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Gutenberg Bible
c. 1454–1455· Book, artwork, monument or document· Communication & computing
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
The first major book printed with movable metal type in Europe, a two-volume Latin Bible finished in Mainz around 1454–1455.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
Also called the 42-line Bible, after the lines per column, it took Gutenberg's shop several years. About 180 copies were printed, roughly three-quarters on paper and the rest on vellum (calfskin). Pages were printed in black, then decorated by hand, so each copy looks different. A future pope, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, saw sample pages in Frankfurt in 1454 and wrote that they could be read without glasses. Forty-nine copies survive, about 21 of them complete.
Why it mattered
It proved printing could match the finest handwritten books in quality, which helped the new technology win buyers across Europe.
How we know
The surviving copies, including those at the Library of Congress and British Library; Piccolomini's 1455 letter; and a decorator's handwritten note dated August 1456 in the Paris copy.
Still unknown or debated
When printing began and ended, how many workers and presses were used, and the exact size of the print run are all estimates.
Connections (2)
▸Jikji and Korean metal movable type was printed 78 years before the Gutenberg BibleWell documented
The connection
Jikji shows that Korea printed with movable metal type about 78 years before Gutenberg finished his Bible in 1455. No evidence shows the Korean method reached Mainz. Korean printing mainly served state and temple needs in small runs, while Gutenberg's commercial presses printed for a market.
When and how
Cheongju, Korea, July 1377, and Mainz, Germany, about 1454–1455; the comparison became famous after the Korean librarian Park Byeong-seon brought Jikji to world attention in Paris in 1972.
How we know
Both dates are firmly documented by the books themselves and by contemporary records; what is uncertain is any connection between them, which no evidence supports.
Debates and open questions
Some writers suggest knowledge of Asian printing traveled west along Mongol-era trade routes, but no document links Korean type to Mainz; most historians see independent invention.
▸Gutenberg's printing press produced the Gutenberg BibleWell documented
The connection
The Gutenberg Bible was the press's first major product and its proof of concept. The shop cast about 290 different type pieces, set some 1,280 pages, and printed about 180 copies over several years, using several presses at once.
When and how
Mainz, about 1452–1455, in Gutenberg's workshop, financed by Johann Fust, with Peter Schöffer, who later ran the press with Fust.
How we know
Surviving copies, Piccolomini's 1455 letter and the Fust lawsuit records tie the Bible to Gutenberg's workshop.
Debates and open questions
Gutenberg's name appears in no copy, and how much of the work was his versus Fust's and Schöffer's is debated.