Chapter 2: Preserving Knowledge: Evolution of the Written Word Gallery & Gutenberg Bible

Transcript

Hi. My name is Stephanie Stillo, and I’m a curator in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress. If you’re just joining the tour, find the marble archway with the words “Library of Congress” written in gold above it. Walk below this arch and you’re following the path researchers took in 1897 to access the Main Reading Room.

Once through the first arch, look to the large case to your right. That’s a Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor, printer, and publisher, who is best known for printing the first book in Western Europe made with moveable metal type.

The Library of Congress is one of the few places in the world with a perfect or complete vellum copy of the “Gutenberg Bible.” The Library’s collection of Bibles numbers approximately 1,500 editions in more than 150 languages. They are used for research as well as for Presidential and Congressional oaths of office and other ceremonies.

Now, let’s take a look at the open pages of the Bible. While the black text was printed on Johannes Gutenberg’s press, the blue and red initials and scrollwork were completed by hand. Look closely at the letters. Do you recognize the font? Gutenberg’s type is the inspiration for the Blackletter font found in many computers and tablets today.

To preserve the Library’s copy of the Bible, the volumes and pages on display are changed regularly. In fact, this exhibit case was specifically designed to make this job easier than it had been in the Bible’s previous wooden enclosure. The Library’s skilled conservation team makes the decision on which pages to display and for how long. The choice is based on a number of important factors, including exposure to light, stress on the binding, and visual interest.

Now, look up to the walls above the Bible case. Here you’ll find six paintings composed in the 19th century. Each painting demonstrates the different ways humans have recorded their history and stories over time. In the first painting, above the case to the left, you’ll find a picture of a group of people recording a story by creating a “cairn,” a mound of stone built as a memorial or landmark. From there, the images in the paintings represent subsequent stages of storytelling, from oral traditions, to hieroglyphs and pictorial writing, to manuscripts copied by hand. This was how most books were produced until the technological leap of the printing press, illustrated in the final panel.

If you could create another mural in this series to represent modern tools of communication, what would they show? Perhaps the internet? Or a smartphone? The Library of Congress continues to preserve books and other manifestations of human creativity in all of its forms – be it printing, oral traditions, maps, recorded sound, films, born-digital content and so much more.

Now, to learn the origins of the Library of Congress, lets head to the Librarian’s ceremonial office, which is below the mural image of Johannes Gutenberg.