The last time a complete copy of a Gutenberg Bible sold publicly was in 1978. The $2.2 million paid at the time was the highest price ever for any book.
Bayliss Rare Books, a rare book dealer based in the United Kingdom, has placed a leaf from the book for sale, priced at around $150,000.
Its 15th century production by Johannes Gutenberg, pioneer of the mass printing press, marked not only one of the most significant moments in the history of technology, but also forever changed communication and the mass dissemination of information.
Gutenberg originally printed around 180 copies, with each recipient of the black-letter text allowing for illumination and rubrication, a process by which individuals add “artistic embellishment” to the book, resulting in each copy appearing unique.
Less than 50 complete, original copies of the book are known to exist — all of which are now believed to be owned by public institutions or museums, making the supply for a copy essentially zero.
In place of any obtainable copies of complete examples, collectors have turned to fragments, such as the leaf offered by Bayliss. Its provenance can be traced back to the Gutenberg Bible of New York book dealer Gabriel Wells.
Wells had an incomplete (missing 50 of 643 pages) copy of the book, but he believed he would be able to make more money by dividing the book into separate pages, selling each for $150 ($100 for the damaged leafs).
These became known as “The Noble Fragments.”
The most sought-after of these leafs contained particularly significant portions of the Bible, such as the Ten Commandments.
Along with the Bible leafs, Wells sold a book called “A Noble Fragment Being A Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible 1450-1455 With A Bibliographical Essay By A. Edward Newton. New York. Gabriel Wells. 1921.”
According to Sotheby’s: “The venture was successful and earned him publicity, the New York Times commenting that Wells was 'spreading the Gospel among the rich.'”
The single leaf offered by Bayliss is one of these “Noble Fragments” and begins with the end of Chapter 45 of Isaiah and continues through the beginning of Chapter 48.
Bayliss describes this copy as the “best example on the market and the best a collector could hope for,” going on to claim just two others are available in the world with this leaf being “the finest example of those and indeed the finest to surface so far.”
Eight consecutive leaves of Noble Fragments sold for $970,000 at Sotheby’s in 2015, notably including the prologue to Esther, Esther and the first prologue to Job.
In October 2023, a leaf from the same Noble Fragments series sold for $119,700.
Record prices for the most coveted religious texts have made headlines recently, with the oldest known book in private hands, the Crosby-Schøyen Codex, selling for $3.9 million in June.
The Codex Sassoon, believed to be the earliest and most complete Hebrew Bible (Circa 900), sold for $38.13 million in May 2023, setting the record for the most expensive book ever sold at public auction.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.