36-line Bible

[3][4][page needed] The date "1461" was marked by a rubricator (a scribe who hand-wrote initials and other items in red text, for decoration or emphasis) written in one copy of the 36-line Bible, indicating that it would not have been printed any later than this.

[3] Several pieces of evidence suggest that the 36-line Bible was printed in Bamberg, Germany.

Furthermore, fragments of the 36-line Bible have been found among the waste-paper used in binding executed at Bamberg or for other books printed there.

In the 1980s cyclotron analysis performed by Richard Schwab and Thomas Cahill established that the ink used was similar to that used for the 42-line Bible.

[8][9] Gutenberg lost much of his original equipment to his banker Johann Fust in a lawsuit in 1455, and it is possible this type was the only one left available to him.

The small number of surviving copies suggests that far fewer were printed than of the 42-line Bible.

A copy is on permanent display in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery in the British Library, and another is contained in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.