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Mainz Psalter at the Austrian
National Library
Inscribed 2011
What is it
Printed in 1457, the Mainz Psalter was the second major
book in the West to be printed with movable type.
Why was it inscribed
The Mainz Psalter is almost as important as the
Gutenberg Bible in its impact on the development
of printing and was ground-breaking in its own right in
several respects. The book is a landmark in the transition
of Western culture from medieval times to the modern
era, especially in cultural, media and technological terms.
Where is it
Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria
Although the Gutenberg Bible is more famous as the
first major book printed in the West using movable metal
type, the Mainz Psalter was actually the first book to be
printed and produced completely by mechanical means.
Gutenberg’s Bible remained his only printed book, but
the methods used to produce the Psalter opened the way
for further development and improvements in printing,
mechanizing book illustration and integrating the
production process into the company’s business plans,
that brought success on a longer-term basis.
Information in the colophon states that the whole book
was produced by printing, including the decoration
which until then would have been added by illuminators.
Consequently, the Psalter is also the first book to be
printed in more than one colour. In his printed version
of the Bible, Gutenberg had left gaps in the text, such as
with initial letters, which illustrators later filled in by hand.
The printers of the Mainz Psalter solved the problem of
how to print in movable type using more than one colour,
and the book is printed in three – black, red and blue –
on vellum.
This was also the first time a printed book carried a
colophon stating the work’s title, date of publication and
printer, so using the colophon as a means of advertising
for further commissions and business.
� Sample page from the Psalter
� A medieval printing press
The printers were Peter Schöffer and Johannes Fust who
had worked with Johannes Gutenberg but parted from him
in a disagreement. They completed their first edition of the
Mainz Psalter on 14 August 1457, after Gutenberg’s Bible.
There are two variants of the Mainz Psalter, one
of 143 sheets and the other of 175, and only ten copies in
the world of the combined variants surviving today. All
are printed on vellum. The copy in the Austrian National
Library is the only complete version of the larger edition
and the only one in which the colophon contains the
combined coat of arms of the Fust and Schöffer Press
that was subsequently used in many of the company’s
printed products. This copy was part of the Habsburgs’
royal library and was never used in liturgy, so it remains
in excellent condition.
Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library 153