The history of the printed Bible begins with the history of European typography itself. Johann Gutenberg's Bible, completed at Mainz about 1455, was followed within little more than four decades by well over a hundred complete editions printed across Europe in Latin, German, Italian, Czech, Catalan and Hebrew. Taken together, these books provide one of the clearest ways of tracing the transformation of printing from an experimental craft concentrated on the Rhine into an international industry serving clerical, scholarly and lay readers.

This census is intended as a bibliographical reference to the complete Bibles printed during the incunable period, conventionally ending with the year 1500. It includes complete Latin Bibles, complete vernacular Christian Bibles and complete editions of the Hebrew Bible. It does not count Psalters, Pentateuchs, Prophets, New Testaments, lectionaries, biblical excerpts or works such as the Bible historiale unless they formed part of an edition of the complete biblical text.

On that definition, the census below records approximately 125 distinct complete editions or bibliographical editions before 1501: 93 Latin Bibles completed within the incunable period, fifteen German Bibles, eleven Italian Bibles, two Czech Bibles, one Catalan Bible and three complete Hebrew Bibles. A small number of fifteenth-century books remain subject to uncertainty of dating, attribution or the bibliographical relationship between issues. Also worthy of note is Bibles produced over a several year span which were completed after the year 1500 which have not been included here even if individual parts are incunabula, but those are given a little note below their respective tables. There were no editions of the Bible in Polish printed during the incunable period, even though a Polish language Bible is known from c. 1453-1455, it was a manuscript (the Biblia królowej Zofii). The first printed Bible in Polish was the Biblia Leopolity, printed in Kraków in 1561, over a century after the first printed Bible.

For collectors and bibliographers, the distinction matters. An entry described simply as a "fifteenth-century Bible" may belong to any one of several quite different traditions: an enormous early folio modelled directly upon the manuscript Bible, a compact octavo intended for practical use, a vernacular edition descending from a medieval translation, a heavily glossed university Bible, an illustrated Bible designed for a broader market, or one of the earliest products of Hebrew typography. Identifying which tradition a copy belongs to is often the beginning rather than the end of its bibliographical description.

Last revised: October 2026.

What Is an Incunable Bible?

An incunable, or incunabulum, is a book printed from movable type during the first half-century of European printing, conventionally from its beginnings in the 1450s through 31 December 1500. The plural forms incunabula and incunables are both commonly used.

An incunable Bible is therefore not a particular edition but any biblical edition belonging to this period. Bibliographically, however, the category embraces books of very different characters. The Gutenberg Bible of about 1455, the Mentelin German Bible of before June 1466, the first Italian Bible of 1471, Anton Koberger's illustrated German Bible of 1483, the first complete Hebrew Bible of 1488, and Johann Froben's compact octavo Latin Bibles of 1491 and 1495 are all incunable Bibles, despite being produced for different readerships and under very different commercial circumstances.

The chronological tables below therefore separate Latin Bible printing from complete vernacular and Hebrew Bible printing. This avoids treating materially and textual­ly different traditions as though they formed a single series.

Methodology and Scope of the Census

For the Latin sequence, the principal modern working bibliography used here is Scott McLaren's Bibliographia Bibliorum Latinorum, cross-checked where necessary against the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC), Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW), Bodleian incunable records and the standard bibliography of Darlow and Moule. The chronology follows current bibliographical dating rather than older dates that continue to appear in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature. Scott McLaren's excellent Bibliographia Bibliorum Latinorum is available for consultation here and includes more substantive detail concerning Latin Bibles specifically and currently continues forward up to 1529.

For vernacular editions, the census records complete Bibles rather than every fifteenth-century printing of biblical material. The Delft Bible of 1477, for example, is of enormous importance in the history of Dutch printing but contains the Old Testament rather than a complete Old and New Testament and is consequently excluded from the numerical census. The same principle excludes separately printed Hebrew Psalters, Pentateuchs and Prophets despite their importance in the development of Hebrew typography.

Dates preceded by c., "about", "before", "not after" or a date range reflect genuine bibliographical uncertainty. Many incunables have no printed date or place of publication and are assigned to presses through type, paper, textual evidence, rubricators' dates, ownership inscriptions and comparison with securely dated books.

This is also why modern catalogue references such as ISTC and GW are essential when identifying an incunable Bible. Printer, place and approximate date alone are not always enough to distinguish one edition from another.

I. Complete Latin Bibles Printed Before 1501

Latin overwhelmingly dominated fifteenth-century Bible printing. The following sequence records the complete Latin Bibles known to have been produced from Gutenberg's first edition through the final years of the century.

1450s and 1460s

Date	Place	Printer / Press	Format	Bibliographical significance
c.1455	Mainz	Johann Gutenberg, with Johann Fust	Royal folio	The 42-line Bible, the first substantial book printed in Europe with movable metal type
not after 1460	Strasbourg	Johann Mentelin	Royal folio	One of the earliest complete printed Bibles and the first substantial book printed at Strasbourg
not after 1461	Bamberg	Printer of the 36-line Bible	Royal folio	The 36-line Bible, printed in type derived from Gutenberg's early types
14 August 1462	Mainz	Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer	Folio	First printed Latin Bible explicitly naming its printers and date
not after 24 May 1466	Strasbourg	Heinrich Eggestein	Royal folio	Important early Strasbourg Bible
c.1468	Basel	Berthold Ruppel	Folio	Among the earliest Bibles printed at Basel
not after 1468	Strasbourg	Heinrich Eggestein	Royal folio	Second early Eggestein Bible

The concentration is immediately apparent. During the first decade and a half of Bible printing, the complete Latin Bible remained overwhelmingly a product of Mainz, Strasbourg, Bamberg and Basel. These were still monumental undertakings closely related in scale and visual conception to the manuscript Bible.

1470s

Date	Place	Printer / Press	Format	Notes
not after 8 March 1470	Strasbourg	Heinrich Eggestein	Royal folio	41-line Bible
1471	Rome	Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz	Folio	Important early Roman Bible in Roman type
23 February 1472	Mainz	Peter Schoeffer	Folio	Later Mainz Bible from the Schoeffer press
c.1473	Strasbourg	the R-printer, associated with Adolf Rusch and Johann Mentelin	Folio	Major early Strasbourg edition
not after 1474	Basel	Bernhard Richel	Folio	With additions associated with Menardus Monachus
not after 1474	Basel	Berthold Ruppel and Bernhard Richel	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
1475	Venice	Franciscus Renner and Nicolaus de Frankfordia	Folio	Early Venetian Latin Bible
c.1475	Cologne	Conrad Winters	Folio	Early Cologne Bible
1475	Piacenza	Johannes Petrus de Ferratis	Quarto	An early move away from the enormous folio format
1475	Basel	Bernhard Richel	Folio	With additions by Menardus Monachus
16 November 1475	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Among Koberger's earliest Bibles
9 December 1475	Nuremberg	Johann Sensenschmidt and Andreas Frisner	Folio	Complete Bible with additional material
1476	Venice	Franciscus Renner and Nicolaus de Frankfordia	Folio	Repeated Venetian Bible production
1476	Venice	Nicolaus Jenson	Folio	Bible from one of Venice's greatest early printers
10 May 1476	Venice	Leonardus Achates de Basilea	Folio	Venetian, not Vicenza, despite confusion in some older descriptions
1476	Nuremberg	Johann Sensenschmidt and Andreas Frisner	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
1476–1477	Paris	Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger	Folio	Early complete Paris Bible
1476	Naples	Mathias Moravus and Biagio Romero	Folio	Early complete Bible printed at Naples
c.1477–1478	Cologne	Nicolaus Götz	Folio	One of several closely dated Götz Bible editions
8 September 1477	Basel	Bernhard Richel	Folio	Latin Bible with additions
c.1477–1478	Cologne	Nicolaus Götz	Folio	Distinct edition from the preceding Götz Bible
30 July 1477	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Latin Bible with additions
not after 1477	Cologne	Conrad Winters	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
1478	Venice	Reynaldus de Novimagio and Theodorus de Reynsburch	Folio	Venetian edition
14 April 1478	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
July 1478	Venice	Leonardus Wild for Nicolaus de Frankfordia	Folio	Venetian edition
c.1478–1480	Cologne	Nicolaus Götz	Folio	Further Cologne Bible
10 November 1478	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Another Koberger Bible
1479	Basel	Johann Amerbach	Folio	Important Amerbach edition
1479	Lyon	Perrinus Lathomi	Folio	Early complete Lyon Bible
20 September 1479	Cologne	Conrad Winters	Folio	Dated Cologne edition
6 August 1479	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	One of a sequence of Koberger Latin Bibles
1479	Venice	Nicolaus Jenson	Folio	Complete Bible from Jenson's press

By the end of the 1470s the geography of Bible printing had changed completely. Nuremberg, Venice, Cologne, Basel, Paris, Naples, Piacenza, Rome and Lyon had joined the older Rhine centres. Bible printing was no longer concentrated around the origins of the new technology.

1480s

Date	Place	Printer / Press	Format	Notes
29 January 1480	Ulm	Johann Zainer	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
14 April 1480	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Latin Bible with additions
9 May 1480	Cologne	Nicolaus Götz	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
31 May 1480	Venice	Octavianus Scotus	Quarto	Compact Venetian edition
c.1480	Cologne	Heinrich Quentell	Folio	Very rare Cologne edition
1480	Venice	Franciscus Renner	Folio	Complete Bible
not after 1480	Strasbourg	Adolf Rusch for Anton Koberger	Folio	First printed Latin Bible with the Glossa Ordinaria
1481	Basel	Johann Amerbach	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
31 July 1481	Venice	Johannes Herbort for Johannes de Colonia, Nicolaus Jenson and associates	Folio	First printed Latin Bible with the postils of Nicholas of Lyra
1481	Venice	Leonardus Wild	Folio	Complete Bible
1482	Basel	Johann Amerbach	Folio	Complete Bible
1482–1483	Venice	Franciscus Renner	Folio	Bible with Nicholas of Lyra and associated commentary
1482	Lyon	Nicolaus Philippi and Marcus Reinhart	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
31 December 1482	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Complete Bible
1483	Lyon	Mathias Huss	Folio	Complete Bible
31 October 1483	Venice	Johannes Herbort	Folio	Complete Bible
1483	Venice	Franciscus Renner	Quarto	Compact Venetian edition
1483	Strasbourg	Johann Grüninger	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
30 April 1484	Venice	Johannes Herbort	Quarto	Complete Bible
1485	Basel	Michael Wenssler	Folio	Complete Bible
1485	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Bible with Nicholas of Lyra; first Latin Bible to employ woodcut illustrations
c.1485	Venice	Nicolaus de Frankfordia	Folio	Complete Bible
1486–1487	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Large scholarly Bible with Nicholas of Lyra
1486	Speyer	Peter Drach	Folio	Complete Bible
1486	Basel	Johann Amerbach	Folio	Complete Bible
1486	Strasbourg	Johann Prüss	Folio	Early Latin Bible with a printed title page
1487	Lyon	Printer of Guido Papa	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
9 October or 24 November 1487	Basel	Nicolaus Kesler	Folio	Complete Bible
27 February 1487/88	Venice	Georgius Arrivabenus	Quarto	Complete Bible
c.1488	Lyon	Johann Siber	Folio	Bible with the postils of Nicholas of Lyra
1489	Strasbourg	Johann Prüss	Folio	Complete Bible
8 August 1489	Venice	Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus	Folio	Major Lyra commentary Bible
1489	Speyer	Peter Drach	Folio	Complete Latin Bible

The 1480s witnessed a change not simply in quantity but in what a printed Bible could be. The text was increasingly surrounded by editorial and interpretative machinery: glosses, postils, tables, cross-references and illustrations. Printers were no longer reproducing only the biblical text; they were reproducing entire systems of biblical scholarship. Crucially, this occurred decades before the Protestant Reformation. Much of the apparatus being transferred into print, including the Glossa Ordinaria and the postils of Nicholas of Lyra, belonged to the scholarly tradition of the medieval Latin Church and had been developed by Catholic clerics, religious orders and the universities centuries before Luther.

1490s

Date	Place	Printer / Press	Format	Notes
9 June 1490	Lyon	Jacobus Maillet, edited by Stephanus Pariseti	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
9 January 1491	Basel	Nicolaus Kesler	Folio	Complete Bible
1491	Freiburg im Breisgau	Kilian Fischer	Folio	Biblia cum Concordantiis
27 June 1491	Basel	Johann Froben	Octavo	First Bible printed in octavo format
1492	Strasbourg	Johann Grüninger	Folio	Large Bible with Nicholas of Lyra
7 September 1492	Venice	Hieronymus de Paganinis	Octavo	Early portable Bible with elaborate reference apparatus
c.1493–1494	Freiburg, or possibly Basel	Kilian Fischer, or Johann Amerbach	Folio	Attribution remains bibliographically disputed
not after 1493	Nuremberg	Caspar Hochfeder	Folio	Complete Bible
1493	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Large Nicholas of Lyra commentary Bible
1494	Lyon	Mathias Huss	Folio	Complete Latin Bible
22 November 1494	Venice	Simon Bevilaqua	Quarto	Bible with an extensive tabular apparatus
18 April 1495	Venice	Paganinus de Paganinis	Folio	First printed Bible combining the Glossa Ordinaria and Nicholas of Lyra
27 October 1495	Basel	Johann Froben	Octavo	Second compact Froben Bible
29 December 1496	Brescia	Angelus and Jacobus Britannicus	Octavo	Compact complete Bible
26 April 1497	Strasbourg	Johann Grüninger	Folio	Bible with summaries and concordances
7 September 1497	Venice	Hieronymus de Paganinis	Octavo	Second Paganinis portable Bible
1497	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	Folio	Large Lyra commentary Bible
23 December 1497	Lyon	François Fradin and Jean Pivard	Quarto / folio classification varies	Bible with summaries and concordances
8 May 1498	Venice	Simon Bevilaqua	Quarto	First printed Latin Bible with an extensive programme of narrative woodcuts
1 December 1498	Basel	Johann Froben and Johann Petri de Langendorff	Folio	Monumental glossed Bible, normally bound in six volumes

One important boundary case has deliberately been excluded from the count of completed incunable Bibles. Johann Amerbach's Basel edition of the Bible with the commentaries of Hugh of Saint-Cher began appearing in 1498 but was not completed until 1502. Individual constituent volumes are therefore incunables, but the complete publication is not wholly a fifteenth-century production. Likewise, Jacques Sacon, despite his importance, belongs to the next generation of Bible printing. As of the time of writing this, Antykwariat Woodward holds the 1506 first edition of Sacon's Bible.

II. Complete Vernacular Bibles Before 1501

The abundance of vernacular Bible printing before Martin Luther is one of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of fifteenth-century book history. Luther's translation was transformative, but he did not introduce the idea of a printed Bible in a European vernacular. Complete German Bibles had been printed for more than half a century by the time his New Testament appeared in 1522.

The earliest securely documented complete vernacular printed Bible is Johann Mentelin's German Bible, produced at Strasbourg before 27 June 1466. A copy acquired on that date by the Augsburg merchant and chronicler Hektor Mülich provides the decisive terminus ante quem.

German Bibles

Date	Place	Printer	Language / tradition	Significance
before 27 June 1466	Strasbourg	Johann Mentelin	High German	First complete printed Bible in a European vernacular
not after 1470	Strasbourg	Heinrich Eggestein	High German	Second early Strasbourg German Bible
not after 1474	Augsburg	Günther Zainer	High German	Among the earliest Augsburg German Bibles
c.1475	Augsburg	Jodocus Pflanzmann	High German	Early Augsburg vernacular edition
1476–1478	Nuremberg	Johann Sensenschmidt and Andreas Frisner	High German	Early Nuremberg German Bible
1477	Augsburg	Günther Zainer	High German	Later Zainer Bible
20 June 1477	Augsburg	Anton Sorg	High German	Dated German Bible
c.1478–1479	Cologne	associated with Heinrich Quentell / Bartholomaeus of Unckel	Low Rhenish	One of the two celebrated Cologne Bibles
c.1478–1479	Cologne	associated with Heinrich Quentell / Bartholomaeus of Unckel	Low Saxon	Companion Low German Cologne tradition
1 January 1480	Augsburg	Anton Sorg	High German	Further Sorg edition
17 February 1483	Nuremberg	Anton Koberger	High German	Celebrated illustrated Koberger Bible
2 May 1485	Strasbourg	Johann Grüninger	High German	Illustrated Strasbourg Bible
25 May 1487	Augsburg	Johann Schönsperger	High German	Eleventh High German Bible in the traditional sequence
9 November 1490	Augsburg	Johann Schönsperger	High German	Twelfth High German Bible in the traditional sequence
19 November 1494	Lübeck	Steffen Arndes	Low German	Monumental illustrated Lübeck Bible

The sequence is important because it destroys the persistent assumption that vernacular scripture was primarily a product of the Reformation. These editions were produced within the religious culture of the late medieval Church and drew upon medieval German translations already circulating in manuscript.

Mentelin's translation was itself based on a much older Middle High German textual tradition. The innovation was not the first translation of scripture into German but the multiplication of an existing vernacular Bible through print. This is also the case for English translations of the Bible which existed in the medieval manuscript tradition, although, like Tyndale's translation, were not very good translations.

England provides a useful parallel. Biblical texts had circulated in English for centuries, while the first complete English Bible was produced in manuscript in the late fourteenth century in the tradition conventionally associated with John Wyclif. The earlier form of this translation was exceptionally literal, closely following the Latin Vulgate, while its later revision produced considerably more idiomatic English. Tyndale's sixteenth-century translation represented a different development: rather than merely reproducing the medieval vernacular tradition, he worked substantially from Greek and Hebrew texts, producing a translation whose language profoundly influenced subsequent English Bibles.

Italian Bibles

Italian Bible printing developed almost entirely at Venice during the incunable period. Its central figure was the Camaldolese Niccolò Malermi, whose translation of the Vulgate became one of the great publishing successes of fifteenth-century vernacular scripture.

Date	Place	Printer / Publisher	Text	Significance
1 August 1471	Venice	Wendelin von Speyer	Niccolò Malermi	First complete Bible printed in Italian
1 October 1471	Venice	Adam de Ambergau	Anonymous Italian version	The so-called October Bible, a distinct Italian translation
1477–1478	Venice	Gabriele di Pietro	Malermi	Early reprint of Malermi
1478	Venice	Antonio Miscomini	Malermi	Colophon dated 1477 by the Venetian calendar, corresponding to 1478 in modern reckoning
1481	Venice	Octavianus Scotus	Malermi	Complete Italian Bible
1484	Venice	Andreas de Paltasichis	Malermi	Complete Italian Bible
1487	Venice	Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis for Tommaso Trevisano	Malermi	Complete Italian Bible
15 October 1490	Venice	Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio Giunta	Malermi	Lavishly illustrated Giunta edition
July 1492	Venice	Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio Giunta	Malermi	Further illustrated Giunta edition
23 April 1493	Venice	Guglielmo "Anima Mia"	Malermi	Complete Italian Bible
June 1494	Venice	Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis for Lucantonio Giunta	Malermi	Celebrated illustrated Giunta edition

The Malermi tradition also demonstrates how quickly vernacular Bible printing became a repeat commercial market. The first Italian Bible was not an isolated experiment. It generated a succession of editions over the following decades, culminating in the heavily illustrated Giunta Bibles of the 1490s.

The Valencian or Catalan Bible

Date	Place	Printer	Language	Significance
1477–1478	Valencia	Lambert Palmart and Alfonso Fernández de Córdoba	Valencian / Catalan	First complete printed Bible in a Romance language of the Iberian Peninsula

The Valencian Bible occupies a very different bibliographical position from the German and Italian traditions because its survival is catastrophic. Traditionally associated with the translation of Bonifaci Ferrer, although the precise attribution has been debated, the edition was printed at Valencia in 1477–1478. Only a single leaf of the printed Bible is known to survive. Its place in a census based simply upon surviving complete copies would therefore be easy to miss. Bibliographically it is one of the most important vernacular editions of the entire incunable period.

Czech Bibles

Date	Place	Printer	Language	Significance
August 1488	Prague	Printer of the 1488 Bible, possibly Johann Kamp, for a consortium including Johann Pytlik	Czech	First complete Bible printed in Czech and the first complete printed Bible in a Slavic language
14 November 1489	Kutná Hora	Martin of Tišnov	Czech	Second Czech Bible; celebrated for its woodcut illustration

The appearance of complete Czech Bibles in 1488 and 1489 is especially significant because it demonstrates the geographical breadth of vernacular biblical culture before 1500. Prague and Kutná Hora were not peripheral imitators of German printing but active centres serving a sophisticated local readership.

III. The First Complete Printed Hebrew Bibles

Hebrew printing followed a different textual and religious tradition from Christian Bible printing and should not be collapsed into the Vulgate and vernacular sequences. Nevertheless, the appearance of the complete Hebrew Bible in print was one of the major typographical developments of the fifteenth century.

Individual portions of the Hebrew Bible had appeared earlier, including a Psalter, Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographa. The first complete edition followed at Soncino in 1488. Also worthy of note after the incunable period is Daniel Bomberg's typographically excellent Biblia Rabbinica.

Date	Place	Printer / Publisher	Significance
22 April 1488	Soncino	Abraham ben Hayyim for Joshua Solomon Soncino	First complete printed Hebrew Bible, with vowel points and accents
1491–1493	Naples	Joshua Solomon Soncino	Second complete printed Hebrew Bible
1494	Brescia	Gershom Soncino	Third complete printed Hebrew Bible; the edition famously associated with Luther's work on the Hebrew Old Testament

The achievement was substantial both intellectually and technically. Hebrew typography required printers to solve problems entirely different from those encountered in Latin printing, while the Soncino family's movement between printing centres helped establish a network for the production and circulation of Hebrew books.

The Brescia Bible of 1494 is particularly famous in the history of biblical scholarship because an example of this edition was used by Martin Luther in connection with his German translation of the Old Testament.

IV. What the Chronology Reveals About Fifteenth-Century Printing

From Mainz to a European Industry

The first complete printed Bibles were concentrated within a remarkably small geographical area. Gutenberg's Mainz Bible was followed by Mentelin at Strasbourg, the 36-line Bible at Bamberg, Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, Eggestein at Strasbourg and Ruppel at Basel.

Within twenty years the picture was entirely different. Rome, Venice, Nuremberg, Cologne, Paris, Naples, Lyon and Piacenza all entered the market. The Bible therefore provides an effective measure of the spread of printing because producing one required substantial capital, paper, labour, type and an expectation of sufficient demand to absorb a large edition. A town capable of sustaining complete Bible production had generally moved well beyond the experimental phase of typography.

The Bible Became a Repeat Commercial Product

Gutenberg's Bible belongs to a world in which printing a complete Bible was itself an extraordinary technical achievement. By the late 1470s, printers such as Anton Koberger could issue successive complete editions within short intervals.

This does not make later Bibles bibliographically insignificant. Rather, it documents the astonishing speed with which printing became commercially mature. The repetition of Bible editions at Nuremberg, Venice, Basel and elsewhere demonstrates established distribution systems, access to capital and a sufficiently broad market to support repeated investment in one of the longest texts a printer could undertake. It also explains the significant price difference of incunable Bibles printed before around 1475 and those after. Printed Bibles from before 1475 are often valued at multiples of those printed after 1475, with a few exceptions like the beautiful illustrated Anton Koberger Bible of 1483 which, like his famous 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, is often encountered with the illustrations hand-coloured. 

Vernacular Bible Printing Long Predates the Reformation

The chronology is particularly useful in correcting a persistent historical misconception. Printed vernacular Bibles were well established before Luther.

Mentelin's complete German Bible existed by June 1466. Two different Italian Bible translations appeared at Venice in 1471. A complete Catalan or Valencian Bible was printed in 1477–1478. Complete Czech Bibles followed in 1488 and 1489.

These books did not emerge from the sixteenth-century Reformation. They belonged to late medieval devotional, linguistic and commercial culture, although their readership, textual authority and relationship with ecclesiastical structures varied considerably from region to region. What changed during the Reformation was not the invention of vernacular scripture but its textual foundations, scale of circulation, ideological function and relationship with confessional identity.

Venice Became the Great Southern Centre of Bible Production

Venice's role is particularly significant. It produced large numbers of Latin Bibles while simultaneously becoming the principal centre for Italian Bible printing. Its printers experimented with folio, quarto and eventually more compact formats, scholarly apparatus and increasingly ambitious programmes of illustration.

By the 1490s Lucantonio Giunta's editions of the Malermi Bible demonstrate the mature commercial possibilities of biblical publishing. Text, illustration, typography and distribution had been integrated into products designed for an extensive market. This also broadly parallels incunable period printing in general: the earliest printed books were typically large folios, with more portable quarto and octavo sizes being more common in the latter half of the incunable period. See our currently held incunables here.

Nuremberg and Anton Koberger

If Venice represents the extraordinary scale of the Italian book trade, Anton Koberger represents the industrial potential of printing north of the Alps.

Koberger repeatedly issued Latin Bibles and produced the celebrated German Bible of 1483. His business operated through a network of pressmen, compositors, correctors, agents and international commercial contacts on a scale exceptional for the fifteenth century.

The Bible was ideally suited to such an operation: expensive to produce, universally recognisable, capable of being sold across political boundaries and available in versions ranging from relatively straightforward text editions to enormous scholarly compilations. The later collaboration of Koberger's shop with Sacon's printed Bibles is also significant, many containing Koberger's name even after his death.

The Printed Bible Became a Scholarly Machine

The later incunable Bible should not be imagined merely as the same biblical text reproduced more efficiently. By 1480 Adolf Rusch's Strasbourg Bible placed the biblical text within the Glossa Ordinaria. The Venetian Bible of 1481 incorporated the postils of Nicholas of Lyra. Koberger's 1485 edition added woodcut illustration to a Latin commentary Bible. Later editions combined glosses, Lyra's postils, additions by Paul of Burgos, replies by Matthias Döring, concordances, tables and other finding aids.

Printing made it possible not only to reproduce scripture but to standardise and multiply complex architectures of commentary around it. For the history of scholarship, these enormous multi-volume Bibles can be as important as the plain-text editions that appear more immediately recognisable to a modern reader.

From Folio Monument to Portable Bible

Another development visible in the census is changing format. The earliest complete printed Bibles were enormous folios, natural descendants of large manuscript Bibles and liturgical or scholarly books. Quarto editions gradually appeared, and by 1491 Johann Froben had printed a complete Latin Bible in octavo.

Froben's 1491 and 1495 editions and the Venetian octavo Bibles of Hieronymus de Paganinis in 1492 and 1497 point towards a different conception of biblical use: the complete text compressed into a substantially more portable book. Indeed, Froben's 1495 Bible is often referred to as the "poor man's Bible" as it was genuinely far more accessible to own than the huge folio productions.

That development would become enormously important during the sixteenth century.

V. What Matters When Collecting an Incunable Bible?

The phrase "incunable Bible" is too broad to be a meaningful indication of rarity or value on its own. Two books sharing that description may differ by orders of magnitude in historical importance, survival, commercial value and desirability.

Edition identification comes first. The printer, date, place, format and precise bibliographical edition must be established. Undated Bibles should not be assigned a date merely from an old auction description. ISTC, GW, Bod-Inc, BSB-Ink and specialist Bible bibliographies should be consulted together where attribution remains uncertain.

Completeness is very important. Many fifteenth-century Bibles were enormous books consisting of hundreds of leaves and sometimes several physical volumes. Individual volumes and substantial fragments frequently circulate independently. A first volume containing Genesis through Psalms should not be described commercially as though it were a complete Bible. Likewise, one frequently encounters individual books of the Bible from larger editions, particularly the 1480 Adolf Rusch edition which, although are genuine incunable printings of parts of the Bible, are significantly less important in a collection than a complete incunable Bible.

Original decoration can radically alter the character of a copy. Early printers often left spaces for initials, rubrication and illumination. Consequently two examples of the same edition may range from a plain working copy to a magnificently illuminated object effectively combining manuscript and print culture.

Provenance and contemporary use deserve close attention. Early ownership inscriptions, rubricators' dates, monastic provenances, university annotations and extensive fifteenth- or sixteenth-century marginalia may reveal where a copy was sold, read and used. In an important copy, that evidence can be as significant as the edition itself. If you own such a copy, reporting its details to MEI could be useful. 

Vernacular editions must be assessed within their own textual traditions. A German, Italian or Czech Bible is not simply a Latin Bible translated into another language for cataloguing purposes. Its translation, readership, relationship to previous manuscript versions, illustrations and influence on subsequent editions may determine its historical importance. Vernacular Bibles of this period are almost invariably more valuable than their Latin counterparts.

Survival statistics require caution. The number of institutional locations attached to an ISTC record does not mean that the same number of complete examples survive. Many recorded holdings are fragments or incomplete copies. Conversely, privately held examples may be absent from the census data. Also, surviving institutional copies are not indicative of their prevalence on the market. The Gutenberg Bible, for example, is relatively well represented in institutional collections worldwide, yet in substantial form has been absent from the market for decades.

For these reasons, the most commercially interesting incunable Bibles are not always the editions with the smallest headline survival number. A copy combining an important edition, exceptional completeness, contemporary decoration, notable provenance and evidence of early use may be substantially more desirable than a nominally scarcer but materially undistinguished example.

VI. Major Milestones in Incunable Bible Printing

The chronology can be reduced to several landmarks that define the development of the field:

Date	Edition	Importance
c.1455	Gutenberg Bible, Mainz	First substantial European book printed with movable metal type and first printed complete Bible
not after 1460	Mentelin Latin Bible, Strasbourg	One of the first major products of printing outside Mainz
14 August 1462	Fust and Schoeffer Bible, Mainz	First Latin Bible explicitly identifying printers and date
before 27 June 1466	Mentelin German Bible, Strasbourg	First complete printed Bible in a European vernacular
1 August 1471	Malermi Bible, Venice	First complete Bible printed in Italian
1477–1478	Valencian Bible	First complete printed Bible in a Romance language of the Iberian Peninsula
not after 1480	Rusch Bible, Strasbourg	First printed Latin Bible with the Glossa Ordinaria
31 July 1481	Herbort Bible, Venice	First printed Latin Bible with the postils of Nicholas of Lyra
17 February 1483	Koberger German Bible	One of the great illustrated vernacular Bibles of the fifteenth century
1485	Koberger Latin Bible	First Latin Bible with woodcut illustrations
August 1488	Prague Bible	First complete Czech and first complete Slavic-language printed Bible
22 April 1488	Soncino Hebrew Bible	First complete printed Hebrew Bible
27 June 1491	Froben Bible, Basel	First complete Bible printed in octavo
1494	Brescia Hebrew Bible	Third complete Hebrew Bible, associated with Luther
18 April 1495	Paganinus Bible, Venice	First printed Bible combining the Glossa Ordinaria and Nicholas of Lyra
8 May 1498	Bevilaqua Bible, Venice	First Latin Bible with an extensive narrative woodcut programme

VII. Frequently Asked Questions About Incunable Bibles

What was the first printed Bible?

The Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz about 1455, is the first complete Bible produced in Europe using movable metal type and the foundational monument of European typography. It is commonly called the 42-line Bible because most pages were printed in two columns of 42 lines.

Was the Gutenberg Bible the only very early printed Bible?

No. It was followed rapidly by Johann Mentelin's Latin Bible at Strasbourg, the 36-line Bible at Bamberg, the Fust and Schoeffer Bible of 1462 and further Bibles from Heinrich Eggestein and Berthold Ruppel. Several complete printed Bibles therefore predate 1470.

What was the first printed Bible in a vernacular language?

Johann Mentelin's German Bible, printed at Strasbourg before 27 June 1466, is generally recognised as the first complete Bible printed in a European vernacular. A copy purchased by Hektor Mülich on 27 June 1466 establishes that the edition had appeared by that date.

Were there printed vernacular Bibles before Martin Luther?

Yes. Complete German Bibles had been printed since the 1460s. Italian Bibles appeared in 1471, a Valencian or Catalan Bible in 1477–1478 and Czech Bibles in 1488 and 1489. Luther's importance lies elsewhere: in his translation from the original languages, its literary influence, its enormous circulation and its place in the Reformation.

What was the first printed Italian Bible?

Niccolò Malermi's Italian translation was printed at Venice by Wendelin von Speyer on 1 August 1471. A second and distinct Italian Bible appeared in Venice only two months later, on 1 October 1471.

What was the first printed Czech Bible?

The Prague Bible of 1488, completed in August of that year, was the first complete Bible printed in Czech and the first complete printed Bible in a Slavic language.

What was the first complete printed Hebrew Bible?

The first complete Hebrew Bible was printed at Soncino on 22 April 1488 by Abraham ben Hayyim for Joshua Solomon Soncino. Complete Hebrew Bibles followed at Naples in 1491–1493 and Brescia in 1494.

How many complete Bibles were printed before 1501?

Using the definition adopted for this census, approximately 125 distinct complete editions or bibliographical editions were produced during the incunable period: 93 Latin, fifteen German, eleven Italian, two Czech, one Catalan and three Hebrew.

The total requires qualification because several editions are undated, some consist of multiple separately produced parts, and bibliographical scholarship occasionally changes printer or date attributions. It is therefore more useful as a working census than as an absolute number.

Are incunable Bibles rare?

All fifteenth-century books are scarce relative to later printed books, but the rarity of individual incunable Bibles varies enormously. Some later Latin editions survive in well over one hundred institutional copies, while particular vernacular editions are known in very few examples. The Valencian Bible of 1477–1478 is an extreme case: only a single printed leaf survives.

The number of recorded locations should also never be confused with the number of complete copies.

Are incomplete incunable Bibles collectible?

Very much so. Because many editions were originally enormous multi-volume productions, substantial individual volumes have long circulated independently. A single volume can still be an important and valuable object, particularly if it belongs to an early edition, preserves illumination or contemporary binding, or carries exceptional provenance.

The essential requirement is accurate description. An individual volume or fragment should not be represented as a complete copy.

Bibliographical References and Further Research

The principal census authorities for identifying fifteenth-century Bible editions are the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC), maintained within the international incunabula bibliographical infrastructure; the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW); and the incunable catalogues of major collections, particularly the Bodleian Library's Bod-Inc and TEXT-inc, the British Museum / British Library Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century, and BSB-Ink of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

For Latin Bibles, a particularly useful modern enumerative resource is Scott McLaren, Bibliographia Bibliorum Latinorum: A Bibliography of Early Printed Latin Bibles, which collates complete Latin Bible editions, bibliographical references, surviving copies and digitised examples. The classic specialist reference remains T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule, Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

For Italian Bibles, specialist bibliography should be consulted alongside ISTC and GW, particularly work on the Malermi tradition and the successive Venetian editions. For the Catalan or Valencian Bible, the Corpus Biblicum Catalanicum and specialist scholarship on the 1477–1478 Valencia printing are fundamental. For Hebrew Bible printing, the Soncino, Naples and Brescia editions should be studied through specialist Hebrew bibliography as well as GW and institutional catalogues.

The census above should therefore be used as an entry point rather than a substitute for copy-specific bibliography. Incunable attribution remains a field in which type, collation, paper, variants, manuscript completion, provenance and the physical relationship between separately printed parts can materially change the identification of an individual book.

Related Guides

Readers interested in fifteenth-century printing may also consult our guide Incunabula: A Guide to Fifteenth-Century Printed Books, 1450–1500, which explains terminology, printing methods, rubrication, illumination, bindings, provenance and the principal bibliographical databases used to identify early printed books.

Our guide How to Identify a First Edition: A Bibliographical Guide explains the broader methods used to distinguish editions, issues and states, while Rare Book Condition: What Collectors Should Look For discusses completeness, restoration, trimming, bindings, annotations and provenance.

Antykwariat Woodward researches and handles incunabula, early printed Bibles, manuscripts and other rare books. If you are attempting to identify an early printed Bible, an incomplete incunable, an unidentified leaf or a book whose edition has been incorrectly described, we may be able to assist through photographs of the opening and closing leaves, typography, collation, decoration, binding and provenance. My contact details are available here.