Gutenberg Bible Mainz
digitized
with Cobra A2
The famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible is considered to be the first book printed with movable type in the western world. It was created between 1452 and 1454 in Johannes Gutenberg’s printing workshop in Mainz, from which around 180 copies were produced. Of these, 30 were probably printed on precious parchment and around 150 on paper. Today, 49 of them are still known worldwide.
The design of the fonts and the printing in two columns adhere very closely to the appearance of contemporary manuscripts. Only the text was printed. Each buyer had the colourful decoration and the binding made independently by specialized craftsmen, the rubricators and illuminators. Each copy of the Gutenberg Bible is therefore unique.
The print usually consists of two volumes in folio format, of which the first volume contains the first part of the Old Testament, the second volume mainly the prophets of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Gutenberg-Museum in Mainz owns two editions of the Bible, bound in three volumes.
These are exhibited together with other precious works in the museum’s walk-in vault.
The Gutenberg Bible in numbers
~180
copies
~30
on parchment
150
on paper
49
copies worldwide
Project background
book2net action
MICROBOX is making its book scanner book2net Cobra A2 available to the museum for the duration of the project. The digitization will be carried out by museum staff after intensive training and with the support of MICROBOX specialists.
Results
A total of around 2000 pages will be digitized. The digital copies will later be made available to researchers and the public online via the Gutenberg Capture platform of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
See Cobra
