World's 1st Printed Book - Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bibleor the B42) was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, marking the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely hailed for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has iconic status in the West. It is an edition of the Vulgate, printed byJohannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s. There are still twenty-one complete copies extant, which are considered the most expensive books on the market if on sale.

The 36-line Bible is also sometimes referred to as a Gutenberg Bible, but is possibly the work of another printer.

Relationship to earlier Bibles

In appearance the Gutenberg Bible closely resembles the large manuscript Bibles that were being produced at the time. The Giant Bible of Mainz, probably produced in Mainz in 1452-3, has been suggested as the particular model Gutenberg used. Around this time large Bibles, designed to be read from a lectern, were returning to popularity for the first time since the twelfth century. In the intervening period, small hand-held Bibles had been usual. The text of the Gutenberg Bible is traditional, falling within the Paris Vulgate group of texts. Manuscript Bibles all had texts that differed slightly, and the copy used by Gutenberg as the exemplar for his Bible has not been discovered.

Printing history

The Bible was not Gutenberg's first work. Preparation of it probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455. However, it is not known exactly how long the Bible took to print.

Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process. The first sheets were rubricated by being passed twice through the printing press, using black and then red ink. This was soon abandoned, with spaces being left for rubrication to be added by hand.

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, probably to 180 copies, 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.

Our most reliable information about the Bible's date comes from a letter. In March 1455, future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible, being displayed to promote the edition, in Frankfurt.

It is believed that in total 180 copies of the Bible were produced, 135 on paper and 45 on vellum.