Gutenberg and the Strasbourg documents of 1439: An interpretation to which has been appended the text of the documents in the original Alsatian, the French of Laborde, and Modern German and English translations

4to (26 cm), XII, 260, [2] pp. Publisher's cloth with gilt front cover, gilt-lettered spine label and gilt top edge, slipcase (slipcase slightly rubbed). First edition, limited to 660 copies of a beautifully printed volume, issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the invention of printing with movable type. The author supports the view that Gutenberg began his printing experiments in Strasbourg in the late 1430s and marshals documentary evidence to reconstruct the circumstances of those early years. Central to the study are the records of the lawsuit involving Gutenberg, which constitute the earliest information about the formative phase of his work and shed light on the decade preceding his move to Mainz, where he later produced the celebrated 42-line Bible. The second part of the book contains facsimiles of the documents.