The Gutenberg Bible

‘The Gutenberg Bible. The Beginning of a New Time’ exhibition is dedicated to the Bible published by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455 — the book that opens the history of printing.

The exhibition provides a rare opportunity — to come to know the legendary artifact, the existence of which everyone knows, but only a few have been able to see it with their own eyes.

Just as the Internet and digital technologies are changing the formats and pace of human relations today, the printing press changed the world and became a cornerstone for the new society in the 15th century. There appeared an effective means to state new ideas, shape the way of thinking and disseminate information. The news market became unthinkable without printing houses: Europe learned about the discovery of America from the press.

The exhibition’s sections are devoted to various phenomena related to printing. One section is devoted to the causes of printing; there is shown the essence of the invention of Gutenberg and the evolution that printed books made over the course of a century, acquiring those features to which we are accustomed today and without which any modern publication is unthinkable. An important role in forming the new appearance of books is played by engraved illustrations. The greatest masters, including Albrecht Dürer, took part in their creation. One section of the exhibition is devoted to book engravings; among early illustrated publications, there are demonstrated some pages of the famous series ‘Apocalypse’, which Dürer conceived as a ‘Big Book’.

The history of printing starts from the symbolic act — Gutenberg creating the Bible, the Book of Books. Yet before the Bible and along with it, the printing press issued textbooks of the Latin language, so-called donatuses, texts of prayers, indulgences, leaflets telling how to distinguish fake coins from real ones. These publications, forming the basis of the new industry and being published in a large number of copies, were not purposely preserved by their owners; therefore, today there are only the rarest samples that have survived by a miracle. Some of the leaflets presented at the exhibition are the only known copies in the world.

Printing became a powerful weapon in the hands of new thought leaders, those who were fighting for the spiritual renewal of Europe. The exhibition’s section devoted to the Reformation shows how effective a printed word can be. This is evidenced by the Bibles, appearing in the late 15th century, printed not in Latin but in dialects of the German language, the Bible of Martin Luther, published in the first half of the 16th century, printed in German, numerous pamphlets, polemic publications of both Protestants and Catholics, first translations of the Koran.

According to a contemporary, printing came out of Germany as a Trojan Horse to get through everywhere. Printing presses spread across Europe at the speed of a forest fire. Following Germany, book printing began to develop rapidly in Italy; one section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius. Along with the expansion of books’ geography, their repertoire in national languages increased; the thematic composition of printed products changed; new books, new authors and new readers appeared; these changes are also reflected in the exposition.

The story of the information revolution of the 15th century is especially relevant now, when we are experiencing a new information revolution, and paper books, which for centuries have been the only format for preserving the memory of mankind, now coexist with the rapidly growing digital knowledge and electronic access formats. Besides, the process of creating and printing books has changed so much that a modern paper book is only superficially similar to the books of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Presently, the copy of the Gutenberg Bible stored in the Russian State Library is digitized; everyone can get access to it; and the exhibition will be an occasion for a serious professional conversation about the value and fate of printed books in the modern world.