AUSTIN, Texas -- One of the few existing copies of the Gutenberg Bible is going digital at the University of Texas, according to The Associated Press.
The digital copies, which will be available on discs and the Internet, will make it easier for scholars to conduct research, university officials said. The public also will be able to view one of the world's most valuable books. Disc copies are expected to be available by December; no information was available on costs.
Gutenberg printed his famous Bibles in Mainz, Germany, in the 1450s. He used what was then a revolutionary printing press, according to the AP. The Gutenberg Bible was the first major Western book printed from movable type. Fewer than 200 copies were produced, according to UT's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, which acquired its two-volume copy in 1978. Only 48 copies exist today.
Gutenberg Bibles have already gone digital in Britain and Japan, but UT's effort is significant since its copy contains information the others do not, according to the AP. UT's copy bears a Jesuit stamp and was marked up by monks who scratched out some passages and corrected others. Other markings indicate which sections were to be read aloud or reserved for church services, the AP reported.
