Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

	An example of Gothic textura script from a 15th-century manuscript. HRC manuscript collections.
	Large initial letter and rubrications, Gutenberg Bible, vol I, fol. 311r.

The Appearance of the Bible

The Gutenberg Bible was expressly designed to look like a manuscript book produced in Northern Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. The type resembles the frequently used script known as "textura" (after the Latin word for "woven") and is closely set in two columns. Textura is a member of the Gothic, or black-letter family of letterforms. Gutenberg's set of type includes the same ligatures (linked letters) and special scribal abbreviations, designed to save space and speed copying, characteristic of medieval manuscripts. The Texas copy of the Bible, like many others, has several pages set with 40 or 41 lines of type in two columns.

Apparently these pages were among the first ones printed, and the printer must have realized early on that he had to get more text on each page in order to save space and paper. Thereafter, pages were set with 42 lines on the page, and thus the Gutenberg is often referred to as the "42-line Bible," or B42, to distinguish it from other early printed Bibles. The Old Testament makes up the entire first volume of the Bible and part of the second, which also contains the New Testament. Gutenberg used the Latin text (translated from Hebrew and Greek) of St. Jerome.

The Bible was sold in folded sheets and was later bound and decorated according to the wishes of its owner. Each of the surviving 48 copies has its own unique features, including rubrication (the addition of red paint to initial capitals and paragraph marks), illuminations (elaborate painted decorations), marks of ownership, and binding.