The Gutenberg Bible

Citation

James, S. (1998), "The Gutenberg Bible", Library Review, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 55-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1998.47.1.55.14

We have previously reviewed the Lindisfarne Gospels in a similar series to these two small volumes, and now welcome two additions which continue to combine attractive and quality illustration with scholarly but accessible and appropriate texts. These two volumes have no accompanying videos, but they are well worth examining as printed volumes without such support. Has the British Library hit on a winning idea for a new series? The small format allows high quality colour reproduction within hard covers, with a suitable text, and all at a modest retail cost. One cannot help thinking of the King Penguins: but it is better not to try and re‐invent an earlier series but to do something similar yet within its own criteria. I do not know the sales figures for these small volumes but would expect them to be highly popular both within the British Library’s own sales outlets, and more widely.

My initial thought was that another small volume on Gutenberg was not really required following the earlier booklet from the British Library (British Museum in those days) by Scholderer (1963), but on checking my copy of that I discover that it is now more than 30 years old. Obviously, further scholarship has been undertaken since that time so that a new survey is appropriate. In fact, a comparison between the two volumes is interesting: I have to say that I prefer the printing and slightly larger (paperback) format of the earlier volume, and note that the same colour plates are used in both. But there are more illustrations, and a wider range in this new volume. Davies’ text also ranges more widely into the background of early printing as well as of Gutenberg himself and the great Bible, and also carries comparison of copies in other collections than those of the British Library. The result is an excellent popular but scholarly account of the beginnings of printing and of Gutenberg and his background: so little is really known about him, but all is interpreted here soberly and judiciously.

For many the attraction of medieval manuscript paintings lies in the intimacy of the miniatures. The Hastings Hours is a fine example of that, combined with rich decoration all adorning the text. This volume came late to the British Library, in 1969, and its earlier provenance is rather unclear; that itself is a fascinating story, told as a part of this volume. Like the other volumes, the text is scholarly but appropriate for an intelligent lay audience and covers a wide field: the background of books of hours, description and analysis of the art work and of The Hastings Hours itself, and as much as is known (or can be deduced) of the history of the volume up to its arrival at the British Library. The miniatures in this work are ideal for reproduction in the format of this series, and make this into a particularly successful volume.

Both books are written by curators at the British Library: Davies is curator of incunabula and was responsible for an earlier volume on Aldus, while Janet Backhouse is widely known for many works on illuminated manuscripts. Each volume has a bibliography of further reading. Both are welcome additions to a very useful series which goes a long way towards fulfilling the British Library’s mission to making its treasures more accessible to a wider audience: accessible both physically and intellectually.