Gutenberg era comes to life

PROVO -- In what was touted as the most authentic attempt to date to reproduce pages from the original Gutenberg Bible, officials at the Crandall Historical Printing Museum gathered Tuesday to print a page of the renowned text, using a set of specially cast Latin type and a hand-operated press.

Louis Crandall, president and founder of the museum, demonstrated for media and invited guests how Johann Gutenberg set the type, inked the press and -- using old-fashioned muscle power -- hand-cranked a wooden lever, pushing the inked metal type onto a damp sheet of printer's paper.

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings and Gaylord Swim of the American Heritage School helped apply the pressure to print two pages of Latin text on a single sheet of paper. The pages were two well-known biblical texts, Isaiah 29 and John 10. Crandall said the Latin type is identical to that used by Gutenberg to print the world's first document completed with movable type.

That first document was the Bible, completed in 1450, and the achievement has been hailed by some historians and scholars as the single greatest contribution ever to the spread of knowledge and literacy by making published materials widely and readily available.

Crandall said the beauty of the original Gutenberg Bible, with its elegant print and hand-scripted embellishment, is "the standard by which all modern printing is judged."

The museum commissioned the Dale Guild Type Foundry in Howell, N.J., to create the B-42 Gutenberg metal type, after a pattern it had used to create a similar set for a Japanese company. Thomas Hinckley, a Gutenberg scholar and the museum's technical director, said it took him a month to set the 24 letters of Latin type in the right order to publish the two pages finished Tuesday.

Utah craftsman Steve Pratt of Cove Fort was commissioned by Crandall several years ago to build an authentic Gutenberg Press and has since worked with him to allow for the reproduction of pages that was demonstrated Tuesday.

Pratt has researched the type of ink used in the first Gutenberg Bible and through trial and error over time came up with what he believes is a prototype ink, using linseed oil, German bread and onions cooked to a designated consistency, he said. He demonstrated the ink-making method for observers Tuesday.

Students at Brigham Young University will embellish the printed pages in much the same way Renaissance artisans did, and the pages printed Tuesday will hang in Provo City Hall, Crandall said.

Brent Ashworth, a local rare documents collector, said only 48 copies or partial copies of the original Gutenberg Bible are known to exist, and the last partial copy auctioned at Sotheby's in 1979 sold for $5 million.

Those interested in seeing the pages or touring the museum may call 801-377-7777. Hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by appointment.

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com

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