Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/377

Record of Bibliography and Library Literature. 365 IRecorfc of BfblfoGrapbs an& Xibrars ^Literature* Les Bibles de Gutenberg d'apres les recherches de Karl Dziatzko. [By Leopold Delisle.] Extrait du Journal des Savants. Juillet, 1894. Pp- x ^- With 4 plates. THE LIBRARY had the pleasure of noticing Dr. Dziatzko's interesting monograph on the 42- and 36-line Bibles at the time of its appearance, nor under ordinary circumstances would a review of the book, even by so learned a writer as M. Delisle, call for fresh comment. Since 1890, however, a new document of great importance has been discovered, which in the spring of the present year was acquired by the Bibliotheque Nationale, and by the aid of this M. Delisle is able to throw new light on the subject and to strengthen in a very forcible manner Dr. Dziatzko's conclusions, though curiously enough, Dr. Dziatzko had denied before- hand the possibility of this new evidence being forthcoming. To show the importance of the new discovery we may briefly quote from our earlier review (vol. ii., p. 435). We there pointed out how Dr. Dziatzko, without unduly depreciating the evidence of the chroniclers (about whose words previous investigators had been content to wrangle), had rightly concluded that the testimony of the first importance was that which could be extracted from the Bibles themselves. He had therefore made dili- gent examination and comparison of paper and watermarks, of various minute points of typography, and also of some portions of the text. The main results at which he arrived were that : " Gutenberg alone was the original promoter of the enterprise (i.e., the 42-line Bible) and remained responsible for the technical part of the printing ; his province included its preparation of the types and the rest of the printing materials, he instructed the composers and printers, and superintended the composing and printing even in details. Fust, as publisher, provided money and materials, and, with his employes, was concerned in the outlying departments of the printing, with the revision of the text and correction of the press." With the 36-line Bible, on the other hand, Fust had nothing to do. He would not be likely to print a second Bible to compete with the first, and after 1455 various indications point to the connection of the printer of the 36-line Bible with Albrecht Pfister. That Gutenberg was concerned in the production of the 36-line, as of the 42-line Bible, Dr. Dziatzko held as certain. But with the exception of the earlier of the two recensions of the first nine pages, he showed by the testimony of various mistakes, &c., that its text was printed from the Gutenberg-Fust 42-line edition, which was thus confirmed in its claim to be the first complete printed book. We now come to the new evidence. As is well known, with the exception of the trial version of the first few leaves of the earlier sections, the rubrication of the 42-line Bible was left to be filled in by hand. To guide the rubricator in this task an " Index Rubricarum" was printed on a sheet of four pages, and issued with the Bible. When the rubricator had done his work the sheet would be useless, and would, therefore, not be included as a rule, in the bound copies. It. has, however, been pre- served in two instances, the examples in the Imperial Library at Vienna