Anyone see the Gutenberg Bible?

[AstralTraveller (David)]

I didn't hear about this until it was nearly over and Melbourne is too far away anyway, but they had one of the 9 (?) surviving Gutenberg Bibles on display down there. I love that sort of stuff and I would have seen it if I could. I saw the Fra Mauro world map and the Matthew Flinders maps in Canberra last year. Real 'lump in the throat' stuff.

Of course the Gutenberg was so important and revolutionary. For the first time knowledge wasn't just for the rich. In this internet age we have become accustomed to having knowledge at our fingertips but of course I remember when it was significantly more difficult. When my parents bought me a globe of the Earth my grandfather had never seen anything like it. But how much less would the commoners have been able to know back then?

So, did anyone see it and what were your impressions?

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I saw three of them while living and travelling around Europe....
definitely a "must see" experience.

[Starless (Brian)]

Didn't see it myself but I have always thought it somewhat ironic that the device credited with bringing knowledge to the masses first job was to create mass produced copies of a load of propaganda designed to control and oppress the masses.

Would rather it churned out copies of Galileo Galilei's Dialogue or similar.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

There is every chance that Gutenberg thought it right and proper that he first bring the bible to 'the masses' (remembering of course the literacy rate). It may also have been the safest option, both economically and politically. None the less he went bankrupt before he could produce a second major work. He pre-dates Galileo by a century or so, so the Dialogue came into a world with an establish printing industry and so was propagated very quickly.

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

For the first time knowledge wasn't just for the rich.

Of course, most of those who could read Latin at the time could also afford a hand-written or block-printed Bible. It wasn't until 1522/1534 that Martin Luther's German Bible translation really made the book accessible to the masses in Gutenberg's homeland.

Personally, I could have thought of any number of other books better suited to mark the advent of movable type, but those were the days...

Cheers
Steffen.

[Starless (Brian)]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

... He pre-dates Galileo by a century or so, so the Dialogue came into a world with an establish printing industry and so was propagated very quickly.

Yeah I know, was just looking for a suitable example of information rather than fairy tales.