The Gutenberg Bible

2016/03/03

The Gutenberg Bible is a bible published around 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith in Mainz, Germany, using the world's first movable-type printing technology. After much trial and error with movable-type printing, Gutenberg, with financial support from Johann Fust, chose the "Vulgate Bible," translated from Greek to Latin by St. Jerome, as his text and printed most of the pages with 42 lines. For this reason, it is also known as the "42-line Bible." It is believed that about 180 copies were produced on either vellum or paper, but only 48 copies, including incomplete ones, are confirmed to exist today.

The Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) is the only institution in Asia to possess a copy of the first volume printed on paper. After the text was printed, the Gutenberg Bibles were sent unbound to various parts of Europe, where they were rubricated and illuminated by decorators before being elaborately bound. Therefore, no two copies are identical, and the copy held by the Keio University Library (hereafter, the "Keio copy") also has its own unique features. Let us introduce some of its main features.

First, looking at the beginning, one notices pages printed in two colors with a 40-line layout. These are said to be pages where a 40-line layout was attempted before settling on 42 lines. The cover is a leather binding with blind tooling, and both the front and back covers have five metal bosses. Furthermore, the small, round leather tabs on the fore-edge are index tabs indicating the beginning of each book of the Bible, a feature unique to the Keio copy among the surviving Gutenberg Bibles. It is also noteworthy that it is one of only three extant copies that were printed, decorated, and bound in Mainz.

The Keio copy is thought to have been kept in a monastery in Mainz from the 15th to the 18th century, but it is known to have been in the possession of the Earl of Gosford (1806–1864) in England by the mid-19th century. Subsequently, after passing through the hands of several bibliophiles and antiquarian booksellers, it crossed the Atlantic for the first time in 1950 and became part of the collection of Estelle Doheny (1875–1958), the widow of Edward L. Doheny, known as an American oil tycoon in California.

Mrs. Doheny housed it in the library of a seminary she founded, but when her collection was put up for auction in 1987, the Keio copy, which was part of it, was purchased by Maruzen Co., Ltd. (at the time) for what was then the world's highest price for a printed book. In 1996, it was acquired by Keio University.

This acquisition prompted Keio University to launch the HUMI Project (1996–2001), through which the Keio copy and many other rare books were digitized. The Keio copy pioneered the ongoing digitization of rare books at Keio University and can be considered a book that symbolizes the university's digital humanities research.

(Takashi Kuramochi, Mita Media Center)