A Presentation of the Pelplin Gutenberg Bible

7 February – 23 March 2025

The Gallery of Medieval Art in the main building of the National Museum in Warsaw

This Bible, printed in Mainz by Johannes Gutenberg in 1452–1455, is a testament to and a symbol of the shift that took place in Europe after the invention of moveable type. The new technology accelerated the production of books, and therefore facilitated the exchange of information, promoting the spread of knowledge and the popularization of new ideas. The two-volume Bible is the first great text printed using this method in Europe, and its creation coincided with the development of the cultural movement called Humanism. Gutenberg’s technology quickly proliferated across the German Empire, with numerous printing presses selling books all over Europe.

Among the several dozen surviving copies of the Gutenberg Bible today, the two volumes held at the Pelplin Diocese Museum are considered the most precious and interesting. Their value is not only determined by the fact that they were among Gutenberg’s earliest prints. They are also distinguished by a minor defect: the margin of one folio of the first volume bears an imprint of a metal type piece that must have been dislodged from the frame. This supplied researchers with priceless evidence on the working methods of early printers. This case demonstrates that a mistake may sometimes bring unexpected advantages.

In the last century, the fate of the Pelplin Gutenberg Bible became entangled with Poland’s tempestuous history. In the face of looming war, the book was transported to safety in Canada via Warsaw, France and Britain in 1939. During World War II, it was stored in the vaults of the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa. Having returned to Poland in 1959, it was displayed at the National Museum in Warsaw for several days before it reached Pelplin. The Bible’s short visit at the NMW will be commemorated on its anniversary, on 7 February 2025, by this presentation, which will also provide visitors with an opportunity to admire other objects in the Gallery of Medieval Art.

A specially marked path devoted to the medieval culture of the written word will lead visitors through paintings and sculptures that depict books, readers and writers as well as inscriptions in various forms and functions. The presentation will also feature objects that are normally kept in storage and thus are inaccessible to the public. The motifs that they represent will complement the path perfectly.

This extraordinary presentation of one of the first printed books, a key artifact of the development of Western civilization, provokes reflection on how we create, circulate, perceive and receive information today – in an era of digital culture, of omnipresent memes and fake news. Questions of the revolution brought about by Gutenberg’s invention as well as the functioning of early prints (until the mid-1500s) will be explored in essays published on the Digital NMW website.

Curator: Marcin Bogusz