Only 49 copies of the first printed book remain

When Johannes Gutenberg finished his Bible in Mainz around 1455, he had just invented the modern world without knowing it: movable-type printing turned years of a copyist's labor into weeks. That first edition ran to about 180 copies, most on paper, a few on vellum.

They sold so well that, according to a letter written at the time by a future pope, buyers were waiting before the volumes even left the workshop.

Today 49 survive, scattered among libraries, universities and museums, and only about twenty are complete. The last time an entire copy changed hands was in 1978; since then, anyone who wants a piece of Gutenberg has to settle for single leaves, sold one by one like relics.

It is not the oldest book in the world, nor the rarest. But each of those 49 copies marks the exact point where books stopped being a luxury copied by hand and started belonging to everyone.