The Lost Gutenberg
The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey
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“A lively tale of historical innovation, the thrill of the bibliophile’s hunt, greed and betrayal.” – The New York Times Book Review
"An addictive and engaging look at the ‘competitive, catty and slightly angst-ridden’ heart of the world of book collecting.” - The Houston Chronicle
The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it.
For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible--of which there are fewer than 50 in existence--represents the ultimate prize. Here, Margaret Leslie Davis recounts five centuries in the life of one copy, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg, through the hands of monks, an earl, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist to its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book.
The Lost Gutenberg draws readers into this incredible saga, immersing them in the lust for beauty, prestige, and knowledge that this rarest of books sparked in its owners. Exploring books as objects of obsession across centuries, this is a must-read for history buffs, book collectors, seekers of hidden treasures, and anyone who has ever craved a remarkable book--and its untold stories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Davis (Mona Lisa in Camelot) follows a single copy of the Gutenberg Bible through a series of different book collectors and institutions in this enjoyable but unsatisfying history. After a brief account of the Bible's creation sometime around 1456 by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, Davis skips ahead to 1836, when the 3rd Earl of Gosford, a shy and scholarly Irish aristocrat, acquired Gutenberg Bible Number 45. Later owners included a "lord, a sauce tycoon, a papal countess, and a nuclear physicist." Davis places the primary focus on Estelle Doheny, oil tycoon Edward Doheny's widow. One of the only female American book collectors of the early 20th century, Estelle secured the book in 1950 after a four-decade-long search. In addition to character sketches, Davis also traces changes in the study of books, from in-person inspection via magnifying glasses, to chemical analysis using a cyclotron's proton beam, then software comparisons of digitized editions. Despite these intriguing facts and characters, Davis's overall thesis that "each owner and his or her circle left a mark" on the book doesn't leave the reader with any meaningful insights by the end of her book.)
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