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A new age of information -

Before the movable type printing press was introduced in the West, sharing and disseminating ideas and information to the masses was not easy.

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A new age of information -

Johannes Gutenberg (1400–1468) changed this by introducing letterpress printing in Europe, allowing for information to be easily and affordably reproduced and distributed.

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The process -

The German inventor figured the process out sometime between 1436 and 1440. Gutenberg called it Das Werk der Bücher ("The Work of the Books").

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Test -

To test it out, Gutenberg decided to print the most popular book in the world: the Bible. Though Gutenberg was not the first to press a book like this.

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But he was not the first -

While the process was new in the West, pressing ink onto paper was nothing new for the Chinese, who had been using wooden block printing since the 2nd century CE.

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Pi Sheng -

Fast forward to the mid-11th century, and a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng developed a system of individual character types made of clay mixed with glue.

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The movable type arrived -

In 1377, a collection of Zen Buddhist teachings known as the Jikji was printed in Korea. This was about 75 years before Gutenberg printed his Bibles.

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The oldest mechanically-printed book in Europe -

The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible, or the B42, was first printed in Mainz, Germany, and published circa 1455.

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Gutenberg didn’t profit from his invention -

Not only did Gutenberg not live to see the success of his invention, but he also reportedly died poor, after his business partner Johann Fust sued him for the money he had loaned to Gutenberg to print the Bibles.

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Gutenberg didn’t profit from his invention -

Gutenberg lost the lawsuit and had to turn his printing equipment, as well as half the printed Bibles, over to Fust.

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The print run was incredibly small -

It is estimated that only around 180 copies of Gutenberg’s Bible were printed during the early 1450s.

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The print run was incredibly small -

This might not seem like a lot, but it was still a great achievement, considering there were only about 30,000 books in Europe at the time.

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It was a success -

The Bibles were well received by the Church. The future Pope Pius II wrote a letter to Cardinal Carvajal in Rome saying that the Bibles were “exceedingly clean and correct in their script, and without error, such as Your Excellency could read effortlessly without glasses.”

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Hype -

This created a bit of a hype. As a result, the Bibles were all sold even before the printing was finished.

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Different variations -

Most Gutenberg Bibles consist of 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, but they all vary slightly.

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Variations -

The typography differs, depending on the copy. The first copies also had title headings printed in red, a process later abandoned due to it being too time-consuming.

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Paper or skin? -

Some 135 of the 180 copies were printed on paper, but the remaining copies were actually made with vellum, which is a parchment made from calfskin.

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Not animal-friendly -

It is estimated that about 170 calfskins were needed to produce the amount of vellum required for the printing of just one Gutenberg Bible.

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Process -

The Bibles were printed using oil-based ink, and the type, including letters, accentuation, and spaces, was all handmade.

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Personalized copies -

Scribes and artists would often be hired later by the Bibles’ owners to add unique titles by hand and illustrations into their copies.

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The Soviets seized two copies from Germany -

After WWII ended, the Red Army and their “Trophy Brigades” confiscated thousands of works of art and books. Among these were two copies of the Gutenberg Bible.

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They kept it a secret -

The copies were looted from the University of Leipzig and the German Book and Script Museum. It was not until the 1980s that the Soviets revealed they had taken the copies and that they were held in Moscow (one of the copies pictured).

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Germany hasn’t recovered the looted Bibles -

Despite multiple attempts, Germany has not managed to get the copies of the Bibles back from Russia.

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Crime -

Back in 2009, a Russian government agent even stole one of the Bibles and tried to sell it on the black market for US$1.5 million. However, he was caught by Russian authorities.

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Theft -

But before this one, an attempted theft occurred at Harvard University’s library in 1969. A man named Vido Aras tried to steal a copy of the precious Bible from Harvard’s Widener Library, but he fell and passed out while trying to escape. He was found the following morning with a fractured skull, but the Bible was hardly damaged.

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Surviving copies -

As of today, 48 (or 49, depending on the source) copies of the book survive, though only about 20 of them are complete. Many have lots of missing pages.

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Who owns the Gutenberg Bibles? -

There are copies scattered around the world. Germany, where the Gutenberg Bibles were originally printed, holds 14 copies.

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Who owns the Gutenberg Bibles? -

About 10 Gutenberg Bibles traveled across the pond to the United States. These can be found at the U.S. Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, Harvard University and Yale University's libraries, and elsewhere. 

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Who owns the Gutenberg Bibles? -

The French Bibliothèque Nationale and the British Library also hold copies of the Gutenberg Bible.

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Expensive -

The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible on record took place in 1978. It was sold for a whopping US$2.2 million.

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Valuable -

In 1987, a lone volume alone was sold for US$5.4 million. It’s estimated that at present a complete copy would cost upwards of US$35 million at auction.

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It holds a Guinness World Record -

The Gutenberg Bible holds the Guinness World Record for "Oldest mechanically printed book."

Sources: (History) (Discover Walks) (Britannica) (Guinness World Records)

See also: Parts of the Bible that were confirmed by science

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