On 23 February 1455, the German Johannes Gutenberg completed the printing of the first Bible using his innovative movable type printing press.

This event marked a milestone in human history, enabling the mass production of books and the spread of knowledge to a much wider audience.

According to several sources, the process of printing the Gutenberg Bible began five years earlier, in 1450, in his printing workshop in Mainz (Germany).

He may have begun developing a new printing technology as early as the 1430s, and the completion of the Bible demonstrated its viability.

That first printed Bible is known as the ‘Gutenberg Bible’ or ‘Mazarin Bible’ or ‘42-line Bible’, because of the number of lines on which each of the two columns of text on its pages was printed.

180 copies

The original run of the Gutenberg Bible printed 180 copies. Today there are forty-nine copies left in print worldwide, but only twenty of them are complete, with the two volumes.

Moveable type consists of blocks of individual letters and symbols that can quickly be arranged and re-arranged to create different words and phrases. The type is then coated with ink and pressed into paper or vellum, an expensive parchment made of animal skin.

Gutenberg himself invented the wooden printing press, metal types, and oil-based ink used in the new printing process.

Having many metal types of each letter multiplied the printing possibilities and the effectiveness and efficiency of the printing press.

Gutenberg made that initial print run with his partners Peter Schoeffer and Johan Fuchs, with whom he ended up in a lawsuit, although there is little reliable information about that incident.

Revolutionary invention

At that time, printing was a necessary invention, due to the expansion of universities and a demand for books that could not be met by manuscripts, since at that time there were only xylographic books, or books printed using wooden blocks of a full page.

According to experts, the Gutenberg Bible is not only the first printed book in history, but also the best book ever printed, both for the quality of the paper and ink, and for the perfection with which the printing was carried out.

This invention and the Bible itself completely revolutionised the culture and society of the time, leading among other things to the Protestant Reformation.

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