Gutenberg Bible | Description, History, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

Gutenberg Bible | Description, History, & Facts? ›

The Gutenberg Bible is the first great book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type. It is therefore a monument that marks a turning point in the art of bookmaking and consequently in the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world.

There are several different variations of the Gutenberg Bible. Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike. Of the 180 copies, some 135 were printed on paper, while the rest were made using vellum, a parchment made from calfskin.

Forty-nine Bibles survived into the twentieth century and only twenty-one of these are complete. Of the thirty-five vellum copies, only three exist as complete copies. The Library's copy is one of those three.

Preparation of the Bible probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455. 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.

Gutenberg Bible, the first complete book extant in the West and one of the earliest printed from movable type, so called after its printer, Johannes Gutenberg, who completed it about 1455 working at Mainz, Germany.

The Gutenberg Bible is the first great book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type. It is therefore a monument that marks a turning point in the art of bookmaking and consequently in the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world.

Single leaves of the famous 42-line Bible occasionally turn up at auction--one recently sold at Swann Galleries for $55,000--but a complete copy hasn't been seen at auction since 1978, so this sizable section is estimated to make at least $500,000 for its consignor, the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York ...

Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, Oxford.

Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest known manuscript of the Christian Bible, compiled in the 4th century ce. In 1844, 43 leaves of a 4th-century biblical codex (a collection of single pages bound together along one side) were discovered at St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai (hence the name Sinaiticus).

None is known to be kept in private hands. Among those in the United States, a paper Bible can be seen at the Morgan Library & Museum, in New York City. Two more copies in vellum lie in the underground vaults, next to 120,000 other books.

Why is it called the 42 line Bible? ›

The Latin text was printed in a close line system on a total of 1,254 hand decorated and illustrated sheets of paper. The work is also referred to as the 42-Line Bible since every page of text contains 42 lines.

In Mainz, Germany, in the mid-1450s, Johann Gutenberg and his partner Johann Fust published more than 150 large-format copies of the Bible in Latin. This is the book known today as the Gutenberg Bible.

Influences on the Spread of Christianity

Publishing the Gutenberg Bible marked a significant change in how followers throughout Europe engaged with Christianity. Prior to the widespread distribution of books, only monks and royals would ever have the opportunity to read a Bible.

The Gutenberg Bible, the first bible printed using a modern printing press, was not an underground publication but a widely available and well-known one in the 1450s. Therefore, especially since it used the Vulgate translation that was common in bibles at the time, it was very much Catholic.

A: The Library of Congress has a copy of the Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum, which is the skin of a calf that is specially treated for use as a writing or printing surface. The Library of Congress is one of only four institutions with a complete, vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

The oldest extant printed book is a work of the Diamond Sutra and dates back to 868 CE, during the Tang Dynasty.

The Library of Congress is one of only four institutions with a complete, vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Other institutions in this category include the following: the Göttingen State and University Library, the National Library of France, and the British Library.

He then broke the glass of the case holding the two volumes of the bible, put the books in a backpack, and attempted to climb back up the way he had come. However, he may not have properly estimated the weight of the two volumes - they weigh between 30 and 35 pounds apiece - and was unable to make it back to the roof.

Estimates claim the printing press was able to create over 20 million copies between 1455 and 1500. Gutenberg style printing presses were able to output around 240 pages per hour. Modern offset presses can operate at speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour, or 300 sheets per minute.