Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1Text 2Printing history 3The production process: Das Werk der Bücher Toggle The production process: Das Werk der Bücher subsection 3.1Pages 3.2Ink 3.3Type 3.4Type style 3.5Rubrication, illumination and binding 4Early owners 5Influence on later Bibles 6Forgeries 7Surviving copies Toggle Surviving copies subsection 7.1Substantially complete copies 8Recent history 9See also 10General bibliography 11References 12External links Toggle the table of contents Gutenberg Bible 48 languages العربية閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gúБеларускаяБеларуская (тарашкевіца)БългарскиCatalàČeštinaCymraegDanskDeutschEestiΕλληνικάEspañolEsperantoEstremeñuEuskaraفارسیFrançaisFrysk한국어Հայերենहिन्दीHrvatskiBahasa IndonesiaInterlinguaItalianoעבריתქართულიLatviešuМакедонскиമലയാളംमराठीNederlands日本語Norsk bokmålPolskiPortuguêsРусскийSimple EnglishSlovenčinaСрпски / srpskiSuomiSvenskaதமிழ்TürkçeУкраїнськаاردو中文 Edit links ArticleTalk English ReadEditView history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions ReadEditView history General What links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkPage informationCite this pageGet shortened URLDownload QR codeWikidata item Expand allEdit interlanguage links Print/export Download as PDFPrintable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Earliest major book printed in Europe The copy of the Gutenberg Bible held at the Richelieu - Bibliothèques, musée, galeries. 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[1] and its historical significance. The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Latin Vulgate printed in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, in present-day Germany. Forty-nine copies (or substantial portions of copies) have survived. They are thought to be among the world's most valuable books, although no complete copy has been sold since 1978.[2][3] 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, and that either 158 or 180 copies had been printed. 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.[4] Text[edit] Gutenberg Bible in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut The Gutenberg Bible, an edition of the Vulgate, contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. It is mainly the work of St Jerome who began his work on the translation in AD 380, with emendations from the Parisian Bible tradition, and further divergences.[5] Printing history[edit] Gutenberg Bible of the New York Public Library; purchased by James Lenox in 1847, it was the first Gutenberg Bible to be acquired by a United States citizen. 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 Minor, a popular Latin grammar school book.[6][7][8] Preparation of the Bible probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455.[9] 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.[10] Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process.[11] Spine of the Lenox copy 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.[11][12] 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.[13] 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.[14][15] The production process: Das Werk der Bücher[edit] A vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress, on display at the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. 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.[16] 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.[1] Pages[edit] First page of the first volume: the epistle of St Jerome to Paulinus from the University of Texas copy. The page has 40 lines. 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.[17] Gutenberg Bible on display at the U.S. Library of Congress The 42-line Bible was printed on the size of paper known as 'Royal'.[18] A full sheet of Royal paper measures 42 cm × 60 cm (17 in × 24 in) and a single untrimmed folio leaf measures 42 cm × 30 cm (17 in × 12 in).[19] There have been attempts to claim that the book was printed on larger paper measuring 44.5 cm × 30.7 cm (17.5 in × 12.1 in),[20] but this assertion is contradicted by the dimensions of existing copies. For example, the leaves of the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, measure 40 cm × 28.6 cm (15.7 in × 11.3 in).[21] This is typical of other folio Bibles printed on Royal paper in the fifteenth century.[22] 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, 2 {\textstyle {\sqrt {2}}} . Many suggest that this ratio was chosen to match the so-called Golden Ratio, 1 + 5 2 {\textstyle {\tfrac {1+{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}} , 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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25] Ink