Bible of Gutenberg

The Bible of Gutenberg or “Bible with forty-two lines” (B42) is the first delivers printed in Europe using mobile characters.

Description

Realized with Mainz between 1452 and 1454 under the responsibility of Johannes Gutenberg and its associates, Johann Fust and Pierre Schoeffer, the Bible of Gutenberg is composed of two volumes In-folio of 324 and 319 pages with format 20 × 30 cm.

Printed on Paper imported Italy (or, for forty specimens, on Vellum), it reproduces the Latin text of the Vulgate of Saint Jerome: the Old Testament occupies the first volume and part of the second, who contains the whole of the New Testament.

Sold by subscription, this Biblia Latina was bought with its publication by religious institutions, primarily of the Monastère S. On a pulling of approximately 180 specimens, 48 were preserved until today, and of the isolated layers are in some Bibliothèque S, like that of the Correr museum of Venice. The majority of the specimens are in Germany. In France, the National library has of them three specimens, including one on vellum, and the Bibliothèque Mazarine a specimen on paper.

Manufacture

To test its press to be printed and its mobile characters in Alloy of metal, Gutenberg started, in the neighborhoods of 1450, by composing of the texts which it reproduced on sheets of paper simple, then undertook to print little books, like the Latin Grammaire of Donat.

The essence of work is then carried out with the hand. To compose each line of the text, it was necessary to select the characters one by one (in relief and reversed) corresponding to the letters of the words, and to place them within a special framework, the “form”, located on the plate of the press. Once all the composed lines, the form was coated with Encre using balls in hair of horse. A beforehand humidified sheet of paper there was then placed, that a plank of wood, “platinizes it”, came to compress under the action of a screw in Bois.

The number of presses used in the Atelier of Gutenberg remains unknown, but the quantity of printed pages lets think that it used of them more one. The presses being actuated by two Working S, it is possible that the company required to twelve workmen, without counting the people employed at the disposal of the characters, inking, the preparation of the sheets of paper, folding, etc

The realization of the 180 specimens of the Bible was spread out over three years, one period at the conclusion which a Copiste would have hardly completed the reproduction of only one Bible.

Composition

The first pages of the Bible of Gutenberg comprise two columns of 40 lines per page, sometimes 41. To save paper, Gutenberg decided impimer 42 lines per page, then to decrease the size of the characters. Another evolution: Gutenberg tested one moment to print the titles in red, then gave up, undoubtedly because the operation was too tiresome. The writing color of the titles will be finally entrusted to a Artisan after the impression.

To compose its Bible, Gutenberg chose the font face Textura (or monocale ), connected with the Gothic script and corresponding to the writing used at the time for the liturgical texts, in particular the Missel S. Gutenberg adopts a sufficiently large force of body so that its Bible can be used for public readings. This very angular writing in addition made it possible to separate the letters well, and was thus appropriate perfectly for the mobile characters.

The Bible of Gutenberg resembles a Manuscrit, with this detail close all the ends of line are carefully aligned on the margin of right-hand side, unlike the handwritten texts. Today, the printers and the typographers speak about lines “justified” to indicate this presentation. No word of the Bible is cut at the end of the line. To obtain this justified presentation, Gutenberg does not use spaces of variable size between the words, but distributes more or less broad signs of Ponctuation, employs bindings (two letters coupled and melted together) and replaces certain words by their Abréviation.

The site intended for the Reference letter S and the Enluminure S was reserved. An artist was charged to draw them once the printed pages. This work was left with the appreciation of the purchasers. Moreover, of the “rubricateurs” by colors the Nomina intervened to emphasize Crowned , i.e. the words Sacré S. the addition of drawings carried out with the hand contributed to return each specimen of this single Bible.

A few years later, Gutenberg printed a version of its Bible on 36 lines.

Known localizations of the Bible of Gutenberg

The Biblia Latina with 42 lines of 1455 is the book more sought by the institutions and amateurs of the whole world. The price of a complete specimen reaches the 10 million dollars.

Austria (1)

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek with Vienna

Belgium (2)

College library with Mons
Museum Plantin-Moretus with Antwerp

Denmark (1)

Kongelige Bibliotek

France (3)

National library of France to Paris (one of the three “perfect” vellum copies)
Library Mazarine in Paris
Public library of Saint-Omer

Germany (12)

Gutenberg Museum with Mainz (2 copies)
Landesbibliothek with Fulda
Universitätsbibliothek with Leipzig
Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek with Göttingen
Staatsbibliothek with Berlin
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek with Munich
Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek with Francfort-sur-le-Main
Hofbibliothek with Aschaffenburg
Württembergische Landesbibliothek with Stuttgart
Stadtbibliothek with Trier
Landesbibliothek with Kassel

Italy/the Vatican (2)

Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (a copy vellum, a hard copy)

Japan (1)

Keio University Library with Tokyo

Poland (1)

Biblioteka Seminarium Duchownego with Pelpin

Portugal (1)

Biblioteca Nacional with Lisbon

Russia (2)

Library of State to Moscow
Lomonosow University Library with Moscow

Spain (2)

Biblioteca Universitaria there Provincial with Seville
Biblioteca Pública Provincial with Burgos

Swiss (1)

Bibliotheca Bodmeriana with Cologny

the United Kingdom (8)

British Library with London (one of the three copies in " perfect vélin" , and a hard copy and the Bagford Fragment)
Lambeth De luxe hotel Library in London (decorated in England)
Bodleian Library with Oxford
University Library with Cambridge
Eton College Library with Eton
John Rylands Library with Manchester
National Library off Scotland with Edinburgh

the United States (9)

Library off Congress with Washington (one of the three copies in " perfect vélin")
New York Public Library with New York
Pierpont Morgan Library with New York (a copy vellum, 2 hard copies)
Widener Library with Harvard University with Cambridge in the Massachusetts
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library with Yale University with New Haven in the Connecticut
The Cobs Library with Princeton University with Princeton in the New Jersey
Indiana University Library with Indiana University Bloomington with Bloomington in the Indiana (incomplete)
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center with the University of Texas to Austin
Henry E. Huntington Library with San Marino in California

Bill Gates (cofounder of Microsoft) has of it a copy bought in 1994 with an auction.

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