The Gutenberg Bible

Tuesday 22 June 2021

The Gutenberg Bible

Happy is the man... who finds pleasure in the law of the Lord and ponders it day and night ! Psalm 1.2

By inventing movable type printing, Johannes Gensfleisch, known as Gutenberg, initiated one of the most important technological revolutions in history. The first book he prints from 1452 is the Bible. The Gutenberg Bible is of high technical quality, consisting of 642 folios of 42 lines each, forming a total of 2 volumes. This new process enabled Gutenberg to produce 180 Bibles in three years, while a monk only copied one Bibles at the same time. 48 copies are still kept in the most prestigious libraries. Thanks to his invention, Gutenberg enabled more people to access the Word of God.

According to a translation of his words by the French writer Lamartine, here is how Gutenberg himself expressed himself : “God suffers in multitudes of souls to whom his sacred word cannot descend ; religious truth is captive in a few handwritten books which guard the common treasure, instead of spreading it. Let us break the seal which seals holy things, let us give wings to the truth, and that by means of the word, no longer written at great expense by the weary hand, but multiplied like the air by an indefatigable machine, it go and seek every soul that comes into this world !" Since this invention, the Bible has been the most printed book in the world each year.

Bernard Grebille

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Proposed reading : Psalm 119, verses 1 to 11.

Source (Live Today)