Invention of book printing
Around the middle of the fifteenth century, Johannes Gutenberg revolutionizes the world of books in Germany. He starts printing with loose lead letters for the first time, an invention that radically changes the production of books. Until then, it was customary to write texts by hand, a labor-intensive process. Gutenberg's invention allows books to be produced faster and in large print runs.
First printed Dutch text
In the Netherlands, Gutenberg's work is followed with interest and soon printers appear here as well. The first printed texts are in Latin, the language of the church in those days. But then, in 1477, in the Delft printing works of Jacob Jacobszoon van der Meer and Mauricius Yemantszoon, the first Dutch text rolls off the press, the Delft Bible. About five years of setting, inking, pressing, correcting and setting again are necessary to make the Old Testament, without the psalms, see the light of day. The print run is about 250 copies, of which about fifty remain today.
Each Delft Bible is unique
Each of those Delft Bibles still in existence is unique because of the hand-applied penwork and the corrections that were made during printing. And because the buyer himself chose which books of the Bible were bound in his Bible. The Delft Bible is a monument to the printing history of Dutch texts and should therefore not be missing from the presentation of the top pieces from the VU collections.
