Mainz Psalter

The Mainz Psalter was the second major book printed with movable type in the West;[1] the first was the Gutenberg Bible.

[3] Some initials combine printing and hand-drawing, and according to Mayumi Ikeda, some even include elements of intaglio engraving.

[1] The musical score accompanying the psalms was provided in manuscript, and may have been the model for the type style.

[3] Printing in two colours, although feasible on the moveable press of Gutenberg's time (as illustrated by the Mainz Psalter), was apparently abandoned soon afterward as being too time-consuming, as few other examples of such a process are extant.

[7] The colophon can be translated as follows: New editions, using the same type, were printed in 1459 (dated August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516.

Opening ( Royal Collection )
From the 1459 second edition : with an illuminated letter
The Mainz Psalter (1457) of George III , rebound in 1800
Printer's mark of Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer