The Gutenberg bible

Unlike many of its peer collections, the JCB does not own a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed book in Europe. It does, however, own a fragment of this text, acquired in the beginning of the 20th century to highlight the history of Western printing. This is one folded leaf (bifolium) on vellum of the Old Testament of the so-called 42-line Bible, printed by Gutenberg in Mainz. This copy of the Bible was used in Lorraine (on the border between present-day France and Germany). At some point the book was discarded and recycled. Only seven fragments of the original bible survive and were used as binding materials for other books. The fragment of the JCB clearly shows the spine and the turn-ins that at some point were wrapped around another book.