| July 27, 2003 |
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The Gutenberg Bible at the Ransom Center
Book  lovers and biblical historians alike are familiar with these prized passages, now scanned and available online in astonishing detail. The Gutenberg Bible was the first ever book made utilizing the movable type process in Germany circa 1454. Lovingly bound in Johann Gutenberg's tiny studio -- only 21 copies remain today, five of which are in the U.S. Prior to his landmark invention, bibles and books were laboriously written on scrolls. During the middle ages, monks painstakingly inked manuscripts in a room called a scriptorium. Short books could take months to finish, while bibles could take years. As demands for wood-block pictures and engravings rose throughout Europe, the need for a better, faster process was evident. Gutenberg's revolutionary print presses spread, and literacy flourished. As for his great first work, you can admire it in up close, almost 600 years after it was first bound. (in Literature) |
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