The Lost Gutenberg by Margaret Davis

Source of book: Borrowed from the library.

 

First, let me say that I found this book seriously annoying, despite the compelling story. The reason is that it is written in PRESENT TENSE, exactly as if it were a voiceover for a History Channel documentary. Which is already annoying in the TV medium, but even worse in a book. You know, English has a delightful variety of verb tenses that clarify relationships in time. Plenty of these work well for describing things that take place in the past, and can clarify sequence and relationship. Which is why people writing about the past ought to use them, not take the lazy (and affected) way and write everything with present tense. 

 

The story itself is quite fascinating, however, and it makes it worth suffering through the annoying writing. The title is a bit misleading, in my opinion. The Gutenberg Bible in question is known as #45, and it is the first half of the two-volume set. The other half of this particular one is lost. The book itself is considered particularly valuable because of its excellent “illuminations,” its original leather cover, and its printing on vellum. The condition is particularly excellent. However, the book was never “lost” in any significant way, from what I can tell. The story essentially starts in 1836, when books started appearing for sale in post-revolutionary France, kicked loose from the private collections of aristocrats. While its history between its printing and sale on the open market is not clear, it wasn’t “lost” - it was just in someone’s private library for 300 years. 

 

By 1836, people we beginning to appreciate the historical - and investment - value of certain old books, and Gutenbergs are the first books printed with moveable type in existence. (There are some Chinese and Japanese pamphlets that might qualify, depending on one’s definition. The Gutenberg is clearly the first massive work published that way. 

 

This first recorded sale was for the equivalent of about $6,000 today, which is a good bit less than the $5.4 million it sold for most recently in 1987. Presumably it is worth far more than that now.  

 

After a series of private collectors in England, the book was sold to Estele Doheny, the widow of an oil magnate. She had quite a bit of money, to say the least, and considered herself a modest rival to Henry Huntington as a book collector. However, her money was somewhat tainted by her late husband’s role in the Teapot Dome scandal. He wasn’t convicted, but an official who allegedly took the bribe was. 

 

Speaking of Henry Huntington, I have enjoyed visiting his collection, the Huntington Library and Gardens. He too purchased a Gutenberg, and it is on display at the library. It is not as fine of a copy as #45, and is also incomplete, but it is still amazing to see in person. 

 

On her death, Doheny, a devout Catholic, donated her book collection to the local seminary, intending that it be housed in a memorial library kept open to the public for perpetuity. Because of poor drafting of her bequest, unfortunately, the diocese sold everything off 25 years after her death. 

 

The book was purchased by a Japanese printing company with a history itself dating back a few hundred years. Later, it was donated to Keio University, where it now resides in a vault. Prior to that, the book was carefully photographed, and the pages made available to all online. 

 

Along the way are a bunch of colorful characters, some of who appreciated the book for what it was, and others who didn’t. Lawyers, unfortunately, do not come off all that well in the book. Not only did Doheny’s lawyer botch the bequest, the one lawyer who briefly owned the book seems to have never taken posession of it, or even seen it, before flipping it. 

 

The worst, though, is the Los Angeles Diocese. Good lord, did they fail to appreciate the value of their collection, they appear to have frittered away the sizable sale price for operating expenses, and have essentially nothing left to show for it now. A phenomenally short-sighted and money-focused decision. The man who agitated for the sale even went so far as to claim that the Gutenberg was “Lutheran” - laughable since Martin Luther wasn’t even born until over 30 years after the book was printed. He also claimed that the New American Bibles they had just revised were “intrisingcally more valuable.” Gah! 

 

Ironically, notorious atheist Mark Twain better appreciated the book. The book quotes part of his essay written for the Gutenberg Museum in Germany, and I think it is excellent. 

 

Gutenberg’s achievement created a new and wonderful earth, but at the same time also a new hell. During the past 500 years Gutenberg’s invention has supplied both earth and hell with new occurrences, new wonders and new phases.

It found truth astir on earth and gave it wings; but untruth also was abroad, and it was supplied with a double pair of wings.

What the world is to-day, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg. Everything can be traced to this source, but we are bound to bring him homage, for what he said in dreams to the angered angel has been literally fulfilled, for the bad that his colossal invention has brought about is overshadowed a thousand times by the good with which mankind has been favored.

 

Much the same could be said of the internet, of course. Printing was there first - and the blessing and curse of literacy is exactly as Twain describes it. 

 

One final bit is worth mentioning. One of the lenses we tend to view history from is that of the “lone genius.” I believe that we do this in significant part because it justifies the “winner take all” model of late-stage capitalism. If the single genius is responsible, then he should get all the profit, right? Except that that is not what actually happens - or ever happened. Technology is and always has been the result of many people working to improve it. It is and always has been the contributions of many - that’s literally how technology and technological progress works. We see that today, of course. Elon Musk didn’t invent the Tesla automobile. Thousands of engineers did. He was the money behind the company, not the actual inventor. Ditto for Apple, and Microsoft, and any tech company you wish to think of. Something to keep in mind when we talk about wealth and income in our public policy. The vast majority of the people who bring us products are actually fairly compensated for their contributions to our society. Rather, it is the people with the money who reap the obscene profits from the work of others. For what it is worth, Gutenberg went bankrupt - it was those who later perfected the process and figured out how to market the books well enough to cover costs. 

 

As I said, the story itself is fascinating and well researched. I found the real-life characters fascinating. Too bad about the writing style.