About the Library

Gutenberg Bible – Replica of the Copy Held by the Diocese of Pelplin

In the Second World War, Canada provided a safe haven for a precious copy of the Gutenberg Bible. 

The Bible gets its name from Johannes Gutenberg, a 15^th-century German craftsman from Mainz, Germany. He developed a method of printing that used a wooden press, oil-based ink and movable metal type. Some time in the early 1550s, he completed his great achievement – the Forty-Two Line Bible. The name derives from the page layout, which displays two columns of 42 lines.

The Gutenberg Bible is considered the first major book printed by using movable type in Europe. Fewer than 50 are known to exist today.

One of these copies has been held at the Diocese of Pelplin in Poland since the 1800s. When the Second World War began in 1939, Polish officials acted quickly to send the Bible out of the country, as well as other important manuscripts, tapestries, the Polish Crown Jewels, the coronation sword and gold from the national treasury. A local Pelplin saddler produced a suitcase specifically for safely carrying the Bible. The collection made a perilous journey across Europe, keeping a step ahead of invading troops. By 1940, the collection made its way to Canada aboard the ocean liner MS Batory.

The Bible remained in Canada until 1959, and the entire collection was back in Poland by 1961. 

In 2010, His Excellency Bogdan Borusewicz, Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, presented Canada with a replica of the Gutenberg Bible as an expression of his country’s gratitude. Two exquisite volumes bound in red leather reproduce the full colour of the original Pelplin Bible. And as a reminder of the dramatic events that will always link the Pelplin Bible and Canada, the replica was accompanied by a reproduction of the suitcase that transported the original Bible out of Poland in 1939.

Details

• This replica is a set of two volumes, each measuring 43 cm tall and 31.5 cm wide. The suitcase measures 80 cm by 54 cm.
•  The cover is made of oak boards covered in red goat leather embossed with floral and animal motifs. It is fitted with large brass studs, metal corner fittings and metal clasps on leather straps. It is a copy of the original made by Heinrich Coster of Lübeck, Germany, in the 15^th century.
• The case has four buckles and is made of Russia leather. 
• This reproduction was made in 2002–2003 by the Wydawnictwo Diecezji Pelplinskiej Bernardinum (the Bernardinum publishing house of the Diocese of Pelplin), with a limited run of 198 copies.