A Gutenberg Bible was first dated complete
On this day · 24 August 1456
August 24, 1456 marks not the press finishing, but the earliest firmly dated copy of Europe's first printed book.
The Gutenberg Bible — the first major book in the West printed with movable type — rolled off Johann Gutenberg’s press in Mainz around 1455. But the press only made the printed sheets; each copy was then hand-finished, rubricated, illuminated, and bound.
That is why 24 August 1456 matters. On that day a cleric, Heinrich Cremer, signed and dated the rubrication of a copy now held in Paris — the earliest firmly dated complete example of the book. It records not when printing ended, but when one finished volume demonstrably existed.
A two-volume Latin Bible, set in 42 lines per column, that ended the age of the hand-copied book.
Gutenberg’s partners produced roughly 150–180 copies; about 48 survive today, only a dozen on vellum. Few objects so cleanly mark a hinge in history — the moment Europe gained the power to mass-produce the written word.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
