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The momentous accomplishment of Gutenberg's first printing of the Bible was
preceded by a number of necessarily experimental publications which developed
the technique of printing with moveable type. This fragment, printed using the
type of the 36-line Bible, is a relic of those trials. The text is part of a
Latin grammar written by Donatus, who was the teacher of St. Jerome. His grammar
was one of the most popular teaching aids during the medieval period, and
Gutenberg seems to have found it advantageous to publish many editions of it,
not only as practice but also as a source of much needed revenue. There are
twenty-four known editions of the text in Gutenberg's earliest type, all
preceding the famous Bible. Described by earlier scholars as a "Pfister
imprint," dated ca. 1460, recent investigations indicate that this fragment
belongs with Gutenberg's work, probably dating not later than 1452.
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