The Gutenberg Bible

Around 1455, Johannes Gutenberg's workshop in Mainz completed the Gutenberg Bible, the first major European book printed with movable metal type. Mass printing went on to transform religion, science and literacy.

The text was the Latin Vulgate, the version of the Bible associated with Saint Jerome. Its pages were arranged in two columns, usually with forty-two lines in each column. The appearance of the finished book still owed much to the manuscript tradition: printed sheets could be decorated by hand with coloured headings, initials and other ornament after leaving the press.

Gutenberg's system used separate pieces of metal type that could be arranged to form a page and then reused. Producing many impressions from the same arrangement changed the relationship between the work of preparing a text and the number of copies that could be made. The surviving books show that early printing and skilled handwork existed together rather than replacing one another overnight.

Copies were made on both paper and vellum. The Library of Congress holds a complete vellum copy, acquired in 1930, which allows readers to examine the craftsmanship of this early European printing project. The completion date is approximate, often given as 1454 or 1455. That uncertainty matters: the puzzle uses the conventional year 1455 rather than claiming a precisely documented publication day.