Design Practice Blog: OUGD505 / Studio Brief 01 / Research / The Gutenberg Bible

http://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/homepage.html

Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, the first real book to be printed using the technique of printing which Gutenberg invented in the 1450s.

Gutenberg

In the mid-15th century Johann Gutenberg invented a mechanical way of making books. This was the first example of mass production in Europe.

Before Gutenberg, every book produced in Europe had to be copied by hand. (Although the Chinese had been mass producing books since the ninth century.) Now it was possible to speed up the process without sacrificing quality.

We know for certain about this first printed Bible from a letter of 12 March 1455.

Construction

The paper size is 'double folio', with two pages printed on each side (four pages per sheet). After printing the paper was folded once to the size of a single page.

The folio size, 307 x 445 mm, has the ratio of 1.45:1.

A single complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible has 1,286 pages.

The handmade paper used by Gutenberg was of fine quality and was imported from Italy. Each sheet contains a watermark left by the papermold.

The were between 160 - 185 copies created.

Stock differs between Vellum and Paper.

Golden Ratio?

Historian John Man suggests that Gutenberg's Bible page was based on the golden ratio (commonly approximated as the decimal 0.618 or the ratio 5:8), and that the printed area also had that shape.[15] He quotes the dimensions of Gutenberg's half-folio Bible page as 30.7 x 44.5 cm, a ratio of 1:1.45, close to Rosarivo's golden 2:3 (1.5) but not to the golden ratio 1.618.

Counter argument:

'To reach this ratio more closely the vertical size should be 338 mm, but there is no reason why Gutenberg would let this non-trivial difference of 8 mm go by in a work so detailed in other aspects.'

Typeface

Gutenberg developed an oil-based ink that would better adhere to his metal type. His ink was primarily carbon, but also had a high metallic content, with copper, lead, and titanium predominating.

The first part of the Gutenberg idea was using a single, hand-carved character to create identical copies of itself.

Copies were then produced by stamping the original into an iron plate, called a matrix. A rectangular tube was then connected to the matrix, creating a container in which molten type metal could be poured. Once cooled, the solid metal form was released from the tube.

Copy was set in a 2 column grid.

Copy is fully justified.

Illustrations and punctuation are to sit in the margins.

Hanging punctuation is used in the Gutenberg bible.

Textualis, also known as textura or Gothic bookhand, was the most calligraphic form of black letter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic". Johannes Gutenberg carved a textualis typeface – including a large number of ligatures and common abbreviations – when he printed his 42-line Bible.'