Gutenberg's Book of Revelation: a Gift
 

r
 

KENNETH A. LOHF

I/" ]f ^HE most mysterious and symbolic book of the Bible is
tiie final one of the New Testament, The Revelation of
St. John the Divine, often called The Apocalypse of St.
John the Apostle. Its prophecies, and its visions of the end of the
world and the coming of the New Jerusalem, have haunted every
period of Christian history and have elicited new, and often bi¬
zarre, explanations.

The Columbia Libraries have now acquired, by gift from the
A'lary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, a copy of the book's first,
and assuredly its greatest, printing—that done in A'lainz, ca. 1454-
55, by Johann Gutenberg and his partner Johann Fust. The com¬
plete work (the Biblia Latina) is often called the 42-line Bible, or,
more popularly, the Gutenberg Bible. The Book of Revelation,
complete in eight folio leaves, contains the rare final leaf of the
Bible. On the fly-leaf of the volume one of its distinguished former
owners, A. Edward Newton, has written: "It will be observed
that the first page and the last page of every book is frequently
lacking or damaged. The last page of this book while full of worm
holes is very rare indeed."

All of the leaves are in remarkably fine condition, despite Air.
Newton's mention of the imperfection and the fact that the lower
quarter of the first leaf has been skillfully restored. The headlines,
chapter numbers, and initial letters are rubricated in alternating
red and blue. The volume is handsomely bound in full dark blue
levant morocco, with doublures and end-leaves of blue watered
silk.

Bound at the front of the volume is a bibliographical essay by
Mr. Newton, which was printed under the direction of Bruce
Rogers. It was issued in 1921 with each of the individual leaves and

25