Invitation à souscrire : Réédition complète en fac-similé de la Bible latine à 42 lignes imprimée par Jean Gutenberg (Mayence circa 1450-1455)
Paris : Novembre 1910.
Large folio (42x27,5 cm), one bifolium, (4) pages. Small dampstain in lower margin. . Item #4514
Rare subscription form for one of the first facsimile reprint projects of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible, by Hubert Welter, a German bookseller and publisher based in Paris.
A 1911 article announced : ‘A facsimile edition of the famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz 1450-55, is being issued by Hubert Welter, of Paris and Leipzig. The copy in the Royal Library at Munich has been selected for reproduction. M. Seymour de Ricci will provide the critical introduction. The subscription price is 500 marks. (The Biblical World, vol. 37, p. 223). The publishing venture should have been completed by the end of 1912 but was apparently never achieved. Indeed we have found no traces of this edition in libraries or on the market.
The prospectus is in a trilingual German-French-English version and includes a specimen page reproduced in facsimile.
The announced print run included 500 copies on Hollande van Gelder paper at 750 francs for the first 250 copies subscribed, then 1000 francs for subsequent copies, a few copies on Japon paper at 1500 francs, and a few copies on vellum printed to special order, at 3000 francs. The publisher proposes bindings for each type of copy, by Pagnant for the luxury copies. Owners of incomplete copies of the first edition can also order facsimiles of the missing leaves.
« The Welter bookstore was probably the most important German establishment in the capital on the eve of the First World War. Founded in 1882, the Welter establishment existed until 1914. Welter [1857-1933] specialises in historical and philological publishing ; it publishes translations of authoritative German books in these fields, some titles from the Académie of Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and reissues of major reference works. » (translated from Isabelle Kratz, La librairie allemande à Paris de 1860 à 1914, Thèse de l’Ecole des Chartes, 1989).
Price: €400.00