Its fitting that the first book printed with movable type is now online in its "original" form.
"The University of Texas Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center web site now features a scanned version of their Gutenberg Bible. The Gutenberg Bible. . . is one of the greatest treasures in the Ransom Center's collections. It was printed . . . at Johann Gutenberg's shop in Mainz, Germany and completed in 1454 or 1455. The Center's Bible was acquired in 1978 and is one of only five complete examples in the United States."- from URLwire.com
At first I was dismayed because thought it was too difficult to see much detail, but then I realized you could enlarge, not just the original image, but each page. Pretty cool.
another gutenberg site
more stuff online here:
http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/gudi/eframes/index.htm
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Mike Edwards
www.vitia.org
Yikes, I should have looked f
Yikes, I should have looked further. Looking at your link, there are obviously other digital archives of the gutenberg bible online. The University of Texas does seem particularly excited about theirs, though, since each of the 48 existing copies has unique illuminations and UT's has marginalia entered by monks as well. Perhaps the greatest value for scholars is being able to compare these online.
Gutenburg is not the first
The facts and artefacts prove not only that China invented woodblock printing and clay movable type, but also that China was the first country in the world to use wood movable type and metal movable type. The use of two-colour printing began in the Song Dynasty (960---279).
(from: http://www.cgan.com/english/english/cpg/engcp20.htm)
Re "should have" -- wasn't tr
Re "should have" -- wasn't trying to be picky; just pointing out some additional resources I hoped might be helpful. The UT site is excellent, and I definitely agree on the "greatest value" proposition.
Also, regarding Eastern block printing, the materials on The Diamond Sutra are neat stuff if you're interested in the history of writing and printing. And National Geographic had a nice story a few years ago on the same topic. (The text of the article is a bit fluffy, but the amazing pictures -- as is customary for National Geographic -- are very much worth hunting down a paper copy of the issue.)
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Mike Edwards
www.vitia.org