Gutenberg Bible - Surviving Copies

Surviving Copies

As of 2009, 48 42-line Bibles are known to exist, but of these only 21 are complete. Others have leaves or even whole volumes missing. In addition, there are a substantial number of fragments, some as small as individual leaves, which are likely to represent about another 16 copies. Many of these fragments have survived because they were used as part of the binding of later books. There are twelve surviving copies on vellum, although only four of these are complete and one is of the New Testament only.

The country with the most copies of any kind is Germany, which has thirteen, while the United States has eleven, and the United Kingdom eight. New York has four copies, Paris and London have three each, and Mainz, the Vatican City and Moscow have two each. The country with the most complete copies is the United Kingdom with seven, the United States five, Germany three, and France two. Institutions which have copies on permanent display include the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, the British Library and the Library of Congress.

Copy numbers listed below are as found in the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, taken from a 1985 survey of existing copies by Ilona Hubay; the two copies in Russia were not known to exist in 1985, and so were not catalogued.