Gutenberg Bible
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The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, was the earliest major book printed in Europe using mass-produced metal movable type. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed books in the West. The book is valued and revered for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities<ref name="Davies" /> and its historical significance.
The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Latin Vulgate printed in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz (Holy Roman Empire), in present-day Germany. Out of either 158 or 180 copies that were originally printed, 49 survive in at least substantial portion, 21 of them in entirety; of these, the copy with the earliest visible print date is marked as 15 August 1456.<ref name=Aug1456/> They are thought to be among the world's most valuable books, although no complete copy has been sold since 1978.<ref name="MSNBC" /><ref name="Luxist.com" /> In March 1455, the future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible, displayed in Frankfurt to promote the edition.
The 36-line Bible, said to be the second printed Bible, is also sometimes referred to as a Gutenberg Bible, but may be the work of another printer.<ref name="bl">British Library, "Early Printed Bibles - In Latin 1454 onwards"</ref>
Text
The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Greek New Testament by St Jerome. The text contains emendations from the Parisian Bible tradition, and further divergences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Printing history
While it is unlikely that any of Gutenberg's early publications would bear his name, the initial expense of press equipment and materials and of the work to be done before the Bible was ready for sale suggests that he may have started with more lucrative texts, including several religious documents, a German poem, and some editions of Aelius Donatus's Ars Grammatica, a popular Latin grammar school book.<ref name="Man">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Preparation of the Bible probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is not known exactly how long the Bible took to print. The first precisely datable printing is Gutenberg's 31-line Indulgence which certainly existed by 22 October 1454.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process.<ref name="3Phases">British Library, Three phases in the printing process Template:Webarchive accessed 4 July 2009</ref> Each sheet of paper was dampened before printing to improve ink absorption. It was then pressed onto an inked surface consisting of moveable type. After each sheet was printed, the type was re-inked, and the process repeated until the entire print run was completed. Once finished, the type was cleaned and redistributed into type cases for future use. This method is a form of relief printing.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref name="3Phases" /><ref>British Library, The differences in line lengths per page Template:Webarchive: 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</ref>
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.<ref>British Library, Gutenberg's life: the years of the Bible Template:Webarchive accessed 10 July 2009</ref> 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.<ref name="Long lost">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The production process: Das Werk der Bücher
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 introduced the printing press to Europe and created the technology to make printing with movable types finally efficient enough to facilitate the mass production of entire books.<ref>British Library, Gutenberg Bible: background Template:Webarchive accessed 10 July 2009</ref>
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.<ref name="Davies">Template:Cite book</ref>
Pages
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 (ten leaves, or twenty 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 twelve leaves.<ref>British Library, Making the Bible: the gatherings Template:Webarchive accessed 10 July 2009</ref>
The 42-line Bible was printed on the size of paper known as 'Royal'.<ref>Paul Needham, 'Format and Paper Size in Fifteenth-century Printing', In: Materielle Aspekte in der Inkunabelforschung, Wiesbaden, 2017, pp. 59–108: p. 83.</ref> A full sheet of Royal paper measures Template:Cvt and a single untrimmed folio leaf measures Template:Cvt.<ref>George Gordon and William Noel, 'The Needham Calculator', 2017: http://www.needhamcalculator.net/needham_calculator1.pdf Template:Webarchive. Accessed 26 August 2018.</ref> There have been attempts to claim that the book was printed on larger paper measuring Template:Cvt,<ref>Man, John (2002). Gutenberg: How One Man Remade the World with Words, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Template:ISBN.</ref> but this assertion is contradicted by the dimensions of existing copies. For example, the leaves of the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, measure Template:Cvt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This is typical of other folio Bibles printed on Royal paper in the fifteenth century.<ref>Paul Needham, 'Format and Paper Size in Fifteenth-century Printing', In: Materielle Aspekte in der Inkunabelforschung, Wiesbaden, 2017, p. 83.</ref> Most fifteenth-century printing papers have a width-to-height ratio of 1:1.4 (e.g. 30:42 cm) which, mathematically, is a ratio of 1 to the square root of 2 or, simply, <math display="inline">\sqrt{2}</math>. Many suggest that this ratio was chosen to match the so-called Golden Ratio, <math display="inline">\tfrac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}</math>, of 1:1.6; in fact the ratios are, plainly, not at all similar (equating to a difference of about 12 per cent). The ratio of 1:1.4 was a long established one for medieval paper sizes.<ref>Neil Harris, 'The Shape of Paper', subsection 'Sheet-size and the Bologna Stone', in: Paper and Watermarks as Bibliographical Evidence, Lyon, Institut d'histoire du livre, 2017, http://ihl.enssib.fr/en/paper-and-watermarks-as-bibliographical-evidence Template:Webarchive.</ref> A single complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible has 1,288 pages (4×322 = 1288) (usually bound in two volumes); with four pages per folio-sheet, 322 sheets of paper are required per copy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Bible's paper consists of linen fibers and is thought to have been imported from Caselle in Piedmont, Italy based on the watermarks present throughout the volume.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>British Library, Making the Bible: the ink Template:Webarchive accessed 18 October 2009.</ref> Head of collections at the British Library, 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 don't want. One of Gutenberg's inventions was an ink which wasn'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."<ref>BBC Radio 4 programme "Gutenberg: In the Beginning Was the Printer", first broadcast 21-10-2014</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Type
Each unique character requires a piece of master 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., "Template:Not a typo" for the letter sequence "fi", commonly used in writing), the Gutenberg Bible needed a set of 290 master characters. It seems probable that six pages, containing 15,600 characters altogether, would be set at any one moment.<ref name="Man" />
Type style
The Gutenberg Bible is printed in the blackletter type styles that would become known as Textualis (Textura) and Schwabacher. The name Textura 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.<ref>Television presentation, "The Machine that Made Us", presenter: Stephen Fry</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rubrication, illumination and binding
Initially the rubrics—the headings before each book of the Bible—were printed, but this practice was quickly abandoned at an unknown date, 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.<ref name="Kapr">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Estes">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Jensen">Template:Cite book</ref>
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,"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="vb">Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref name="Estes" /> 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.<ref name="Davies" />
Early owners
The Bible seems to have sold out immediately, with some initial purchases as far away as England and possibly Sweden and Hungary.<ref name="Davies" /><ref name="waste">Template:Cite book</ref> At least some copies are known to have sold for 30 florins (equivalent to about Template:Convert of gold), which was about three years' wages for a clerk.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although this made them significantly cheaper than manuscript Bibles, most students, priests or other people of moderate income would not have been able to afford them. It is assumed that most were sold to monasteries, universities and particularly wealthy individuals.<ref name="Kapr" /> 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.<ref name="Davies" /> Kristian Jensen suggests that many copies were bought by wealthy and pious laymen for donation to religious institutions.<ref name="Jensen" />
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.<ref name="Needham">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref name="GeneralTheologicalSeminary">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.</ref> This made it "the first imperfect Gutenberg Bible ever restored to completeness."<ref name="GeneralTheologicalSeminary" /> In 1978, this copy was sold for US$2.2 million to the Template:Lang in Stuttgart, Germany.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Surviving copies
Template:As of, 49 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist, but of these only 25 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.<ref name="waste" />
Substantially complete copies
| Country | Holding institution | Hubay no.<ref name="Doheny">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="CERL">Template:Cite web</ref> | 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="WagnerReed2010">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="The AB Bookman's Yearbook">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images Template:In lang |
| Belgium (1) | Library of the University of Mons-Hainaut, Mons | 1 | incomplete | paper | Vol. I, 104 leaves missing,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> bequeathed by Edmond Puissant to the city of Mons in 1934, but not identified until 1950.<ref name="Stummvoll1971">Template:Cite book</ref> Part of the same copy as the volume in Indiana (see below).<ref name="Long lost" /> |
| Denmark (1) | Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen | 13 | incomplete | paper | Vol. II, first leaf missing. Acquired in 1749.<ref name="(Denmark)Ilsøe1993">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Ilsøe1999">Template:Cite book</ref> |
| France (4) | Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris | 15 | complete | vellum | Sold to the library in 1788 by Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and rebound in four volumes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=Aug1456>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Howard2005">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images of vol. 1 | ||
| 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.<ref name="Goff1971">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="RabinowitzKaplan2007">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ChambersFoster1890">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 Template:In lang | |
| Bibliothèque Municipale, Saint-Omer | 18 | incomplete | paper | Vol. I, one missing leaf. Acquired from the Abbey of Saint Bertin.<ref name="Saint-Léger1984">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images Template:In lang | |
| Germany (13) | Gutenberg Museum, Mainz | 8 | incomplete | paper | The Shuckburgh copy, two volumes but imperfect, sold by Hans P. Kraus for $1.8 million in March 1978.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kirshenbaum">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images Template:In lang |
| 9 | incomplete | paper | Vol. II, the Solms-Laubach copy acquired in 1925.<ref name="Gutenberg-Gesellschaft1979">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> | ||
| Template:Interlanguage link multi, Fulda | 4 | incomplete | vellum | Vol. I. Two individual leaves from Vol. II survive in other libraries.<ref name="waste" /> | |
| Leipzig University Library, Leipzig | 14 | incomplete | vellum | Vol. I through IV. | |
| Göttingen State and University Library, Göttingen | 2 | complete | vellum | Inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register since 2001.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Online images | |
| Berlin State Library, Berlin | 3 | incomplete | vellum | Online images | |
| Bavarian State Library, Munich | 5 | complete | paper | One of only two copies to contain the "tabula rubricarum" (index of rubrics) on four leaves at the end. Also one of three existing copies in its original binding.<ref name="WagnerReed2010" /><ref name="The AB Bookman's Yearbook" /> Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 Template:In lang | |
| Frankfurt University Library, Frankfurt am Main | 6 | complete | paper | Online images | |
| Hofbibliothek, Aschaffenburg | 7 | incomplete | paper | ||
| Template:Lang, Stuttgart | 10 | incompleteTemplate:Refn | paper | Purchased in April 1978 for US$2.2 million from the General Theological Seminary. Online images | |
| Stadtbibliothek, Trier | 11 | incomplete | paper | Vol. I | |
| Landesbibliothek, Kassel | 12 | incomplete | paper | Vol. I | |
| Gottorf Castle, Schleswig | 47 | incomplete | paper | The Rendsburg Fragment<ref name="Long lost" /><ref name="WhiteRosenstein2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> | |
| Japan (1) | Keio University Library, Tokyo | 45<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 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 US$4.9 million (plus an auction house commission of $490,000) for a total of $5.4 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Purchased by Keio University in 1996.<ref name="Gutenberg Bible: The HUMI Project">Template:Cite web</ref> Online images |
| Poland (1) | Diocesan Museum in Pelplin | 28 | incomplete | paper | 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. Online images. |
| Russia (2) | Moscow State University, Moscow | 49 | complete | paper | Looted in 1945 from the library of the University of Leipzig.<ref name="tst93">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="pop21">Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 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 Template:Illm.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Jäger2010">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Spain (2) | Biblioteca Universitaria y Provincial, Seville | 32 | incomplete | paper | New Testament only Online images Template:In lang |
| Biblioteca Pública Provincial, Burgos | 31 | complete | paper | Online images | |
| Switzerland (1) | Bodmer Library, Cologny | 30 | incomplete | paper | |
| United Kingdom (8) | British Library, London | 19 | complete | vellum | The Grenville copy.<ref name="WetterGutenberg1836">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Humphreys1867">Template:Cite book</ref> Bought for 6260 francs in 1817 by Thomas Grenville, who bequeathed his collection to the British Museum in 1846.<ref name="Kerr2006">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images Template:Webarchive |
| 21 | complete | paper | Online images Template:Webarchive | ||
| 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 | Printed in Mainz with the original 15th Century Erfurt binding, stamped calfskin, signed by Johannes Vogel. Donated by John Fuller (1757–1834). Belonged in the 15th century to the Carthusians at Erfurt. Only copy to retain the original binding in both volumes and is complete. Also one of three existing copies in its original binding. Also the only copy with the original binding to be signed with the binders mark. Illuminated copy, probably in Erfurt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |
| John Rylands Library, Manchester | 25 | complete | paper | Acquired for £80 by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer some time before 1814,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Carter1940">Template:Cite book</ref> Enriqueta Augustina Rylands bought it in 1892 for the John Rylands Library. Online images of 11 pages | |
| Bodleian Library, Oxford | 24<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | complete | paper | Acquired as part of a gift in 1933.<ref name="Fox1998">Template:Cite book</ref> Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 | |
| United States (11) | The Morgan Library & Museum, New York | 37 | complete | vellum | PML 13 & PML 818. Acquired in 1815 by Mark Masterman-Sykes.<ref name="MatsudaLinenthal2004">Template:Cite book</ref> |
| 38 | complete | paper | PML 19206–7 | ||
| 44 | incomplete | paper | PML 1. Old Testament only Online images | ||
| Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. | 35 | complete | vellum | Online images Printed on vellum and bound in three alum-tawed pigskin-covered volumes. On permanent display. Purchased in 1930 with government funds for the Library of Congress. It is the centerpiece of a larger book collection acquired from Dr. Otto Vollbehr. | |
| New York Public Library | 42 | complete | paper | ||
| Widener Library, Harvard University | 40 | complete | paper | Online images of selected pages | |
| Beinecke Library, Yale University | 41 | complete | paper | The Melk copy, a gift from Mrs. Edward Harkness in 1926.<ref name="KentLancour1982">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="MorleyKalfus1990">Template:Cite book</ref> | |
| Scheide Library, Princeton University | 43 | complete | paper | The Brinley-Cole-Ives-Ellsworth-Scheide copy,<ref name="Adams1939">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Club1966">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> one of three existing copies in its original binding.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Online images | |
| Lilly Library, Indiana University | 46<ref name="Leslie1960">Template:Cite book</ref> | incomplete | paper | New Testament only, 12 leaves missing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Part of the same copy as the volume in Mons, Belgium (see above).<ref name="HellingaDavies1999">Template:Cite book</ref> 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 US$2.4 million. Online images | |
| Vatican City (2) | Vatican Library | 33 | incomplete | vellum | Online images of vol. 1 and vol. 2 |
| 34 | incomplete | paper | Vol. I. |
Fragments
Some fragments of the Gutenberg Bible are housed at:
- The Library of Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- The Basel University Library, Basel, Switzerland
- The British Library, London - known as the Bagford Fragment
- The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Schiede Library at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Rendsberg Fragment at Gottorf Castle, Schleswig, Germany
- The Iowa Masonic Library and Museum located in Cedar Rapids IowaTemplate:Cn
- The McCune Collection, California, USA
- The Clark Library at UCLA, California, USA
- The John Carter Brown Library of the Early Americas in Providence, Rhode Island, USA
- The National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Several fragments and single leaves sold at Christie's Auction House or Sotheby's in the 21st century.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Recent history
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.<ref name="Clausen">Clausen Books Gutenberg Bible Census Template:Webarchive accessed 7 July 2009</ref> During the 20th century several long-lost copies were discovered, considerably improving the understanding of how the Bible was produced and distributed.<ref name="waste" />
In 1921, a New York rare book dealer, Gabriel Wells, bought a damaged 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".<ref name="mccune">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1953 Charles Scribner's Sons, also book dealers in New York, dismembered a damaged paper copy of volume II. The largest portion of this, the New Testament, is now owned by Indiana University. The leaf carrying part of Chapter 14, all of Chapter 15, and part of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel was donated to the General Theological Seminary to repair their copy of the bible (now located at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek).<ref name="GeneralTheologicalSeminary" /> The matching first volume of this copy was subsequently discovered in Mons, Belgium, having been bequeathed by Edmond Puissant to the city in 1934.<ref name="Long lost" />
The only copy held outside Europe and 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.<ref name="Gutenberg Bible: The HUMI Project" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, which sold for $2.4 million. This copy is now in Austin, Texas.<ref name="Clausen" /> The price of a complete copy today is estimated at $25−35 million.<ref name="MSNBC">In the book world, the rarest of the rare</ref><ref name="Luxist.com">The World of Rare Books: The Gutenberg Bible, First and Most Valuable Template:Webarchive</ref>
A two-volume paper edition of the Gutenberg Bible was stolen from Moscow State University in 2009 and subsequently recovered in an FSB sting operation in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Possession of a Gutenberg Bible by a library has been equated to keeping a "trophy book".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
See also
- Books in Germany
- Canons of page construction
- Incunable
- Jikji
- List of most expensive books and manuscripts
General bibliography
- Niels Henry Sonne. America's Oldest Episcopal Seminary Library and the Needs It Serves. New York: The Library of The General Theological Seminary, 1953. Template:OCLC.
- 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.
- The Gutenberg Bible of 1454 Template:In lang, Göttingen Library, Facsimile Edition, 2 vols + booklet, ed. Stephan Füssel, 1400 pp. Taschen: Cologne.
References
External links
- Gutenberg Digital Public access to digitised copy of the Gutenberg Bible held by the Göttingen State and University Library in Germany
- Morgan Gutenberg Bible Online Digitised copy of the Gutenberg Bible at the Morgan Library & Museum in the United States
- Treasures in Full: Gutenberg Bible Template:Webarchive 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 Template:In lang Image of rubricators' instructions from the Munich copy
- Template:Cite book
- The Gutenberg Bible at the Beinecke Template:Webarchive 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
- Fragment of the Gutenberg Bible, Biblia Latina [Armoire S], at the Library of Trinity College Dublin
- Fragment of the Gutenberg Bible, A Noble Fragment: Being a Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible (1450–55), at the Clark Library of the University of California, Los Angeles
- Fragment of the Gutenberg Bible at the John Carter Brown Library of the Early Americas