Important leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, printed by Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, 1455. The Gutenberg Bible is the first substantial book printed using movable type. Printed around 1455, the Noble Fragment leaves originate from an incomplete Gutenberg Bible, the Mannheim copy, sold at Sotheby's on November 9, 1920, to Joseph Sabin. The bible was missing 50 of its original 643 leaves. Sabin sold the bible to Gabriel Wells, a New York book dealer, who decided to split the incomplete book up into individual leaves, as well as a few sections, ultimately completing, or nearly completing, several other copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Individual leaves were purchased by private collectors for $150 each. The leaf here contains parts of the 2nd Book of Esdras, chapters 14 and 15, with forty-two lines of black ink, double columned, with red and blue Lombardic Capitals. The leaf is hinged into a dark blue Morocco leather portfolio and slip-case, the front containing a four page introduction by A. Edward Newton. Provenance: Christies, June 9, 1993, lot 14; The Estate of John Donnelly.

Competitive in-house shipping is available for this lot. Leaf with minor staining and handling marks, one very small hole in bottom corner, near hinge, type in very good condition, cover with some wear to spine and edges, slip-case in poor structural condition, with several seams coming apart.