Biblia Sacra [Facsimile Of The Gutenberg Bible]. Gutenberg, Johann.

The first American facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible, in the deluxe binding of full morocco (copies were also issued in half morocco or red cloth), number 160 of a total edition of 1,000 copies. The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed in the West using moveable type. It was first published in Mainz in 1455. This facsimile was derived from the German Insel Verlag facsimile - the only facsimile to precede this American edition - which was taken from the copies at Berlin and Fulda, widely regarded as among the most beautiful. The facsimile is suitably lavish, the text printed with lithography and the illuminations by sheet-fed gravure, all printed on rag paper and bound by hand. Two volumes, large folio. Original brown morocco by Alpha New York, spines lettered in gilt, covers stamped in blind incorporating Gutenberg's initials, turn-ins ruled in blind, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Colour illustrations and rubrication throughout, replicating the original. Head of front cover of vol. I a little sunned, endpapers a little cockled and tanned from turn-ins: a near-fine copy.