Gutenberg Museum

Johannes Gutenberg worked in Mainz and produced his forty-two-line Bible around 1454, using movable metal type cast in a hand mould, an oil-based ink and a press adapted from wine pressing; the combination, not any single element, is what made printing practical. The museum was founded in 1900 on the five hundredth anniversary of his birth and holds original copies of the Bible in a vault, alongside type, matrices and presses. A workshop demonstrates casting and printing on a reconstructed wooden press. The collection also covers printing in East Asia, which predates Gutenberg, and the spread of the press across Europe.

History

The museum was founded in 1900, 500 years after Gutenberg's birth, to honour him and to show the writing and printing of as many cultures as possible; publishers, press makers and printing houses gave books and machines, and at first it shared two rooms of the Electoral Palace with the city library, from whose collection it could draw almost 500 years of printed books. It moved with the library to a new building on the Rheinallee in 1912, a reconstruction of Gutenberg's workshop was installed in 1925, and in 1927 it moved into the Zum Römischen Kaiser building of 1664; its restoration was finished in 1962, when a new exhibition building also opened (Wikipedia, Gutenberg Museum).

What's there

• The original Bibles - copies of the forty-two-line Bible in a vault.
• The working press - demonstrations of casting and printing.
• The type equipment - hand moulds, matrices and cases of type.
• The wider history - East Asian printing and the European spread.

When to go

Year-round; the museum closes Mondays. Printing demonstrations run at set times. A rebuilding project has affected the premises, so check current arrangements.

Things to know

The museum has been affected by long-running rebuilding plans and parts may be relocated or closed. The Bibles are kept in low light in a vault.

Nearby

Mainz cathedral is beside it; the Rhine runs east.

Key facts