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Biblia Latina (1478)

The AGU digital access team has digitized the 15th-century Bible Hieronymi, or Biblia Latina, from the Aoyama Archive. This edition is an early print version of Jerome's Vulgate. A full list of references to this edition and holdings may be viewed at the British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue. 

Professor Shinichi Takeuchi of the AGU Department of English has studied this edition. Below is a translation of his commentary on this work:
"From the mid-15th century, when Gutenberg began utilizing mechanical movable type, to the time when printing became prevalent at the turn of the 16th century, this is a special period in the history of the book. Books printed during this early period of moveable type are called incunabula. This is a crucial period that saw a transition from hand-transcription to a new era of reproducing texts with mechanical movable type presses. Within just half a century, upwards to potentially 40,000 titles and 12 million copies of books were published. But the most of them are lost, or only remain in parts. The extant publications of the famous Gutenberg Bible only amount to 49 copies, including incomplete editions.

Because of their scarcity, incunabula are highly valuable. They are the physical embodiment of the new age of moveable type. Biblia Latina (1478), held by Aoyama Gakuin’s Archive, represents one of the incunabula printed in the second half of the 15th century. According to Ludovici Hain’s 1826 Repertorium Bibliographicum (entry, *3070), the edition was printed in Venice in 1478. It is a folio printed in Latin. The images provided here show the double-column printing, with 53 lines per column. The book has 454 leaves.
Presumably the front cover was restored after the 18th century, with S. Biblia Hieronymi inscribed on its spine. This bible represents a complete version based on Jerome’s Vulgate. The Vulgate for centuries held absolute authority in the medieval and early-modern church. Just before the sections of the Pentateuch in the Old Testament and Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, Jerome’s prologues are recorded, and on each initial letter of the prologue there are ornaments. The first prologue begins with a hand-written gold garnishment of the letter "F," in "Frater," reminding us of the then quickly passing age of transcription by hand. The printing is detailed, almost without any scratch or stain, and its beautiful condition makes us forget the fact that it is indeed 500 years old.
However, we must also focus on the fact that there are mis-arrangements, missing pages, and misprints, which are characteristics of editions produced in the early years of moveable type printing. In particular, the headings of the top of the pages often do not correspond with what is said in the following lines, and some of the page numbers are out of sequence. These imperfections show how inexperienced and imperfect compositors were.

Aoyama Gakuin’s Biblia Latina, held in its current condition, holds a high value in our time. Though in contrast to modern publication this edition is imperfect from the perspective of the history of publication, such deficits do in fact help to confirm the time and place of the edition's publication. Indeed such imperfections offer a better understanding of the history of the book and human culture. As far as I can reckon, this edition is the oldest printed-book that Aoyama Gakuin possesses. It is surprising that only a few people have known about the existence of this rare example of incunabula, but from now on there will be more attention paid to this and other editions in our archives, and hopefully access to this material will advance research on special editions throughout Japan."

Shinichi Takeuchi
Aoyama Gakuin University

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