May 14 2020

The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (2019)
By Margaret Leslie Davis

Fewer than 50 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist today - almost all in museums or universities.  Author Margaret Davis traces the history of "No 45" - from its journey through several private collections to its current home in Japan.

The tale opens in 1950 with No 45's arrival at the home of its last private owner, Estelle Doheny, in Los Angeles.  Estelle is the widow of Edward Doheny, an Irish American oil millionaire who "struck it rich"in the late 1800s but was later implicated in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal in 1923, accused of bribing US Interior Secretary Albert Fall.  He is eventually cleared, although Sec Fall is implicated and imprisoned, becoming the "fall guy".  During the ordeal of the decade-long trial, Estelle is given a book about American authors and finds solace in collecting these writers, eventually acquiring first editions, and then becoming a serious collector.  She hears that the LC is buying a Gutenberg Bible and sets out to buy her own copy, though it will take decades.

Davis provides tidbits of history about Gutenberg and his famous book, which probably had a run of about 180 copies.  He would have printed only the words of scripture, leaving each owner to provide a cover and enlist illuminators to provide decorations if they wished.  Thus each Bible was unique.  Most were printed on good quality paper with a high rag content, but a small number were printed on vellum.  The paper versions were bound in 2 volumes, vellum in 3.  Many of the known Gutenbergs today are missing a volume, as is No 45, which contains only Genesis - Psalms.

From its creation ("sometime before Aug 15, 1546") until 1836, No 45's owner(s) are unknown, but it was likely part of a seminary or church scholar's collection.   But by the early 1800s, there was a growing interest in rare books, and Gutenbergs were starting to be sold and collected.  Davis introduces No 45's private owners:

Archibald Acheson, 3rd Earl of Gosford
1836-1884
paid: L45, sold for: L500 to book dealer James Toovey

Lord William Tyssen-Amherst, bibliophile
1884-1908
paid: L600 to book dealer James Toovey; sold for L2050 to book dealer Bernard Quaritch

Charles Wm Dyson Perrins, heir to Lea & Perrins and Royal Worcester Porcelain
1908-1947
paid L2050; sold for L22000

(briefly owned by Sir Philip Beaumont Frere, a London solicitor)

Estelle Doheny, CA book collector
1950-1958
paid: L25000 (~$72000); donated to St John's Seminary, along with most of Estelle's collection, with a restriction that the collection cannot be altered for 25 years following Estelle's death.

The first 3 owners all had to liquidate their book collections to settle debts: Gosford to pay for debts his father incurred in trying to build the largest castle in Ireland; Amherst to pay creditors when his trusted financial manager embezzled the lion's share of his family's fortune; and Perrins to rescue the failing Royal Worcester company.  Estelle, a multimillionaire when her husband died, became a generous philanthropist, endowing schools and health care, in part to redeem her husband's name from the scandal of Teapot Dome.  While No 45 is housed at St John's Seminary, the church is approached about doing a chemical analysis, using a cyclotron (the same kind of machine that split the atom).  Surprisingly, the caretakers at St John agree, and amazing new information is revealed, eg,   the ink, always thought to be composed of carbon, was instead made of lead and copper (so that's how it kept its blackness all these years!); the number of pieces of type were far more than originally thought.

Sadly, the Catholic church opted to sell all of Estelle's collection, and the Gutenberg alone goes for $5.4M (and this was right after Black Monday in 1987).  The new owner is Maruzen Ltd, the Japanese publishing conglomerate, and No 45 becomes the first Gutenberg to find a home in Asia.  Maruzen gives (or sells) it to Keio University, which becomes a pioneer in digital bibliography, digitizing the entire volume, initially in 1997, then updated in 2017, as new technology became available.  Thus, No 45, with its beautiful illumination, is probably the most widely known copy, due to its atomic analysis and its digitization by Keio University.

I have seen the 3-volume set at the Library of Congress, and it is amazing!  Hard to believe it is in such beautiful condition after all these centuries.  While looking at the digitized version may not be as unique as seeing the real object,  I have to thank Keio for making it possible to see every page (not just the open pages) in perfect and minute detail...