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Johannes Gutenberg's Bible, printed in Mainz in the 1450s, was the first major European book made with movable metal type. Yet it was made to look like a luxury manuscript: its letters imitate scribes' handwriting, colours were added by hand, and about a quarter of the copies were printed on vellum, fine calfskin.

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Scholars think Gutenberg printed between 160 and 185 copies, about three-quarters on paper and the rest on vellum. Each page has 42 lines, which is why it is also called the 42-line Bible. To imitate handwriting, his workshop needed 290 different characters, including the joined letter pairs that scribes used. Red headings, known as rubrics, were printed at first but soon left blank for a scribe to add by hand, and buyers had artists paint decorated initials and borders, so no two copies look alike. In March 1455 Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II, wrote that he had seen pages on show in Frankfurt. Of the 49 copies that survive in substantial part, a vellum one is on display at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Türkçe oku
Gutenberg İncili, Avrupa'da hareketli metal harflerle basılmış ilk büyük kitaptır; Johannes Gutenberg onu 1450'lerde Mainz'da bastı. Yine de pahalı bir el yazmasına benzesin istendi: Harfleri kâtip yazısını taklit eder, renkleri elle eklenmiştir ve nüshaların dörtte birine yakını buzağı derisinden parşömene basılmıştır.

Araştırmacılara göre Gutenberg 160 ile 185 arasında nüsha bastı; bunların yaklaşık dörtte üçü kâğıda, geri kalanı parşömene basıldı. Her sayfada 42 satır bulunduğu için kitap “42 satırlı Kutsal Kitap” diye de anılır. Atölye el yazısını taklit edebilmek için, kâtiplerin bitişik yazdığı harf çiftleri de dâhil 290 ayrı harf kalıbı kullandı. Kırmızı bölüm başlıkları önce basıldı, ama kısa süre sonra bir kâtibin elle yazması için boş bırakılmaya başlandı. Alıcılar süslü baş harfleri ve kenar bezemelerini sanatçılara yaptırdı; bu yüzden iki nüsha birbirinin aynı değildir. Mart 1455'te, sonradan Papa II. Pius olacak Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Frankfurt'ta sergilenen sayfaları gördüğünü yazdı. Tamamı ya da büyük kısmı günümüze ulaşmış 49 nüsha var; parşömen nüshalardan biri Washington'daki Kongre Kütüphanesi'nde sergileniyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Gutenberg Bible
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The Reformation was the 16th-century movement that split Western Christianity and created Protestant churches independent of Rome. It is usually dated from 31 October 1517, when Luther, a monk and university teacher in Wittenberg, circulated his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences, certificates the Church sold to reduce the punishment for sins. A century earlier the Czech reformer Jan Hus had made similar criticisms and was executed in 1415; the historian Lyndal Roper argues that print is the main reason Luther escaped the same fate. Johannes Gutenberg's movable-type printing, developed in the mid-15th century, made short pamphlets cheap, and presses were scattered across many German towns, so no single authority could stop them. Towns with a printing press were more likely to adopt the Reformation. As most people could not read, Luther's friend the painter Lucas Cranach the Elder made woodcut pictures that put his ideas into images.

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