Folio, 29 ff. on paper (35 x 21.5/22 cm, 2 cols of 48 ll., printed in gothic type, rubricated in red and blue. Kept in a half morocco clamshell box with marbled paper covers
"An exceptionally large suite of 29 leaves from the 1462 Mainz Bible, the earliest Bible with a printed date and essentially the earliest Bible leaves obtainable after Gutenberg. From the 4th edition of the Vulgate Bible or the 48*line Bible, preceded only by the 42-line Gutenberg Bible, the 36-line Pfister Bible (Bamberg) and the 49-line Mentelin Bible (Strassburg). Copies of the 48-line Bible were either printed on paper or on vellum. It is sometimes called the Biblia pulchra because of the new Gotico-Antiqua typeface which Schöffer developed specially for the edition. Present: Genesi (1:f.21), Exodus (9:ff.22-30), Numeri (9:ff.51-54, 58-62), Deuteronomium (5; ff. 64-66, 69-70), Apocalypse (5: ff. II: 233-237)) [ff.numbers as in the electronic facs. of the 2-vol. BSB copy]. The present leaves apparently from a stock of binder's waste, formerly used as endpapers in large folio bindings. Condition: each leaf has been cut short at top edge, fore-edge or inner margin with loss of text (usual soiling or staining, a few sm. holes, tears and the like, Apocalypse ff. with edges frayed and more loss of text). Ref.: ISTC ib00529000 - GW4204 - Goff B-529.- BMC I:22 and BSB-Ink B-410"
