Fust and Schoeffer Latin Bible, 1462

[LATIN BIBLE]. 2 vols. Printed on vellum.
Mainz: Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer,
14 August 1462. (06119-06120)

Fust and Schoeffer’s two-volume Latin Bible, dated 1462, was the fourth edition of the holy scriptures. The end of each volume featured Fust and Schoeffer’s printer’s mark, which quickly became the most recognized trademark in fifteenth-century printing. In this handsome edition, Fust and Schoeffer continued their tradition of printing in black, red, and blue. Although they discontinued the production of large two-colored initials, they printed the headings to each book in red and many of the chapter initials and numerals in red or blue. At the beginning of Psalms, shown in volume I, the headings and the two-line initial Q were printed in red along with the black text in a single pull of the press. All of the other red and blue initials were added by hand.

In most copies of the 1462 Bible, folio 51 in volume II contained two major typographic errors that required corrections in manuscript. First, the beginning of the left column omitted several words of Isaiah 58:4-5, “clamor vester. Numquid tale est ieiunium quod elegi,” forcing the corrector to write these words at the bottom of the preceding page.

Second, the first two lines of the right column on f. 51 were printed out of sequence, so that a corrector had to add the letters “b, a, c” to indicate their proper order. Most of the misprinted copies, including Bridwell Library’s, were corrected by a single scribe, likely Peter Schoeffer himself.