{"product_id":"the-gutenberg-bible-1455-a-noble-fragment-presentation-inscribed-by-a-edward-newton","title":"The Gutenberg Bible | 1455, A Noble Fragment, presentation-inscribed by A. Edward Newton","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gutenberg Bible | Exodus XXXVIII–XL, c.1455. A Noble Fragment, presentation-inscribed by A. Edward Newton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn original royal-folio leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz by Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, c.1455, being one of the earliest and most important survivals from the introduction of printing with movable type in Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSingle paper leaf, 392 x 285 mm, comprising Exodus XXXVIII:11 to XL:4, volume I, folio 48. Printed in Latin in two columns of 42 lines in Gutenberg’s type 1:140G. Rubricated by hand in red and blue, with headlines in alternating Lombard letters, chapter initials and numerals, and capital strokes supplied in red. An excellent, well-margined example, with only a small pinhole to the lower fore-edge and very light spotting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe text belongs to the closing chapters of the Book of Exodus and describes the construction and furnishing of the Tabernacle, including the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed. It is among the most symbolically important passages of the Pentateuch, concerned with the creation of the sacred space through which the presence of God was to dwell among the Israelites.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Gutenberg Bible stands at the beginning of the age of the printed book. Produced in Mainz during the early 1450s, probably in an edition of approximately 150 to 180 copies on paper and vellum, it was the first substantial book printed in Europe using movable metal type. Its scale, typography and extraordinary technical accomplishment established from the outset that the new technology of printing could rival the finest manuscript books of the period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet the Bible was never intended to appear mechanically uniform. After printing, individual copies were completed by hand, with rubricators supplying initials, chapter numbers, headings and capital strokes according to the wishes and resources of their owners. The red and blue rubrication preserved on the present leaf therefore belongs to the original fifteenth-century completion of the book and gives each surviving Gutenberg leaf its own individual character.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe provenance is among the most celebrated associated with any Gutenberg Bible leaf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present leaf originates from the incomplete paper copy formerly owned by Maria Elisabeth Augusta von Sulzbach, wife of Carl Theodore, Electoral Prince of the Palatinate and subsequently Elector of Bavaria. The volume passed through the Mannheim Hofbibliothek and later the Royal Library at Munich, where it was sold as a duplicate in 1832 and acquired by the traveller and collector Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche. It descended through the Curzon family until its sale at Sotheby’s on 9 November 1920, lot 70, where it was acquired by Joseph Sabin and subsequently sold to the New York bookseller Gabriel Wells.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWells made the controversial but historically important decision to divide the incomplete volume, dispersing its surviving leaves individually. In 1921 many were issued with A. Edward Newton’s bibliographical essay under the title A Noble Fragment: Being a Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible. It was through this dispersal that a significant proportion of the Gutenberg leaves now remaining in private hands entered the market.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present example retains that historical presentation intact. The Gutenberg leaf remains mounted and bound with Newton’s A Noble Fragment in the original blind-ruled dark blue morocco binding by Stikeman \u0026amp; Co., the binding expertly rebacked while preserving the original spine, with the original slipcase and a later custom black morocco solander box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eExceptionally, the volume is also presentation-inscribed by A. Edward Newton on the front free endpaper. The copy carries the provenance of Roland Leslie Taylor, associated with the presentation inscription, and the bookplate of George McMaster Jones. The survival of the leaf together with its original Noble Fragment apparatus and Newton presentation inscription gives the present example an additional layer of twentieth-century bibliographical history beyond the fifteenth-century leaf itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComplete Gutenberg Bibles are effectively unobtainable. All known complete or substantially complete copies are now held institutionally, and no complete copy has appeared for sale since 1978. Individual leaves therefore represent the principal means by which a private collector can acquire an original physical specimen of Gutenberg’s first great typographical achievement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA particularly compelling Gutenberg Bible leaf: an important passage from Exodus, retaining its original fifteenth-century rubrication, with distinguished royal and aristocratic provenance, and preserved within its historic A Noble Fragment presentation, itself inscribed by A. Edward Newton.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoff B-526; GW 4201; PMM 1; Chalmers, Disbound and Dispersed, 18.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johann Gutenberg","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64517052727673,"sku":null,"price":120000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0607\/3119\/5647\/files\/112750_2_1.jpg?v=1788970716","url":"https:\/\/www.baylissbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-gutenberg-bible-1455-a-noble-fragment-presentation-inscribed-by-a-edward-newton","provider":"Bayliss Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}