Gutenberg Bible Totally Explained

Everything about The Gutenberg Bible totally explained

The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible or the Mazarin Bible) is a printed version of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in the fifteenth century. Although it's not, as often thought, the first book to be printed by Gutenberg's new movable type system, it's his major work, and has iconic status as the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the "Age of the Printed Book".
The detailed format of the printed bible is a possible imitation of a Mainz illuminated manuscript, the so called Giant Bible of Mainz (Biblia latina), whose 1300 pages were written between 1452 and 1453.

The 42-line Bible

The name 42-line Bible refers to the number of lines of print on each page, and is used to differentiate this edition of the Gutenberg Bible from the rarer 36-line Bible, which is also referred to as a Gutenberg Bible. The term "Gutenberg Bible" is most commonly used to refer to the more familiar 42-line edition.
Preparation of the Bible began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455, using a printing press and movable type. This Bible is the most famous incunabulum and its production marked the beginning of the mass production of books in the West. It was printed in the type styles that would become known as Texture and Schumacher. A complete copy comprises 1282 pages, and most bibles were bound in at least two volumes. It is believed that about 180 copies of the Bible were produced, 45 on vellum and 135 on paper, a number which marks a sharp contrast with the prior technology for societies which, from time immemorial, had to produce copies of written works laboriously by hand. Gutenberg produced these Bibles (which were printed, then rubricated and illuminated by hand, the work of specialized craftsmen) over a period of a year, the time it would have taken to produce one copy in a Scriptorium. Because of the hand illumination, each copy is unique.
In some copies of the Bible, the headings on a few of the sheets at the top are printed in red; the initial pages were re-composed, and the later copies for those pages are in black only, with the red headers lettered by hand. On all later pages the red headings are added by hand, and a printed list of the text to be added to each page survives. This presumably represents a failed experiment.

The 36-line Bible

In the past, there was no consensus on the order of editions. Some specialists like Richard Schwab and Thomas Cahill argued that the rarer 36-line Bible is actually the older, cruder version, and that the 42-line Bible was a second, more numerous and perfected edition of Gutenberg's Bible.. Others, like Richard W. Clement, argued that the 36-line Bible was printed in 1458, 3 years after the 42-line Bible, but with an older typefont. The dispute, however, has been settled; the line endings on the pages of the 36 line Bible make it evident that the text is based on a copy of the 42-line Bible. (Kapr, "Johannes Gutenberg." Scolar, 1996)

Existing copies of the Gutenberg Bible

As of 2007, there are 48 Gutenberg 42-line Bibles known to exist. This includes eleven complete copies (four of which are perfect) on vellum, and one copy of the New Testament only on vellum. In addition, there are a substantial number of fragments, some as small as individual leaves—at least one copy is known to have been partially broken up to be sold in parts.
The country with the most copies is Germany, which has twelve, whilst the United States has eleven and the United Kingdom eight. Mainz, Russia and the Vatican City contain two copies, Paris and London have three copies, and New York has four copies. Three identified copies have been lost — two disappeared from Leipzig after the end of the Second World War, and one is known to have been destroyed along with the library of the Catholic University of Leuven in 1914. However, the former two were rediscovered in recent years, both in Moscow, where they'd been taken.
A full listing of known copies and brief details on their condition can be found in the British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, ISTC number ib00526000. The 36-line bible is catalogued as ISTC number ib00527000. Copy numbers are as found in the ISTC, taken from a 1985 survey of existing copies by Ilona Hubay; the two copies in Russia were not known to exist in 1985, and so were not catalogued. A more detailed census, with some notes on provenance, is online at Clausen Books

. "Perfect" or "imperfect" refers to completeness—whether a volume still contains all its leaves. Substantially complete copies of the 42-line bible>

Country	Holding institution	Copy	Notes
Austria (1)	Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna	Hubay 27	Perfect, paper
Belgium (1)	Bibliothèque universitaire, Mons	Hubay 1	Imperfect, paper
Denmark (1)	Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen	Hubay 12	Vol. II, imperfect, paper
France (4)	Bibliothèque nationale, Paris	Hubay 15	Perfect, vellum
	Bibliothèque nationale, Paris	Hubay 17	Imperfect, paper. Contains note by binder dating it to August 1456
	Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris	Hubay 16	Perfect, paper
	Bibliothèque Municipale, Saint-Omer	Hubay 18	Imperfect, paper
Germany (12)	Gutenberg Museum, Mainz	Hubay 8	One copy is vol. I, imperfect, paper; the other both vols., imperfect, paper. It is unclear which is which.
	Gutenberg Museum, Mainz	Hubay 9
	Landesbibliothek, Fulda	Hubay 4	Vol. I, imperfect, vellum
	Universitätsbibliothek, Leipzig	Hubay 14	Imperfect, vellum
	Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen	Hubay 2	Perfect, vellum
	Staatsbibliothek, Berlin	Hubay 3	Imperfect, vellum
	Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich	Hubay 5	Perfect, paper
	Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt-am-Main	Hubay 6	Perfect, paper
	Hofbibliothek, Aschaffenburg	Hubay 7	Imperfect, paper
	Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart	Hubay 10	Imperfect, paper. Purchased in April 1978 for 2.2 million US dollars.
	Stadtbibliothek, Trier	Hubay 11	Vol.I?, imperfect, paper. Possibly sister volume to Hubay 46, in Indiana
	Landesbibliothek, Kassel	Hubay 12	Vol. I, imperfect, paper
Japan (1)	Keio University Library, Tokyo	Hubay 45	Vol. I, imperfect, paper. Purchased in October 1987 for either 4.9 or 5.4 million US dollars (sources disagree)
Poland (1)	Biblioteka Seminarium Duchownego, Pelpin	Hubay 28	Imperfect, paper
Portugal (1)	Portuguese National Library, Lisbon	Hubay 29	Perfect, paper
Russia (2)	Russian National Library	-	Imperfect, vellum
Russia (2)	Lomonosow University Library, Moscow	-	Perfect, paper
Spain (2)	Biblioteca Universitaria y Provincial, Seville	Hubay 32	Vol. II, imperfect, paper
Spain (2)	Biblioteca Pública Provincial, Burgos	Hubay 31	Perfect, paper
Switzerland (1)	Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, Cologny	Hubay 30	Imperfect, paper
United Kingdom (8)	British Library, London	?	Perfect, vellum
	British Library, London	?	Perfect, paper
	National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh	Hubay 26	Perfect, paper
	Lambeth Palace Library, London	Hubay 20	Vol. II (New Testament only), imperfect, vellum
	Eton College Library, Eton	Hubay 23	Perfect, paper
	John Rylands Library, Manchester	Hubay 25	Perfect, paper
	Bodleian Library, Oxford	Hubay 24	Perfect, paper
	University Library, Cambridge	Hubay 22	Perfect, paper
United States (11)	Pierpont Morgan Library, New York	Hubay 37	Imperfect, vellum
		Hubay 38	Perfect, paper
		Hubay 44	Imperfect, paper
	Library of Congress, Washington DC	Hubay 35	Perfect, vellum
	New York Public Library	Hubay 42	Imperfect, paper
	Widener Library, Harvard University	Hubay 40	Perfect, paper
	Beinecke Library, Yale University	Hubay 41	Perfect, paper
	Scheide Library, Princeton University	Hubay 43	Imperfect, paper
	Lilly Library, Indiana University	Hubay 46	Imperfect, paper. Possibly sister volume to Hubay 11, in Trier
	Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino	Hubay 36	Imperfect, vellum
	University of Texas at Austin	Hubay 39	Perfect, paper. Purchased in 1974 for 2.4 million US dollars.
Vatican City (2)	Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana	Hubay 33	Imperfect, vellum
Vatican City (2)	Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana	Hubay 34	Vol I, imperfect, paper

Prices and dealers

In the 1920s a New York book dealer, Gabriel Wells, bought a damaged paper copy, dismantled the book and sold sections and individual leaves to book collectors and libraries. The leaves were sold in a portfolio case with an essay written by A. Edward Newton. (Also referred to as a "Noble Fragment") These leaves now sell for $20,000–$100,000 depending upon condition and the desirability of the page.
On 22 October 1987 a Japanese buyer, Eiichi Kobayashi, a director at the Maruzen Company, purchased the Old Testament portion (Hubay 45) for $5.4 million at a Christie's Auction. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place nine years before, again at Christie's, for $2.2 million.

Media References

In the movie The Day After Tomorrow, people burned books to try to stay warm in the New York City Public Library. One character was holding the library's copy of the Gutenberg Bible to protect it from being burned.

In the game Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich a villain named Fortissimo tried to burn the Gutenberg Bible but was stopped by the Freedom Force.

In the movie, Bender returns to the past and steals the Gutenberg Bible which contains the Colonel's secret recipe: "Chicken, grease, salt".Further Information

Get more info on 'Gutenberg Bible'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://gutenberg_bible.totallyexplained.com">Gutenberg Bible Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.