Early European Print: a new Manchester Digital Collection
The Library is delighted to announce that the first batch of items from our Early European Print collection is now fully digitised and freely available to explore online via Manchester Digital Collections.
The John Rylands Library Early European Print collection is of fundamental importance to the history of early printing in Europe.
The invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century marked a revolution in information technology, enabling the mass production of books that were previously hand-copied, rare, and expensive. As the first true medium of mass communication, printing transformed the spread of knowledge, ideas, and culture.
Highlights
The Rylands holds one of the world’s great collections of early European printing, with highlights including:
- the Saint Christopher woodblock print (1423), the oldest surviving piece of dated European printing;
- the Gutenberg Bible (1454/55);
- two Mainz Psalters (1457 and 1459);
- the 36-line Bible (pre-1461);
- 15 blockbooks, in which the images and text on each page were carved from a block of wood.
As part of the ongoing Incunabula Cataloguing Project, these extraordinarily rare, printed treasures – and many more – will for the first time be fully catalogued, digitised and made available to view in the Early European Print collection on Manchester Digital Collections. The first batch of 50 items is now live, and a further 250 additional items will be added in the future.
This digital collection is an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars of early print culture, offering a fascinating glimpse into the origins of the printed word for anyone interested in the history of books and communication.