GUTENBERG - 42 LINES BIBLE (FACSIMILE VICENT GARCIA) - 1995

Subject: Facsimile of a book from the mid-16th century. Incunabulum. Bibles - Johannes Gutenberg.

Publication: Valencia, Vicent García, 1995 (facsimile edition of Johannes Gutenberg, Mainz, year 1454).

Physical description: Facsimile bound in leather with dry iron on board with hardware. Format 31 x 41 cm. Numbered by a notary through a notarial act, and with the handwritten signature of the printer-publisher.

Notes: Limited edition of 690 copies. Copy number 300/690.

Conservation: Very good condition.

Notes: The first printed book in the world. From Mainz. Facsimile with the same characteristics, paper and watermarks as those used by Gutenberg. Two facsimile volumes and study book.

Other information: This facsimile edition of the Gutenberg Bible has been made from the only copy jealously guarded by the Biblioteca Pública del Estado in the city of Burgos. It began in 1992, and for this we sent a team of photographers who carried out the first tests and who set the guidelines for the Burgos photographer Julio Sanz.

Each of the 1280 reproductions of the pages of the two volumes of the Bible were retouched by hand by technicians from the Vicent Graphic Center in Puig de Santa María. The color was reproduced by Nicolás Funes and Vicente Rocafull, and the corrections to the text pages were made by Javier Guillén, Miguel Ángel Sena and Vicente López.

The paper was specially manufactured by Guarro Casas de Gelida (Barcelona), and for this they used artisanal methods that made it similar to that used by Gutenberg, all of which was coordinated by Pere Almirall who took out the verjures, the watermarks, textures, weights, and original paper color.

Part of the printing of these first 680 Bibles was carried out at the Gil Printing Office in Tabernes Blanques (Valencia) by the master typographers Vicente Crespo and Vicente Ponce. And it was finished being printed in the workshops of Vicent Oficio Gráfico in Rafaelbuñol (Valencia) on April 30, 1995, the feast of Santa Irene.

The Printers were Esteban Molina and Javier Guillen. Also here the two volumes were bound by the master Fernando Cerveró. In each volume, the manual touch-ups were carried out, with a brush, necessary to give them the final finish, the fittings were cast by the craftsman José Ballester. The leather that covers the wooden boards was hand-dyed by technician Franco Gozzini.

All this work necessary to carry out this edition has lasted more than three years and has been carried out under the care and direction of Ricardo J. Vicent assisted by his children.

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