The Gutenberg Bible has often been called the greatest book in the world.  There are good and valid reasons for the claim.  Marking the threshold of a new art, the magnificent work was the first major book in the West to be printed from movable type.  The Bible’s producers rank high among the handful of men who gave civilization modern printing – an invention to compare with the wheel, the discovery of fire, or the uses of gunpowder.

Printing was the supreme achievement of the Northern Renaissance.  Publication of the great Bible (sometimes called the 42-line Bible from the number of lines per page; sometimes the Mazarin Bible, for the cardinal in whose library a famous copy was found in 1763) released a spate of printing in Europe.  From 1457 to 1500 presses appeared in a host of European cities and towns.  Learning was advanced.  Written knowledge, once the province of the cultured few, became available to every literate man.

Gutenberg, like Shakespeare, left behind only tantalizing fragments concerning his life and work.  We know that he was born as Johann Gensfleisch into a well-to-do family of Mainz about 1400.  He later took the name of Gutenberg from his patrician mother.  Some time after his birth, political disturbances forced the family to flee Mainz and settle in Strasbourg.  There Gutenberg grew up and entered into a partnership, presumably to carry out some form of experimental printing.  Details of this period are hazy and only known through legal proceedings.  For several years before mid-century, Gutenberg disappeared from historical records.  By 1448, he had again become a citizen of Mainz.

By 1450, at the latest, Gutenberg’s plan for printing the Bible had been formed.  In that year he began to produce lead types made especially for the world’s first printed Bible.  The manufacture of the printing, the carving of the types, construction of the printing press, instruction and wages for a clever staff, purchase of enormous quantities of printing paper, parchment and so on, required a huge financial outlay.  In 1452, preparatory work had progressed to the point that the composition and printing of the Bible could be started.

For the printing of his first Bible, Gutenberg had cut and cast particularly beautiful and fine types, not only the 24 large and small letters of the Latin alphabet but also 290 different characters: 47 capitals and 243 small letters.  He need this great quantity because he wished to approximate the fineness of the magnificent medieval manuscripts and, if possible, to reproduce them in more beautiful form by his new art.  His Bible had better proportions and harmony than any of the manuscripts, even those produced with the greatest care.

That the Gutenberg Bible ever appeared at all is an interesting adjunct to its remarkable story.  For about the year 1450 he had borrowed 800 gulden from Johann Fust, a goldsmith and capitalist, and two years later asked for and received a similar amount with the understanding that Fust would be Gutenberg’s partner “in the work of the books.”  Gutenberg’s working equipment was put up as security.  When payment was not forthcoming, Fust went into court in 1455, suing to recover his money with interest and also requesting possession of Gutenberg’s tools.  As a witness, the burgher produced Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim, a technician in Gutenberg’s employ.  Once again, the mists of time blot out the record: it appears Furst did take over much of the printing equipment.  The partnership of Fust and Schoeffer was then established and they became prominent printers of Mainz, producing a magnificent Psalter in 1457 among their other works.  Gutenberg apparently was bankrupt but managed to continue printing.  In 1465, Archbishop Adolf of Mainz appointed him to a court position for life for services rendered in the past.  The great printer died in 1468, but circumstances of his death and burial are unknown.

Among printed pieces attributed to Gutenberg are several editions of a Latin grammar by Donatus, some letters of indulgence from the Pope (dated 1454 and 1455), a rare 36-line Bible and a Latin dictionary called the Catholicon.  But the major question remains:  what was Gutenberg’s connection with the famed 42-line Bible which carries his name?  There are no clean-cut answers.  After much sifting of evidence, scholars have concluded that the Bible was conceived and begun by Gutenberg and probably finished and marketed by Fust and Schoeffer.

The Gutenberg Bible was placed in time by Heinrich Cremer, vicar of the Collegiate Church of St. Stephen in Mainz, who rubricated, illuminated and bound a set of the work in 1456, marking the date within the volumes.  Allowing several months for Cremer’s efforts, it seems apparent the Bible came from the presses some time in 1455.  The printers themselves placed no date on their work.  Whatever its actual date, the 42-line Bible was a remarkable achievement for its time or any other.  Most pioneering works are crude, tentative and fumbling.  The Gutenberg Bible is none of these.  As a complete and polished entity it has stood inspection for over 500 years.  In all these five centuries there has not been a more perfect example of the art of printing.

The medieval printers, practicing an art rather than a craft, lavished infinite care on the first printing of the Book of Books.  A large and distinguished format, fine press work, creamy paper and an elaborately beautiful Gothic type face all contribute to this majestic production.  After experiments with 40- and 41-line pages, the printers settled on a 42-line page with two columns of type.  The number of Gutenberg Bibles printed at Mainz is not known.  Estimates say some 200 copies, of which 165 were on paper and 35 on vellum, came from the presses.  At present, there are about 51 known copies.

The 42-line Gutenberg Bible has 1,282 printed pages.  Spaces were left for major capital letters and chapter headings, and purchasers of the book employed artists to illuminate these and other free as with religious miniatures.

It is one of the ironies of history that the first meeting of illumination and printing simultaneously signaled the death of the former.  But the ornamental art of medieval illumination is recreated in these 28 facsimile pages with splendor of foliated initials in gold and other colors, sprays of elaborately stylized foliage and marginal prolongations and superb, well-executed miniatures.  The Gothic riot of medieval flowers, the peacocks, falcons and other birds, the dragons, other animals, saints and other Biblical personages, miniatures of biblical events, the backgrounds with tracery of various colors and the historiated initials are extremely handsome and outstanding examples of 15^th century illuminations done by a master hand.

Choose from 28 beautifully illuminated Gutenberg Bible facsimile leaves.  All leaves are in perfect condition and are securely packaged.  All leaves are from the original 1961 Cooper Square edition.  These are not copies.  They are all 47 years old. 

The Cooper Square 42-line Gutenberg Bible is far more than a beautiful facsimile edition of the first complete evidence of the success of movable type created by Johann Gutenberg between the years 1450 and 1455.  It is the culmination of a painstaking quest after the finest and most enduring modern processes of printing, engraving and binding available from the combined efforts of American craftsmen.  In 1956, the directors of Cooper Square Publishers, Inc. undertook to recreate this book for posterity, as a lasting tribute to the Art of mankind.  The edition, published after five years in the making, in 1961, is derived from the first facsimile ever reproduced, the 1913-14 edition by Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, Germany.  Sources for this edition were Gutenberg Bibles from the Berlin Staatsbibliothek and the Fulda Landesbibliothek.  Measuring 12 by 18 1/2 inches, these leaves are perfect for framing and visual display and are wonderful gifts.  You can also decorate your home or office with these incredible illuminated reproductions of Gutenberg's Bible.  These leaves are the first pages of 28 representative books of the Bible.   

This famous Cooper Square edition is the first American facsimile edition ever published, and at the time, only the second in the world.  Each color sheet was fed through the press seven separate times to assure faithful reproduction of the many subtle colors of the original leaves.  All process inks were tested in a fadeometer for 200 hours, the equivalent of 200 years of exposure to direct June sunlight.  The permanent pigments in the color inks, the lacquer-protected copper-bronze powder and the specially-made hundred-per-cent cotton fiber paper should endure for centuries.  Original Gutenberg Bible leaves, when available - they are quite rare, sell for tens of thousands of dollars each!  When Gutenberg invented the printing press and printed the Bible in circa 1455, he transformed the way knowledge and information was shared amongst the common man throughout Europe - almost 40 years before Columbus discovered America.  Because of his invention, over 500,000 books were printed between the years 1450 and 1500, known as incunabula, or early printing.  Prior to Gutenberg's invention, only the rich and the clergy could afford to hire people to copy hand-written books by hand.  In 1997, Time-Life magazine picked Gutenberg's invention as the number ONE most important event of the second millennium. 

The 1961 Cooper Square edition was world-renowned when it was published and remains so to this day:    

“The large type is nobly archaic and grave, the Latin lettering remarkably clear, the superb illuminated pages have a surprising look of gaiety…”

TIME Magazine

“The possibility of acquiring this most significant of all incunabula-indeed, of book production of all time-in faithful reproduction, is a rare and wonderful opportunity…”

James Humphrey III

Chief Librarian, The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York

Choose from 28 leaves:  Genesis; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy; Joshua; Job; Psalms 109-110; Psalms I-III; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel; Daniel; Hosea; Tobit; Maccabees; Baruch; St. Jerome's Introduction; St. Matthew; Luke; Gospel According to St. John; Acts; James; First Epistle General of Peter; First Epistle General of John; Third Epistle of John; Revelation.  Images shown are Genesis, Proverbs, St. Jerome's Introduction, Revelation, Acts and Daniel.  Please e-mail if you would like descriptions for all of these beautiful and ornate leaves sent to you, or if you would like a specific image sent to you.  Each leaf is $30.00 and shipping is $4.60 via US Priority Mail for one or more leaves.  Please email for international shipping costs.  This is a Buy-it-Now listing.  Please make sure to note which leaf or leaves you would like when you make a purchase.  You can do this when you order and/or when you pay via PayPal.  An email confirmation will then be sent to you.  I have a limited supply but I have multiple copies of each leaf.  Please check my 100% feedback rating from all of my very happy customers from around the world.  Thanks so much for your interest.