 Digital Gutenberg Images Introduction The Book before Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg The Printing of the Bible The Spread of Printing The Appearance of the Bible Anatomy of a Page The Ransom Center Copy Selected Passages Digital Gutenberg Project Additional Resources K-12 Educator materials Now Available on CD-ROM!
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The Ransom Center CopyThe University of Texas at Austin copy of the Gutenberg Bible is printed on paper and is in two volumes. It is one of forty-eight surviving copies and one of twenty-one complete copies in the world. Five of these are in the United States (the others are at the Library of Congress, Harvard University, Yale University, and the Pierpont Morgan Library). The Ransom Center acquired its copy in 1978 from the Carl H. Pforzheimer Foundation in New York City. BindingThe original binding for both volumes was probably similar to the current one, which is brown polished calfskin over oak boards with beveled edges. The date "1600" is stamped into the cover, along with ornaments representing the allegorical virtues. Substantial repairs, including the replacement of the entire spine, were made while the book was part of the Pforzheimer Library. Decoration and AnnotationBoth volumes contain red and blue initial letters used to mark chapter divisions within each book of the Bible, as well as headings in a mixture of red and blue at the top of every page. In addition, the beginning of the books of the Bible and their prologues are denoted by much larger initial letters in red, blue, or a combination of colors. The end of each book and the beginning of the next is indicated by a rubric, a line in red letters added by a copyist. The most remarkable ornamental features of this particular copy are present only in the first volume: numerous large variously colored initials with gold illumination. Some of these initials are elaborately floral and sprawl down an entire column of text. Nothing is known about the artist who created them or when they were painted. OwnershipThere are numerous manuscript additions in the hand of different copyists, showing that the Bible was heavily used over a very long period of time. Many of these relate to the division of the text into passages for reading aloud. Other small alterations correct minor errors and omissions. Indications are that the book was first owned by one or more monasteries in Southern Germany, and by 1600 it was in the hands of a Jesuit monastery, since the Jesuit seal is stamped into the current binding. An addition in late 17th- or early 18th-century handwriting shows that the Bible was still being used in church services at that time. The first identifiable owner of this copy was James Perry, an English book collector. Later owners and dates of acquisition are as follows:
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