be printed on rag cotton linen paper, and 30 copies on velum animal skin. It is not known exactly how many copies were actually printed. Today, only 22 copies are known to exist, of which 7 are on velum. If an entire Gutenberg Bible should become available on the world market, it would likely fetch an estimated 100 million dollars! Even an individual leaf (a single two-sided page) from the original Gutenberg Bible can fetch around $100,000.

Gutenberg’s work is the most rare and valuable printed material in the world. Johann Gutenberg died in Mainz, Germany in 1468. Ironically, the inventor of the most mportant invention in history never profited from his invention and died in poverty… though the proceeds from the sale of just one single leaf from his Bible in today’s market would have provided Gutenberg with enough money to live out his last years comfortably. While Gutenberg sadly went without reward for producing the machine that changed the world, history recognizes him as holding this honor. Gutenberg Bible Gutenberg-Bible.com What is the Gutenberg Bible? Johann Gutenberg holds the distinction of being the inventor of the movable-type printing press. In 1455, Gutenberg produced what is considered to be the first book ever printed: a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty.

Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be produced in large quantities in a short period of time. Books of the Bible in German and English Books of the Bible in German and English Books of the Bible in German and English Here's some history of German Bible translations and some well-known passages By Hyde Flippo Updated August 13, 2016. Essentially, every Bible is a translation. The ancient elements that became what we now call the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek on papyrus, leather, and clay. Some of the originals have been lost and exist only in copies that suffer from errors and omissions that have dismayed biblical scholars and translators. More modern editions, using more recent discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls , try to render the Bible as accurately as possible from the ancient originals. By the end of the 20th century, the Bible had been translated into more than 1,100 different world languages and dialects. The history of biblical translation is long and fascinating, but here we'll concentrate on the German connections—of which there are many.

Ulfilas The earliest Germanic version of the Bible was Ulfilas' Gothic translation from Latin and Greek. From Ulfilas came much of the Germanic Christian vocabulary that is still in use today. Later Charlemagne (Karl der Große) would foster Frankish (Germanic) biblical translations in the ninth century. Over the years, prior to the appearance of the first printed German Bible in 1466, various German and German dialect translations of the scriptures were published. The Augsburger Bibel of 1350 was a complete New Testament, while the Wenzel Bible (1389) contained the Old Testament in German. Gutenberg Bible Johannes Gutenberg's so-called 42-line Bible, printed in Mainz in 1455, was in Latin. About 40 copies exist today in various states of completeness. It was Gutenberg's invention of printing with movable type that made the Bible, in any language, vastly more influential and important. It was now possible to produce Bibles and other books in greater quantities at a lower cost.

First Printed Bible in German Before Martin Luther was even born, a German-language Bible was published in 1466, using Gutenberg's invention. Known as the Mentel Bible, this Bible was a literal translation of the Latin Vulgate. Printed in Strassburg, the Mentel Bible appeared in some 18 editions until it was replaced by Luther's new translation in 1522. Die Luther Bibel The most influential German Bible, and the one that continues to be most widely used in the Germanic world today (it saw its last official revised edition in 1984), was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek by Martin Luther (1483-1546) in the record time of just ten weeks (New Testament) during his involuntary stay in the Wartburg Castle near Eisenach, Germany. Luther's first complete Bible in German appeared in 1534. He continued to revise his translations up until his death. In response to Luther's Protestant Bible, the German Catholic Church published its own versions, most notably the Emser Bibel, which became the standard German Catholic Bible.

Luther's German Bible also became the primary source for other northern European versions in Danish, Dutch, and Swedish. Scriptures and Prayers in German and English German "du" is equal to "thou" in English. Modern English versions of the Bible use "you" since "thou" has faded from English, but "du" is still used in German. Nevertheless, revised versions of Luther's 1534 Bible have updated many other language changes, using more modern usage to replace the outdated 16th century German. Here are some oft-quoted Biblical passages in German, with English translations. The Book of Genesis Kapitel Die Schöpfung Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde. Und die Erde war wüst und leer, und es war finster auf der Tiefe; und der Geist Gottes schwebte auf dem Wasser. Und Gott sprach: Es werde Licht! Und es ward Licht. Und Gott sah, daß das Licht gut war. Da schied Gott das Licht von der Finsternis und nannte das Licht Tag und die Finsternis Nacht. Da ward aus Abend und Morgen der erste Tag.

Genesis - King James, Chapter One: Creation In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Psalm 23 Lutherbibel: Ein Psalm Davids Der HERR ist mein Hirte, mir wird nichts mangeln. Er weidet mich auf einer grünen Aue und führet mich zum frischen Wasser. Er erquicket meine Seele. Er führet mich auf rechter Straße um seines Namens willen. Und ob ich schon wanderte im finstern Tal, fürchte ich kein Unglück; denn du bist bei mir, dein Stecken und Stab trösten mich. Du bereitest vor mir einen Tisch im Angesicht meiner Feinde. Du salbest mein Haupt mit Öl und schenkest mir voll ein.

Gutes und Barmherzigkeit werden mir folgen mein Leben lang, und ich werde bleiben im Hause des HERRN immerdar. Psalm 23 King James: A Psalm of David The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Gebete (Prayers) Das Vaterunser (Paternoster) - Kirchenbuch (1908) Vater unser, der Du bist im Himmel. Geheiliget werde Dein Name. Dein Reich komme.

Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, also auch auf Erden. Unser täglich Brot gieb uns heute. Und vergieb uns unsere Schuld, als wir vergieben unsern Schuldigern. Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung; Sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel. Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen. The Lord's Prayer (Paternoster) - King James Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Das Gloria Patri - Kirchenbuch Ehr sei dem Vater und dem Sohn und dem Heiligen Geist, wie es war im Anfang, jetzt und immerdar und von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. Amen.

The Gloria Patri - Book of Common Prayer Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Da ich ein Kind war, redete ich wie ein Kind und war klug wie ein Kind und hatte kindische Anschläge. Da ich aber ein Mann ward, tat ich ab, was kindisch war. 1. Korinther 13,11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. I Corinthians 13:11 The First Five Books of the German Bible The first five books of the Bible in German are referred to as Mose (Moses) 1-5. They correspond to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in English. Many of the names of the other books are very similar or identical in German and English, but a few are not that obvious. Below you'll find all of the names of the books of the Old and New Testaments listed in the order they appear.

Genesis : 1 Mose, Genesis Gutenberg Bible: the Text of the Bible Gutenberg's texts 1 2 3 The text of the Bible The Gutenberg Bible contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, mainly the work of Jerome (c.345-420 AD) who translated some biblical texts from the originals and in other instances revised older Latin translations. He began his work on the translation in 380 AD. In the course of time, Jerome's text was subject to change, and hand-written Latin Bibles in the West often diverged on substantial points, partly under the influence of earlier translations, and partly as a result of differences which inevitably arise whenever a book is copied by a scribe. In Paris, in the 12th century, an attempt was made to create a standard Latin Bible, but the textual basis was criticized even by contemporaries and, as a result of the desire to create a better standard, the text was subjected to much change in the subsequent period.

The text of the Bible as it appears in the Gutenberg Bible is the result of emendations of the Parisian Bible tradition, but it is already quite different from the standard which had been established 200 years earlier. It is close to a group of manuscripts written in the area of the Rhine in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Gutenberg Bible became the basis on which further emendations to the Bible were made. Not until the 20th century was an attempt made to reject the unsystematically corrected text, and to reconstitute Jerome's translation on the basis of a critical assessment of manuscript evidence. The text of the Gutenberg Bible is placed in a philological context in Heinrich Schneider, Der Text der Gutenbergbibel zu ihrem 500järigen Jubiläum untersucht, Bonner biblische Beiträge, 7 (Bonn, 1954).

A discussion of its relation to the tradition of the Vulgate, and a complete list of the texts included in the Gutenberg Bible can be found in Robert Weber, 'Der Text der Gutenbergbibel und seine Stellung in der Geschichte der Vulgata', in: Johannes Gutenbergs zweiundvierzigzeilige Bibel, Faksimile-Ausgabe nach dem Exemplar der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin: Kommentarband, ed. W. Schmidt and F. A. Schmidt-Künsemüller (Munich, 1979), 9-31. The text in relation to the work of the printers is discussed by Paul Needham, 'The Text of the Gutenberg Bible', in Trasmissione dei testi a stampa nel periodo moderno, vol. II: Il seminario internazionale Roma-Viterbo 27-29 giugno 1985, ed. by Giovanni Crapulli (Rome, 1987), pp.

43-84, and Paul Needham, 'The Changing Shape of the Vulgate Bible in Fifteenth-century Printing Shops', in The Bible as Book: The First Printed Editions, ed. by Kimberley van Kampen and Paul Saenger (London, 1999), pp. 53-70. Kristian Jensen, 'Printing the Bible in the Fifteenth Century: Devotion, Philology and Commerce', in Incunabula and Their Readers: Printing, Selling and Using Books in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Kristian Jensen (London: The British Library, 2003), pp. 115-138, discusses how commercial imperatives changed the texts of the Bible and who bought and used Bibles in the 15th century. An account of the principles followed in the critical edition of the Vulgate prepared under the supervision of a Papal committee since 1908 is found in Henri Quentin, Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate, Ière partie,Octateuque, Collectanea biblica latina, 6 (Rome and Paris, 1922). This work received a mixed critical response.

Catholic Bible - Early History EARLY HISTORY OF THE BIBLE The original writings from the Apostles themselves (the autographs) no longer exist. This is due partly to the perishable material (papyrus) used by the writers, and partly to the fact that the Roman emperors decreed the destruction of the sacred books of the Christians (Edict of Diocletian, A.D. 303). Before translating the Bible into Latin, St. Jerome had already translated into more common languages enough books to fill a library. (Saint Jerome, Maisie Ward, Sheed & Ward; A Companion to Scripture Studies, Steinmuller.) In the year 383, he revised the Latin New Testament text in accordance with some Greek manuscripts. Between the years 390 and 406 he translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew, and this completed work is known today as the "Old Latin Vulgate". The work had been requested by Pope Damasus, and Copies of St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate appeared uncorrupted as late as the 11th century, with some revisions by St. Peter Damian and Lanfranc.

(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Place of the Bible in the Church", C.U.A.) Pope Benedict XV wrote about St. Jerome's translation in his 1920 encyclical, Spiritus Paraclitus, "Nor was Jerome content merely to gather up this or that teacher's words; he gathered from all quarters whatever might prove of use to him in this task. From the outset he had accumulated the best possible copies of the Bible and the best commentators on it," . . . "he corrected the Latin version of the Old Testament by the Greek; he translated afresh nearly all the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin; . . . he discussed Biblical questions with the brethren who came to him, and answered letters on Biblical questions which poured in upon him from all sides; besides all this, he was constantly refuting men who assailed Catholic doctrine and unity." The first person known with certainty to apply the term canon to the Sacred Scriptures was St. Athanasius, about 350A.D., although his private estimate of the number of canonical books differed from the books he quoted in his writings. Like him, a few other early fathers doubted some of the deutero-canonical books, but would cite them.

(A Companion to Scripture Studies. Steinmueller.) The Council of Carthage (397) was the first Council to publish a list of all the inspired books of the Bible. The Council of Florence repeated the canon of the Bible, and it was restated at the Council of Trent. (No action of the Church causes a book to be inspired. The Church exercises its infallible judgment to certify post factum that a particular book was inspired when it was written. The fact that God is its Author makes a book to be inspired. The Holy Spirit prevents the Church from erring in judging which books are inspired and included in the Bible.) Versions of the whole or parts of the Bible in the language of the common people first appeared in Germany in the eighth century, in France and Hungary in the twelfth, and Italy, Spain, Holland, Poland and Bohemia in the thirteenth century. (Catholic Encyclopedia.) In the 1500's in Italy, there were more than 40 vernacular editions of the Bible. France had 18 vernacular editions before 1547, and Spain began publishing editions in 1478, with full approval of the Spanish Inquisition.

In all, 198 editions of the Bible were in the language of the laity, 626 editions all together, and all before the first Protestant version, and all having the full approval of the Church. (Where We Got the Bible, TAN Publishers) The area known as England was invaded and settled by Germanic tribes called "Saxons" who aligned with tribes from the area of Denmark called "Angles". In the 700's, (St. Bede the Venerable), the area was speaking a Germanic dialect. In the Middle Ages, between 1066-1377, there were different dialects depending on where you went, between the different tribes. The Normans had invaded the area, There was no written vocabulary, so Latin and Greek were most commonly used by the literate. After 1300, the English population was still much smaller than others like the Italians or Spanish, and it was still unintelligible in a written form. After the 1500's, England became more important politically. For centuries before the invention of printing, the only way to duplicate the text of the Bible was to copy it by hand.

Copyists could have made mistakes, but, they took more care with Scripture than with any other book. Errors, while they are possible and certainly have occurred in some instances, can not be too easily admitted or accepted as an excuse to disregard these copies. Moreover, God in His Providence has faithfully protected His Bible from any serious corruption. Even a perfectly written Bible would still need an authoritative explanation of various passages. Chapter and verse divisions are not found in our oldest manuscripts of the Bible, and there is evidence that the early Hebrew writers did not even separate the words of the text, following a Hebrew tradition that Moses wrote the Law as one continuous word. The division into chapters was a gradual process that began in the Middle Ages. The divisions now used were introduced by Stephen Langton (d. 1228), later archbishop of Canterbury, and are found in the Biblia Parisiensis, used at the University of Paris as early as the 13th century. (English Versions of the Bible, Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P.) The division of Bible chapters into numbered smaller sections was introduced to facilitate scholarly reference to the individual passages.

In 1528, Santes Pagnino, a Dominican, published a Bible where each chapter was divided into verses usually consisting of single sentences. Robert Estienne, a French printer, less than thirty years later, introduced the figures that divide or "chop up" verses of the Bible. His verse divisions became standard because he also printed a Concordance based on these editions. (New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible.) Although at times it divides a passage, the procedure has been sanctified by the Church. In 1452, the Vulgate was the first book to be printed on the first mechanical press, invented by a Catholic - Johann Gutenberg; that particular edition is commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. Again, the text was in Latin. (The Gutenberg Bible, Martin Davies.) By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500's, there were: 104 Latin editions of the Bible - 9 before Martin Luther's birth, and 27 before his edition.

(Where We Got the Bible) About this time though, some Latin editions were defective, owing to the creativity or errors of the various publishers, so the Council of Trent intervened, choosing the "Clementine" edition as the official Latin version, authentic and approved for use in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions. (Canons & Decrees of the Council of Trent, TAN Publishers, page 10.) Many translators during the 1500-1900's chose the Latin Vulgate over the Greek because it was difficult to find a good Greek translation. In the late 1500's, there were about 120 Greek versions with 30,000 different readings. For example, one rendition had Isaiah 7:14 using neanis (young woman) instead of parthenos [virgin]. ("Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanual".

The gospel of Matthew 1:23 makes reference to this passage, "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son; and they shall call his name Emmanual, which being interpreted is, God with us."). The Latin language gradually changed. The Latin used in the Vulgate is from around 400A.D. Gradually, Latin evolved into French, Italian and Spanish. In the treaty of Verdun, (843 A.D.) the text shows the shift of vocabulary - some Latin and some Middle French. The last recorded usage of Latin being preached to the common people was around the year 800, in Italy. However, latin remained the universal written language in Europe for many centuries. Up to the 1400's, it was the only language to be generally used. As late as the 1660's Isaac Newton, requiring a large audience for his theories, would write his Principlicae Mathematica in Latin for publication, not English (which was still obscure as a written language at the time). From 1578 to 1593 the English College of Douay was temporarily housed at Rheims.

It was during this period that the Vulgate was translated into the new language called English. In 1582, Queen Elizabeth ordered searchers to confiscate every copy of the New Testament newly translated into English by the College of Rheims. Priests were imprisoned for having it, and the sentence of "torture by rack" was given to those who circulated it. The publication of the Old Testament was delayed until the Douay College had returned to England. In 1609, the College of Douay published the Old Testament English translation. (Although some Catholic critics scoff at the "archaic English" used in this edition put out by these colleges, the preface of The Protestant Revised Version, or King James version (1611) credits the deliberately literal translation, and the coinage of Latin-English words for theological terms.) Between 1609 and 1749, there were more than 23 different Catholic editions of the Bible produced, about half of which were New Testament editions, the remaining being editions of the Penitential Psalms.

Bishop Richard Challoner (1691-1781), who was previously the vice-president of the Douay College, began in 1749 the first of several revisions of the Bible from the "Old English" style into the newer English then in use. It is his work that, for the first time provided English-speaking Catholics with a portable, inexpensive and readable version of the Bible, in spite of a few inevitable defects. In all, he was responsible for 5 different editions of the New Testament, and 2 editions of the Old. The other portable editions of the 8th through 16th century were parts or sections of the Bible, like the Penitentail Psalms, and the Pauper's Bible. Probably the next most popular Catholic Bible was the "Haydock" revision of the Challoner-Rheims Bible, which actually came about from the suggestion of Thomas Haydock, a printer and schoolmaster. His brother, Rev. George Leo Haydock, published the first edition during the years of 1811-1814, and printings continued well into 1859, after his death.

Unique at the time of the Haydock editions was the inclusion of historical and chronological indexes, lists of miracles and parables, some of St. Jerome's letters added to the Addenda, and massive amounts of notes from the fathers and doctors of the Church. It was the first publication of its kind, and editions were immediately successful with several reprints. In 1790, the first Catholic Bible was printed in the United States, (a lot of printing for America had been done in Belgium) under the encouragement of its' first bishop, John Carroll of Baltimore. It was based on Challoner's second edition of the Bible printed in 1764. In 1805, another version was published in the U.S., based on the Dublin "fifth edition" of Challoner, having been slightly revised under Archbishop John Troy of Dublin. (English Versions of the Bible.) Various versions and editions of the Douay-Rheims Bible were printed in the United States up until 1947. As a sidenote, St. Thomas More, in his Dialogue Concerning Tyndale, wrote against Tyndale's New Testament. St.

Thomas noted "there were wrong and falsely translated above a thousand texts", and took as examples three words; "priest", "Church" and "charity", which Tyndale changed to "senior", "congregation" and "love". Possibly minor changes as far as the language is concerned, but these were considered fundamental for the doctrinal positions involved. In other verses Tyndale removed "grace", "confession", "penance", and "contrition", changing the biblical text to correspond with his abolition of the Mass. Tyndale is also noted as the first to use the word "Jehovah" as a name for God. Books Before Gutenberg Books Before Gutenberg St. Jerome, the Translator of the Bible. Belleville, Book of Hours. HRC MS. NO. 8. Mid 15th century, France. Written in Latin and French. Page 231v. There is evidence of four scribes working on this manuscript. Written by Hand In the Middle Ages, after the fall of Rome to the Visigoths in the 5th century CE, much of European cultural and intellectual life took refuge in the monasteries.

Continuous warfare, poor crops, and abnormally cold temperatures helped to plunge Europe into what some have called "The Dark Ages." Most of the classical texts of the Greeks and Romans were lost at this time. Some, however, were carefully preserved in the libraries of the Byzantine and Muslim empires, and in the silent scriptoria of European monasteries. The earliest illustrated books were created by the ancient Egyptians. The most notable example is The Book of the Dead, a manuscript that was intended to help the deceased in the afterlife. There are only a few fragments of Greek illustrated scrolls still in existence. The earliest surviving example of an illustrated Roman codex dates from the 4th or 5th century CE. It is during the Medieval Period, however, that books came to be illuminated . They were literally enlightened by the addition of gold, vivid colors, and ornamental letters. Large monasteries had rooms called scriptoria where monks would copy manuscripts. The scribes in the scriptorium were not allowed to talk, nor were they allowed to correct mistakes in the text from which they were copying, which is why errors grew in each generation of a manuscript. Many historians believe that some copyists may have themselves been illiterate.

After the first universities were established in the twelfth century, scribes who were not monks set up shop in areas where students gathered, and even organized business and artisan associations known as guilds . End of The Pardonner's Tale and the beginning of The Shipman's Tale from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. HRC MS. NO. 46. 15th century, England. Written in Middle English. Page 1r. The Scribe at Work The subject of a book, how it was to be used, and for whom it was intended, influenced the size, lettering, and decoration. For example, a Bible to be used for the conducting of church services, would be rather large and beautifully decorated, while one destined for personal use might be smaller, and less decorated, depending on the income of the owner. The scribe would begin his work by outlining the margins on the parchment leaf with a compass, pricking marks down the side of the page and drawing a straight line between the points. He would rule the lines in the same way, calculating where the large initial letters and illustrations would fall, and then copy the text, writing with a goose quill.

Ink was made from gallnuts, the swellings on oak leaves caused by gall wasp larvae, with the addition of ferrous sulfate, or less often from the black carbon residue on oil lamps. Until the 9th century, there were no divisions between the words in either Greek or Latin manuscripts. In other words, thereaderwouldhavetoknowwhenonewordleftoffandanotherbegan. The text would be checked for scribal errors only, corrected, and then the rubricator would add the titles, initial capitals and paragraph marks. Rubric comes from the Latin word for red, because these important headings were often inked in red. After the rubrics were added, the manuscript was ready to be sent to the illuminator . It is certainly possible that one scribe could have completed the whole process by himself, and evidence exists that some did (Cherubs and Camel in the Book of Hours, shown at left, illustrates the assembly-line technique). This is a Book of Hours, a small prayer book for private devotions often owned by women, that was copied sometime in the fifteenth century, but was never finished. The area destined for the illuminations was left blank and then completed much later in the nineteenth century.

Carpet page from an Arabic Koran, dated 1153. Resembling beautiful carpets, the decorative elements in the borders came to be known in the West as arabesques. HRC Eastern Manuscripts #13 The Illuminator The paintings accompanying the text are often called miniatures , not because they are small, but because the red lead pigment, called minium in Latin, was frequently used to decorate the initial letters. Other pigments in use included various ground stones, lapis lazuli for blue, and malachite for green. Ground orpiment, which comes from arsenic, or saffron were used to make yellow. Illuminators applied the pigments to the page with egg white, which acted as an adhesive, using paintbrushes sometimes as small as a single hair. There were varieties of pigments in use for each color, with scribes choosing supplies by their local availability and cost. There were no substitutes, however, for gold leaf or gold powder. Gold does not tarnish like other metals, so the gold decoration in illuminated books shines as brightly today as it did when it was first applied.

Gold leaf was made by pounding gold to the thickness of spider silk, much thinner than even our aluminum foil. To make the gold appear thicker, more lavish, and three-dimensional, illuminators would build up a layer of chalk, and then add a layer of pinkish clay called bole before applying the gold. Over the years, as the gold wears away, the pink bole often becomes visible. Some illuminators slavishly copied the original manuscript decorations detail for detail. Others, however, clearly took great pleasure in adding the local flora and fauna, mythical beasts, and exotic creatures to the borders and margins of their pages. Manuscript books can be dated and localized, sometimes down to which monastery they originated from, according to the styles of illuminations and scripts used. Some scribes, however, did sign and date their finished works. Illuminations gradually took up more space in the codex. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—widely considered the height of manuscript illumination—some books were almost entirely filled with illuminations. These handsomely illustrated works were mainly cherished for their artistic beauty, rather than their devotional use.

By the 1450s, however, in Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg was already assembling the elements for his printing press, which would eventually doom this fine art. Nevertheless, the first printed books were made to look as much as possible like traditional manuscript books. Many, including the Gutenberg Bible, were conventionally illuminated and rubricated before use.

Question: What language were Gutenberg's bibles written in?
Answer: Latin