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46-522: An octavo is a book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets of paper on which 16 pages of text were printed, which were then folded three times to produce eight leaves. Each leaf of an octavo book thus represents one eighth the size of the original sheet. There are many variations in how octavos were produced. For example, bibliographers call a book printed as an octavo (eight leaves per full sheet), but bound in gatherings of 4 leaves each, an "octavo in 4s." The actual size of an octavo book depends on

92-650: A damaged paper copy of volume II. The largest portion of this, the New Testament, is now owned by Indiana University. The leaf carrying part of Chapter 14, all of Chapter 15, and part of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel was donated to the General Theological Seminary to repair their copy of the bible (now located at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek). The matching first volume of this copy

138-469: A few were certainly used for study. Kristian Jensen suggests that many copies were bought by wealthy and pious laymen for donation to religious institutions. The Gutenberg Bible had a profound effect on the history of the printed book. Textually, it also had an influence on future editions of the Bible. It provided the model for several later editions, including the 36 Line Bible , Mentelin's Latin Bible, and

184-457: A forged leaf, carrying part of Chapter 14, all of Chapter 15, and part of Chapter 16 of the Book of Ezekiel . It was impossible to tell when the leaf had been inserted into the volume. It was replaced in the fall of 1953, when a patron donated the corresponding leaf from a defective Gutenberg second volume which was being broken up and sold in parts. This made it "the first imperfect Gutenberg Bible ever restored to completeness." In 1978, this copy

230-436: A result, Aldus became closely associated with the octavo format. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, technology permitted the manufacture of large sheets or rolls of paper on which books were printed, many text pages at a time. As a result, it may be impossible to determine the actual format ( i.e. , the number of leaves formed from each sheet fed into a press). The term "octavo" as applied to such books may refer simply to

276-483: A single physical section , called a quinternion , that could then be bound into a book. Some sections, however, had as few as four leaves or as many as twelve leaves. The 42-line Bible was printed on the size of paper known as 'Royal'. A full sheet of Royal paper measures 42 cm × 60 cm (17 in × 24 in) and a single untrimmed folio leaf measures 42 cm × 30 cm (17 in × 12 in). There have been attempts to claim that

322-522: A uniform order, which is similar to the order of the modern Bible used today. Between 1230 and 1280 AD this bible was copied more frequently and spread more widely across Europe than any other copy of the Bible. Paris Bible is the name given to bibles produced by scribes mainly in Paris and areas of Northern France although examples are believed to have originated in England and Italy. However, scholars caution that

368-586: Is actually a varnish, and that means it sticks to its surface." Each unique character requires a piece of master type in order to be replicated. Given that each letter has uppercase and lowercase forms, and the number of various punctuation marks and ligatures (e.g., " fi " for the letter sequence "fi", commonly used in writing), the Gutenberg Bible needed a set of 290 master characters. It seems probable that six pages, containing 15,600 characters altogether, would be set at any one moment. The Gutenberg Bible

414-441: Is not known exactly how long the Bible took to print. The first precisely datable printing is Gutenberg's 31-line Indulgence which certainly existed by 22 October 1454. Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process. Some time later, after more sheets had been printed, the number of lines per page was increased from 40 to 42, presumably to save paper. Therefore, pages 1 to 9 and pages 256 to 265, presumably

460-422: Is printed in the blackletter type styles that would become known as Textualis (Textura) and Schwabacher . The name Textura refers to the texture of the printed page: straight vertical strokes combined with horizontal lines, giving the impression of a woven structure. Gutenberg already used the technique of justification , that is, creating a vertical, not indented, alignment at the left and right-hand sides of

506-483: Is thought to have been imported from Caselle in Piedmont, Italy based on the watermarks present throughout the volume. In Gutenberg's time, inks used by scribes to produce manuscripts were water-based. Gutenberg developed an oil-based ink that would better adhere to his metal type. His ink was primarily carbon, but also had a high metallic content, with copper, lead, and titanium predominating. Head of collections at

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552-790: The B42 , was the earliest major book printed in Europe using mass-produced metal movable type . It marked the start of the " Gutenberg Revolution " and the age of printed books in the West. The book is valued and revered for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities and its historical significance. The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Latin Vulgate printed in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz , in present-day Germany . Forty-nine copies (or substantial portions of copies) have survived. They are thought to be among

598-461: The British Library , Kristian Jensen, described it thus: "if you look [at the pages of The Gutenberg Bible] closely you will see this is a very shiny surface. When you write you use a water-based ink, you put your pen into it and it runs off. Now if you print that's exactly what you don't want. One of Gutenberg's inventions was an ink which wasn't ink, it's a varnish . So what we call printer's ink

644-485: The Franciscans and Dominicans , lead to innovation in manuscript Bible design and manufacture: Friars differed from monks in that they did not reside in closed communities but went out to live and preach in society. As they renounced possessions and travelled extensively to preach, they required small books which could be carried on their person. The orders of friars were remarkably successful, and as every preaching friar

690-433: The 13th century. These bibles signalled a significant change in the organization and structure of medieval bibles and were the template upon which the structure of the modern bible is based. Up to the beginning of the 13th century there was no single structure for the order of the biblical books, and it was often presented in 4 volumes. The Paris Bible was unique for its time; it was a pandect (complete single volume) with

736-603: The Bible would change. One of the often-heard comments of the Paris Bible is that it was designed for studying the newly-introduced scholastic theology . Mendicant Orders also created schools ( studia ) which had, at the heart of the education program, an academic study of the scriptures. It was these changes which led to the desire to rearrange the format of the Bible in order that students, masters and preachers could retrieve information effectively. Adding reading aids like running headers and chapter numbers allowed readers to find

782-513: The Bible's date comes from a letter. In March 1455, the future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible, being displayed to promote the edition, in Frankfurt. It is not known how many copies were printed, with the 1455 letter citing sources for both 158 and 180 copies. Scholars today think that examination of surviving copies suggests that somewhere between 160 and 185 copies were printed, with about three-quarters on paper and

828-462: The Gutenberg Bible was stolen from Moscow State University in 2009 and subsequently recovered in an FSB sting operation in 2013. Possession of a Gutenberg Bible by a library has been equated to keeping a "trophy book". Paris Bible The Paris Bible ( Latin : Biblia Parisiensia ) was a standardized format of codex of the Vulgate Latin Bible originally produced in Paris in

874-585: The Laodiceans or the Fourth Book of Esdras ), 64 prologues mostly based on the commentaries of Jerome and most have an index of the interpretations of Hebrew names (IHN).  Whilst the thirteenth century bibles were divided into chapters, they were yet to include numbered verses. The bibles varied, especially by region, from almost 200mm by 120mm, to a small 130mm by 80mm. The smaller "pocket" versions were intended for traveling friars. Scholars have disputed

920-554: The binding of later books . Some fragments of the Gutenberg Bible are housed at... Today, few copies remain in religious institutions, with most now owned by university libraries and other major scholarly institutions. After centuries in which all copies seem to have remained in Europe, the first Gutenberg Bible reached North America in 1847. It is now in the New York Public Library. In the last hundred years, several long-lost copies have come to light, considerably improving

966-458: The book was printed on larger paper measuring 44.5 cm × 30.7 cm (17.5 in × 12.1 in), but this assertion is contradicted by the dimensions of existing copies. For example, the leaves of the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford , measure 40 cm × 28.6 cm (15.7 in × 11.3 in). This is typical of other folio Bibles printed on Royal paper in

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1012-440: The catalog. Johann Froben was the first in 1491 to print Bible in octavo and with illustration, his edition became known as "Poor man's Bible" due to its affordability. Beginning in 1501, Aldus Manutius of Venice began to print classical works in small octavo format which were easily portable. These editions contained only the text of the works, without the commentary and notes, and became very popular with educated readers. As

1058-789: The column. To do this, he used various methods, including using characters of narrower widths, adding extra spaces around punctuation, and varying the widths of spaces around words. Initially the rubrics—the headings before each book of the Bible—were printed, but this practice was quickly abandoned at an unknown date, and gaps were left for rubrication to be added by hand. A guide of the text to be added to each page, printed for use by rubricators, survives. The spacious margin allowed illuminated decoration to be added by hand. The amount of decoration presumably depended on how much each buyer could or would pay. Some copies were never decorated. The place of decoration can be known or inferred for about 30 of

1104-553: The direction of Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya , the HUMI team has made digital reproductions of 11 sets of the bible in nine institutions, including both full-text facsimiles held in the collection of the British Library . The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, which sold for $ 2.4 million. This copy is now in Austin, Texas. The price of a complete copy today is estimated at $ 25−35 million. A two-volume paper edition of

1150-416: The fact that all Paris Bibles were single volume manuscripts as several two volume bibles are still in existence. Several leading Book Historians have suggested that where there is evidence of highly decorated pages mid-way through a one volume bible it is evidence of a two-volume manuscript being rebound at a later date as one volume. The explosion of the mendicant orders of preaching friars, in particular

1196-466: The fifteenth century. Most fifteenth-century printing papers have a width-to-height ratio of 1:1.4 (e.g. 30:42 cm) which, mathematically, is a ratio of 1 to the square root of 2 or, simply, 2 {\textstyle {\sqrt {2}}} . Many suggest that this ratio was chosen to match the so-called Golden Ratio , 1 + 5 2 {\textstyle {\tfrac {1+{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}} , of 1:1.6; in fact

1242-831: The first and third Eggestein Bibles. The third Eggestein Bible was set from the copy of the Gutenberg Bible now in Cambridge University Library . The Gutenberg Bible also had an influence on the Clementine edition of the Vulgate commissioned by the Papacy in the late sixteenth century. Joseph Martini, a New York book dealer, found that the Gutenberg Bible held by the library of the General Theological Seminary in New York had

1288-554: The first ones printed, have 40 lines each. Page 10 has 41, and from there on the 42 lines appear. The increase in line number was achieved by decreasing the interline spacing , rather than increasing the printed area of the page. Finally, the print run was increased, necessitating resetting those pages which had already been printed. The new sheets were all reset to 42 lines per page. Consequently, there are two distinct settings in folios 1–32 and 129–158 of volume I and folios 1–16 and 162 of volume II. The most reliable information about

1334-406: The first volume ending with The Book of Psalms . Copies on vellum were heavier and for this reason were sometimes bound in three or four volumes. The Bible seems to have sold out immediately, with some initial purchases as far away as England and possibly Sweden and Hungary. At least some copies are known to have sold for 30 florins (equivalent to about 100 grams or 3.5 ounces of gold ), which

1380-489: The high standards achieved in the production of the Gutenberg Bible, some describing it as one of the most beautiful books ever printed. The quality of both the ink and other materials and the printing itself have been noted. The paper size is 'double folio', with two pages printed on each side (four pages per sheet). After printing the paper was folded once to the size of a single page. Typically, five of these folded sheets (ten leaves, or twenty printed pages) were combined to

1426-640: The history of engraving," was partly responsible for the illumination of the copy held by the Princeton University library. However, all that can be said for certain is that the same model book was used for some of the illustrations in this copy and for some of the Master's illustrated playing cards. Although many Gutenberg Bibles have been rebound over the years, nine copies retain fifteenth-century bindings . Most of these copies were bound in either Mainz or Erfurt . Most copies were divided into two volumes,

Octavo - Misplaced Pages Continue

1472-450: The initial expense of press equipment and materials and of the work to be done before the Bible was ready for sale suggests that he may have started with more lucrative texts, including several religious documents, a German poem, and some editions of Aelius Donatus 's Ars Minor , a popular Latin grammar school book. Preparation of the Bible probably began soon after 1450, and the first finished copies were available in 1454 or 1455. It

1518-405: The others on vellum . In a legal paper, written after completion of the Bible, Johannes Gutenberg refers to the process as Das Werk der Bücher ("the work of the books"). He had introduced the printing press to Europe and created the technology to make printing with movable types finally efficient enough to facilitate the mass production of entire books. Many book-lovers have commented on

1564-400: The ratios are, plainly, not at all similar (equating to a difference of about 12 per cent). The ratio of 1:1.4 was a long established one for medieval paper sizes. A single complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible has 1,288 pages (4×322 = 1288) (usually bound in two volumes); with four pages per folio-sheet, 322 sheets of paper are required per copy. The Bible's paper consists of linen fibers and

1610-578: The sections or gatherings, which were then sewn together to form the final book. The oldest surviving octavo book apparently is the so-called "Turkish calendar" for 1455, presumably printed in late 1454, about the same time as the Gutenberg Bible. Numerous other octavos survive beginning from about 1461. The British Library Incunabula Short Title Catalogue currently lists about 28,100 different editions of surviving books, pamphlets and broadsides (some fragmentary only) printed before 1501 of which about 2,850 are octavos, representing 10 percent of all works in

1656-459: The size of the book. The use of the term "octavo" as applied to such books refers to books which are generally between 8 and 10 inches (200 and 250 mm) tall, the most common size for modern hardbound books. More specific sizes are denoted by reference to certain paper sizes as follows: Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible , also known as the 42-line Bible , the Mazarin Bible or

1702-632: The size of the full sheet of paper on which it was printed. The size of such sheets varied in different localities and times. A sixteenth century octavo printed in France or Italy is about the size of a modern cheap paperback, whereas an eighteenth-century octavo printed in England is larger, about the size of a modern hardcover novel. The Gutenberg Bible was printed as a folio in about 1455, in which four pages of text were printed on each sheet of paper, which were then folded once. Several such folded conjugate pairs of leaves were inserted inside another to produce

1748-629: The surviving copies. It is possible that 13 of these copies received their decoration in Mainz, but others were worked on as far away as London. The vellum Bibles were more expensive, and perhaps for this reason tend to be more highly decorated, although the vellum copy in the British Library is completely undecorated. There has been speculation that the " Master of the Playing Cards ", an unidentified engraver who has been called "the first personality in

1794-468: The term is used too broadly as it is often confused with the 'pocket bible' which is applied to bibles produced from the 12th century onwards. These were small enough to be carried in a saddle or travelling bag or indeed a pocket. Scholars apply the term to bibles which possess a number of common characteristics. Each pandect contained the Deuterocanonical books (though not the apocryphal Epistle to

1840-453: The understanding of how the Bible was produced and distributed. In 1921 a New York rare book dealer, Gabriel Wells , bought a damaged paper copy, dismantled the book and sold sections and individual leaves to book collectors and libraries. The leaves were sold in a portfolio case with an essay written by A. Edward Newton , and were referred to as "Noble Fragments". In 1953 Charles Scribner's Sons , also book dealers in New York, dismembered

1886-746: The work of another printer. The Gutenberg Bible, an edition of the Vulgate , contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament . It is mainly the work of St Jerome who began his work on the translation in AD 380, with emendations from the Parisian Bible tradition, and further divergences. While it is unlikely that any of Gutenberg's early publications would bear his name,

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1932-456: The world's most valuable books, although no complete copy has been sold since 1978. In March 1455, the future Pope Pius II wrote that he had seen pages from the Gutenberg Bible displayed in Frankfurt to promote the edition, and that either 158 or 180 copies had been printed. The 36-line Bible , said to be the second printed Bible, is also sometimes referred to as a Gutenberg Bible, but may be

1978-540: Was about three years' wages for a clerk . Although this made them significantly cheaper than manuscript Bibles, most students, priests or other people of moderate income would not have been able to afford them. It is assumed that most were sold to monasteries, universities and particularly wealthy individuals. At present only one copy is known to have been privately owned in the fifteenth century. Some are known to have been used for communal readings in monastery refectories; others may have been for display rather than use, and

2024-435: Was required to have a Bible, pocket Bibles would have been required, according to de Hamel, in their thousands – a fact which accounts for their relative prevalence today. 20,000 small-format Paris Bibles are estimated to have been produced in the 13th century alone, in France, Italy and England. The founding of a flurry of universities in the thirteenth century can be regarded as one of the major changes which determined how

2070-585: Was sold for US$ 2.2 million to the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart , Germany. As of 2009 , 49 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist, but of these only 21 are complete. Others have pages or even whole volumes missing. In addition, there are a substantial number of fragments, some as small as individual leaves, which are likely to represent about another 16 copies. Many of these fragments have survived because they were used as part of

2116-500: Was subsequently discovered in Mons, Belgium, having been bequeathed by Edmond Puissant to the city in 1934. The only copy held outside Europe and North America is the first volume of a Gutenberg Bible (Hubay 45) at Keio University in Tokyo. The Humanities Media Interface Project (HUMI) at Keio University is known for its high-quality digital images of Gutenberg Bibles and other rare books. Under

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