Mainz, c.1455

[GUTENBERG, Johannes (d. 1468).] Biblia Latina. [Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg and Johann Fust, c.1455.]

A leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, "the first substantial book to be printed with moveable type in the western world" (PMM). This leaf from Proverbs, 3.9-6.16. The present leaf comes from the now widely dispersed Trier City Library copy. "Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, brought together many technologies already in existence to develop a method for reproducing texts … a key piece of equipment which did not exist was the adjustable mold, necessary for casting letters of different widths. The device was new, invented by Gutenberg … the result was so successful that his first large work, the 42-line Bible, has long been considered one of the most beautiful books ever printed" (Kelly). This leaf contains the text of Proverbs, 3.9-6.16: Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase… The largest fragment of this copy went to George A. Poole, Jr. of Chicago, whose collection was later acquired by the Lilly Library; other fragments went to Southern Methodist University and to the Viscount von Seilern, where they remain today. Needham P48; De Ricci 15b; Schwenke 14; Hain *3031; Goff B-526; Chalmers Disbound and Dispersed p. 15; Jerry Kelly, One Hundred Books Famous in Typography 1; PMM 1.

Folio (390 x 285mm). One leaf. 42 lines, double column, Gothic type. Lombard initials in red, headline in brown ink (large repairs at outside edges of the leaf, mostly to blank areas but affecting edges of about 6 letters on one side, and on the other side with several words in facsimile, a few wormholes, a little dustsoiled). Red half morocco slipcase with window mount, with letterpress description laid in. Provenance: Monastery of St. Maximin in the Rhineland (lost following the French occupation in 1794, then portions rediscovered in 1828 in a farmhouse in Olewig) – Stadstbibliothek, Trier (sold Sotheby's, 21 June 1937, to A. S. W. Rosenbach for:) – Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. (1906-1990, sold to:) – Scribner's and Sons (booksellers who broke up the remaining fragments and dispersed them).