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Co-Own a Leaf from the Gutenberg 42-Line Bible a Letterpress Printed Facsimile Illuminated by Hand

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Co-Own a Leaf from the Gutenberg 42-Line Bible a Letterpress Printed Facsimile Illuminated by Hand Co-own a leaf from the Gutenberg 42-line Bible A letterpress printed facsimile illuminated by hand The ‘42-line Bible’ is the first book printed in Europe using movable type. Between 150 and 180 copies were produced, an operation which kept the print shop in Mainz, run by Gutenberg and his associates Fust and Schöffer, occupied for three years. Today, only 49 complete copies are known to be in existence. It is a colossal work, including over three million symbols, originally intended for reading in community in abbeys and convents. You can now acquire an exceptional facsimile reprint of a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible The Printing Museum of Lyon has in its collections an original recto-verso leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, part of the Book of Ezekiel. Over 500 years after Gutenberg this leaf has been joined together). Secondly, certain letters appear re-composed using lead types closely based on his in different widths, making it difficult to distinguish somewhat primitive gothic textura font. The Museum between a variant cast by Gutenberg and a letter has acquired the font from the Dale Guild Type which was altered by the compositor in order to Foundry in Howell, New Jersey, US, who engraved justify the line. The font produced by the Dale Guild and cast the types. Type Foundry includes seven different spaces of The project of producing this font was initiated which the smallest, cast in copper, is only about by the Toppan Company of Japan, for the opening 0.18 mm (0.007 inch) wide, half the width of the of their printing museum in Tokyo in 2000. Toppan smallest space found in a conventional font. turned to two outstanding craftsmen, Theo Rehak The first stage of preparation, carried out by and Alan C. Waring, creators of the Dale Guild Type the type-designer Matthieu Cortat, was to identify Foundry, who engraved and cast a set of types based precisely which types were used in the original on detailed studies of a number of copies of the leaf. Fernande Nicaise, who is responsible for the Gutenberg Bible. The production of these types has Museum’s print shop, had to identify and sort the now ceased, the Printing Museum of Lyon having 255 types; three type cases were needed to hold all acquired the last set. the letters, variants and abbreviations, whereas only one is needed for a modern font. Then followed the A typographical feat meticulous task of composition in order to create worthy of the first printed Bible a faithful facsimile of recto and verso, exactly as composed in Gutenberg’s print shop. The re-composition of the leaf from the Gutenberg Bible has proved to be a major challenge, revealing Capitals added by hand, as in Gutenberg’s day the difficulties which Gutenberg must have faced over 550 years ago. A font normally consists of 105 Following 15th-century practice, the Ezekiel leaf symbols (including spaces, figures and punctuation, has been printed leaving an empty space so that the in addition to the 88 capitals and lower-case letters). initial letter of each chapter may be added by hand. The 42-line Bible uses between 255 and 299 (the This task has been undertaken by the painter and estimates of specialists vary), firstly because there illuminator Marie Gorrindo, who has also highlighted are a number of abbreviations and ligatures (letters all the capital letters in the text and added by hand the running head ‘Ezechiel’, together with the folio numbers, exactly as on the original leaf held in the Museum. During the first 50 years of printing it was common to employ a ‘rubricator’ to highlight in red the beg- innings of paragraphs and phrases. It had not yet become standard practice to start a new line at the end of a paragraph Printed according to the rules of the ‘black art’ The facsimiles are letterpress printed by hand, on a laid Arches paper of 100 g/m² (in Gutenberg’s day smooth paper was as yet unknown); the point-size is 18.6 Didot, or 19.8 in the modern international standard. The paper was damped, as in the early days of printing. At that time, papers often contained a quantity of glue, making them rigid and too resistant in the press; such a paper was said to ‘refuse’ the ink, which accumulated on the composition and blocked up the types. Damping the paper makes it more manageable and also ‘friendly’ to the ink, which then adheres more readily and in smaller quantity. including a transcript of the leaf, in the form of a The pressure of the type on the paper leaves a 16-page A4 booklet in French and English on Stucco slightly raised imprint on the back; this effect, well Old Mill Premium White paper 150g/m2, also by known by connoisseurs, guarantees that the leaf has Fedrigoni. been letterpress printed. The leaf comes in a purpose-made sleeve made Application form to be sent to: from Fedrigoni’s 250 g/m² Constellation Snow Musée de l’imprimerie / feuillet B42 Mosaïco card. It is accompanied by a commentary, 13 rue de la Poulaillerie, 69002 Lyon, France Name Adress Post code Town Country Telephone E-mail address I wish to acquire: recto-verso leaf / leaves @ 170 € recto-verso leaf / leaves @ 150 € (launch price until 31 December 2013) ❑ I enclose a cheque for € payable to Recette des Finances. or ❑ I’m arranging payment by bank transfer to the Museum’s account as indicated below. Please ensure that the transfer includes your name, so that we can identify your payment. IBAN (International Bank Account Number): FR76 1007 1690 0000 0020 0366 934 BIC (Bank Indentifier Code): TRPUFRP1 Your leaf will be sent by International Chronopost. The cost of transport is included in the price..
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