On 24 August 1455, in Mainz (in present-day Germany), Johannes Gutenberg and his associates finished printing the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. Before Gutenberg, every book produced in Europe had to be copied by hand. (The Chinese had been mass producing books since the ninth century.) The Gutenberg Bible marked the start of the “Gutenberg Revolution” and the age of printed books in the West.
It is believed that approximately 180 copies of the Bible were produced, 135 on paper and 45 on vellum. The Bible seems to have sold out immediately, with initial sales to owners as far away as England and possibly Sweden and Hungary.
Gutenberg’s invention did not make him rich, but it laid the foundation for the commercial mass production of books. The success of printing meant that books soon became cheaper, and ever wider parts of the population could afford them.
Johann Gutenberg’s Bible is probably the most famous Bible in the world. It is the earliest full-scale work printed in Europe using moveable type and is valued for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities as well as its historical significance. Only 48 copies are known to have survived, of which 12 are printed on vellum and 36 on paper.