MINIATURIST, German
(active c. 1455 in Mainz)

Gutenberg Bible

1455
Incunable (C.9.d.4)
British Library, London

In the mid-fifteenth century, mass-produced block-books, pages combining text and pictures, were already common for such items as calendars, books of hours and playing cards. However, it was the composition of whole books in moveable type, the laborious putting together of separate letters, that was revolutionary. At first they imitated manuscripts as closely as possible, as Gutenberg's Bible does.

Probably the most famous Bible in the world, Gutenberg's 42-line Bible is the earliest full-scale work printed in Europe using movable type. Printed in Mainz (Germany) by Johann Gutenberg and associates, fewer than 50 copies of the original now survive, in public and private collections around the world.

This Latin Bible was the work of a partnership between Johann Gutenberg, Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, which was dissolved in 1455 after the completion of the book.

The present picture shows folio 1, the opening of Proverbs in Gutenberg's 42-line Bible.




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