Ars minor

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[Mainz : Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust (Type of the 42-line Bible), ca. 1453-1454].

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Abstract:

Of roughly twenty-five fragmentary editions of Donatus printed with the Gutenberg Bible type, this is the only one to preserve the type in its earliest state: the state found only in the first few pages printed of the Gutenberg Bible itself, set to 40 lines per page. In the subsequent 42-line pages the types were apparently slightly filed down across their tops, so that the sharp terminal points of some of the capital letters were rubbed away. We do not know when printing of the Gutenberg Bible was begun, but there is good reason to think that in the fall of 1454 its printing, though well advanced, was not yet complete. Despite its very early date, it is likely that this copy was sold and used at a considerable distance from Mainz. It was retrieved from a binding of Austrian (Seitenstetten?) origin on a 1479 Basel incunable now in the Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.

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WHS fragment is an incomplete bifolium, ff. 4.7 (Schwenke 17,9-31; 18,16-19,9; 28,35-29,5; 29,44-30,20) of a 33-line edition.

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