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Sale 56
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Lot 1
[Gutenberg Bible Leaf From the Book of Job]. Printed leaf, double folio, 4 columns (2 each front and back), each column with 42 lines, being part of chapter 37 and all of chapters 38 and 39. Printed by Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany), c. 1450-1455. With hand rubrication. Presented in a black leather portfolio case with the title: A Noble Fragment Being A Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible. 1450-1455 With A Bibliographical Essay By A. Edward Newton. New York Gabriel Wells 1921. The Bible leaf is attached with archival tape on the verso at the left margin to a slightly larger sheet in the portfolio. The Bible sheet is toned and has marginal soiling; paper filler was added to blank lower right margin
The Gutenberg Bible is a printed version of the Latin Vulgate. It was the first major book to be printed with movable type. It is thought that Gutenberg printed approximatey 180 copies: 145 on paper and the remainder on vellum. Either 47 or 48 of the 42-line Bibles are known to exist today but only 21 of them are complete. Even at the time they were printed, they were prohibitively expensive and probably only within the financial reach of churches and monasteries.
Job is the first of five books commonly referred to as "The Books of Poetry" because they are written in poetic style, rather than the narrative style of most other books. These include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. The Book of Job addresses the issue of why God allows the righteous to suffer; it has long been praised as a masterpiece of literature. Victor Hugo said, "Tomorrow, if all lliterature were to be destroyed and it were left to me to retain one work only, I should save Job." Tennyson called it "…the greatest poem, whether of acient or modern literature," and Daniel Webster said, "The book of Job taken as a mere work of literary genius, is one of the most wonderful productions of any age or of any language."
This sheet begins in Chapter 37 with the verse: "By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened."
Chapter 38 begins: "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me."
Estimated Value $60,000 - 80,000.
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| Realized $82,250 |
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