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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, Incunable Collection, 3069 Vol. 1

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • 3069 Vol. 1
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • ca. 1454-1455
Language
  • Latin
Title
  • [Biblia Latina] (Bible. Latin. Vulgate. 1454 | Commonly known as: Gutenberg Bible | Also known as: 42-line Bible | Also known as: Mazarin Bible)
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    2 vols. of [324] and [319] leaves ; fol. Leaf height: 420 mm, width: 310 mm.
    Binding:

    Late eighteenth century blue goatskin with gilt filigree tooling around edges; text block edges gilt; with blind stamp Spencer family arms [British Armorial Bindings Spencer Stamp 1]; gilt tooling around edges of inner boards; with purple pastedowns and endleaves. Probably still sewn on original five double cords and text block only lightly trimmed. Burnhole on final blank leaf of Vol. 2, possibly from metal attachment for chain.


    Decoration:

    Rubrication added by hand following exactly the layout from the printed rubrication guide. Initial letters, chapter numbers and headlines in red and blue. Executed in the same style as the copy from Mannheim, which provided the 'Noble Fragments' (White, Editio Princeps, p. 141).

    Decorated initials at the beginning of each book in varying styles, mostly with gilding and colours; a group of four large initials for Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus combine gilding and penwork infill; initial B for Psalms appears to have been painted over earlier penwork; red and blue ink initials for prologues; some prologue initials left unfinished (I Regum and I Chronicles). Initial for Ruth possibly unfinished and decorated later in a rougher style. Tentatively assigned by Eberhard König to the Mainz region (White, Editio Princeps, p. 141).


    Acquisition:

    Part of the Spencer library acquired by Enriqueta Rylands in 1892 from John Poyntz Spencer (1835-1910), 5th Earl Spencer for The John Rylands Library


    Subject(s):
    Armorial bindings (Binding) -- England -- 18th century.; Gold tooled bindings (Binding) -- England -- 18th century.; Illuminations (Visual works) -- Germany -- 15th century.
    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Printed on paper (Bull's Head watermark, I:[1]2; Bull's Head watermark, I:[16]4; Bull's Head watermark, I:[18]1; Bull's Head watermark, I:[22]1; Grapes watermark, I:[22]7).
    Provenance:

    Oval leather label on front paste-down: E Bibliotheca Spenceriana; from the collection of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834). Purchased by him from Thomas Payne II in October 1790, along with a German Bible and the 1459 Psalter for £340 and additional £10 for binding. (see White, Editio Princeps, pp. 140-141)

    Multi-spectral imaging has revealed the text of an erased ownership inscription on I:1r: 'Conventus Colmariensis Ord[inis] D[ivi] Augustini' indicating ownership by the Augustinian convent at Colmar, Alsace. This house was plundered by French troops in May 1790 and dissolved the following year. Many of its books are now in the Strasbourg Public Library, a number of them with similar inscriptions (White, Editio Princeps, p. 141).


    Additions:

    First setting with printed rubrication on folios I:1r, 4r, 5r, 129r and 129v; I:1r-5r and I:129r-132r with 40 lines per column, folio I:5v 41 lines and 42 lines from I:6 and I:132v onwards.

    Includes one of the three print shop corrections identified by Needham ("A Gutenberg Bible used as Printer's Copy", pp.59-60) at II:286v (Acts 3:24). An additional unrecorded print shop correction at folio I:88v (Deuteronomy 10:1, Dola/Dato)

    Many pages with instructions for rubricator in ink at edges, untrimmed.

    Examples of pinholes in several places, untrimmed.

    Marginal annotation on folio I:110v (Joshua 18): Refügiam(?).

    Pencil notes by George Appleyard (Spencer's librarian) and James Phillip Lacaita (cataloguer of the Devonshire library in 1879) on front free endpaper of Vol. 1 identifying this copy as the 'first edition' or first setting

    Pasted to first front flyleaf of Vol. 1 is a cutting from Payne and Foss 'Catalogue of Books Printed on Vellum' (1836) with notes by George Appleyard on the Mainz indulgences and priority of the first printed Bibles.

    Missing final blank leaf II:[32]10.


    Note(s):

    Title and imprint from ISTC.

    Signatures (Vol. 1): 1-9¹⁰ 10¹⁰(+8*: et aurum); 11-12¹⁰ 13⁶(+4*: noluerunt); 14-24¹⁰; 25¹⁰(+7*: eliasib) 26¹⁰(+9*: oriente); 27-32¹⁰ 33⁴.

    Usually divided in two volumes: Genesis-Psalms; Proverbs-Apocalypse. The complete Bible consists of 643 leaves with 1279 pages of text and seven blank pages. Generally, the sheets (bifolia) are gathered into quires of ten leaves. Quires with more than or fewer than ten leaves reflect points in the text at which major units of typographic composition come to an end. (White, Editio Princeps, pp. 49-50).

    Sheets were seen by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini some time before his letter of 12 March 1455 to Cardinal Juan de Carvajal, which was printed in Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, later Pius II, Pont. Max. Epistolae saeculares et pontificales. [Cologne : Arnold Ther Hoernen, ca. 1480; (ISTC ip00726500)], leaves p7v-q5v (with mention of the Bible on leaf q1 verso): see Meuthen 1982, and Davies 1996, pp. 193-201, with plate.

    Spaces left blank for initials and also for rubrics from leaf [3]9 recto of Volume 1 onwards.

    In the first stage of printing chapter rubrics were printed in red on folios I:1r, 4r, 5r, 129r and 129v. A printed rubrication guide in four leaves is found in copies at München BSB and Vienna ÖNB.

    Four compositorial units have been identified each commencing work at: St Jerome's Epistle (folio I:1r); I Regum (folio I:129r); Proverbs (folio II:1r); I Maccabees (folio II:162r). The first quires printed (I:1r-5r and I:129r-132r) began with 40 lines per column, increased to 41 on folio I:5v and then 42 from I:6 and I:132v onwards (White, Editio Princeps, p.50).

    After several quires had been printed a decision was taken to increase the print run. This required reprinting the sheets which had already been produced, to make up numbers. These sheets had to be reset and there are consequently two settings of the following: I:1-32r, I:129-158v, II:1-16r and 162r. All reset pages have 42 lines per page.

    The increased print run also necessitated additional purchase of paper which can be distinguished from different watermarks. About 70% of the paper has the watermark of bull's head, 20% show a bunch of grapes (in two versions); 10% show a walking ox. Each compositorial unit began printing with the largest supply of bull's head paper, gradually introduced the two grape cluster varieties and then supplemented with the walking ox in the final stage (White, Editio Princeps, p. 50).


    Publication:
    [Mainz : Printer of the 42-line Bible (Johann Gutenberg) and Johannes Fust, ca. 1454-1455]
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  • Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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