RARE EDITIONS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 453, 22 June 1937, Page 5

RARE EDITIONS

ART TREASURES SOLD GUTENBERG BIBLE BRINGS £BOOO 15th Century Manuscript For £13,500 press Association—Copyright. Received June 22, 11.30 a.m. London, June 21. The Gutenberg Bble, originally discovered in a farmhouse, fetched £BOOO at Sothebys’ sale of treasures from the Clumber Library, Worksop, at the Instance of the Earl of Lincoln. A fifteenth century illuminated book "'Hours Of Isabel Brittany,” fetched £13,500, while a first folio of Shakespeare brought £5600. Johann Gutenberg was a German printer born at Mainz in 1397. About 1454 he elaborated the idea of printing with movable types, though it is probable he had been anticipated by one or two obscure mechanisians. His commercial success was not great. Among his best works are “The Bible of 36 Lines'* (2 vols., printed before 1460) and “The Bible of 42 Lines” (2 vols., 1450-5) known as the Mazarin Bible. A copy on vellum was sold at the Perkins’ sale, 1873, to Lord Ashburnham for £3400 and a copy on paper for £2690.