The ''Mainz Psalter'' was the second major book printed with

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

in the West; the first was the

Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, was the earliest major book printed in Europe using mass-produced metal movable type. It marked the start of the "Printing Revolution, Gutenberg Revolution" an ...

. It is a psalter commissioned by the Mainz archbishop in 1457. The Psalter introduced several innovations: it was the first book to feature a printed date of publication, a printed colophon, two sizes of type, printed decorative initials, and the first to be printed in three colours. The colophon also contains the first example of a printer's mark. It was the first important publication issued by Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer following their split from

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...

Description

The Psalter combines printed text with two-colour woodcuts: since both woodcuts and movable print are relief processes, they could be printed together on the same press. The Psalter is printed using black and red inks, with the smaller initials in red. The larger coloured capitals are done by hand in blue and red inks. Some initials combine printing and hand-drawing, and according to Mayumi Ikeda, some even include elements of intaglio engraving. These capitals were partly the work of the artisan known as the Fust master, who later also worked for Fust and Schöffer on the 1462 Bible. The musical score accompanying the psalms was provided in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

, and may have been the model for the type style. Printing in two colours, although feasible on the moveable press of Gutenberg's time (as illustrated by the Mainz Psalter), was apparently abandoned soon afterward as being too time-consuming, as few other examples of such a process are extant. Two versions were printed, the short issue and long issue. The short has 143 leaves, and the long has 175 and was intended for use in the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of Mainz. All surviving copies and fragments are on

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

, and it is not known if any paper copies were printed.
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue accessed 3 February 2012 At least one copy was still being used in services in a monastery in the mid-eighteenth century.

Date

The Psalter is the earliest European book with a printed date of publication, though not the first printed book to feature a date associated with its production: in August 1456 the binder and rubrication, rubricator of a copy of the Gutenberg Bible added handwritten dates to show when these tasks were completed. The colophon can be translated as follows: *''This volume of the Psalms, adorned with a magnificence of capital letters and clearly divided by rubrics, has been fashioned by a mechanical process of printing and producing characters, without use of a pen, and it was laboriously completed, for God's Holiness, by Joachim Fust, citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim, on Assumption Eve ugust 14in the year of Our Lord, 1457.'' New editions, using the same type, were printed in 1459 (dated August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.

Surviving copies

It is "the second printed book ever published, and the first with rubricated (red as well as black) printing". There are only ten copies in existence, and as such, this book is rarer than the Gutenberg Bible. Many fragments also survive. The ten known copies of the 1457 edition are listed below: * Berlin State Library. Long issue * Saxon State Library, Dresden. Long issue. Looted during World War II and taken to the US, until returned in 1950. * Darmstadt University and Public Library. Short issue * Austrian National Library. Long issue. * French National Library, Paris. Long issue. From St Victor in Mainz. * Municipal Library,

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

. Short issue *

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, London. Short issue. Bequeathed by Thomas Grenville. On display in th
Sir John Ritblat Gallery
* Royal Library, Windsor. Short issue. Acquired by

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

from the University of Göttingen. * John Rylands Library, Manchester. Short issue. Bought from 5th Earl Spencer in 1892. Earlier bought by 2nd Earl Spencer from the German monastery of Rot an der Rot in 1798. * Scheide Library, Princeton University, New Jersey. Long issue, but missing ff. 143-175. Also from St Victor in Mainz.

Notes

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 15th-century Christian texts Incunabula History of Mainz Memory of the World Register 1457 books 15th-century books in Latin

Description

Date

Surviving copies

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links