Biblia Latina - Leaf from the Gutenberg Bible

Mainz: Gutenberg, Johannes and Fust, Johann Single leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, the first substantial book printed with moveable type in Europe, "justifiably treated as Europe's 'editio princeps'" (White, 'Editio Princeps', page 45) c.1455, approximately 285mm x 390mm in size. Lightly browned and lightly foxed, central horizontal fold, minor loss to top corner, a couple of pin holes, remnants of guard to one side, but generally fairly clean. Forty-two lines, in double column, with Lombardic initials in red and blue, and title letters NU and MERI alternating in red and blue. Latin text in Gothic script, this leaf is from 'Numbers', partial 8:13 to partial 10:23 [The purification, dedication and setting apart of the Levites; Passover; the Lord instructing Moses to make two silver trumpets; Moses and Aaron set out the tribes of Israel on their journey; the Israelites follow the Cloud of the Lord; and the Ark of the Covenant is carried]. Preserved in a removable acrylic case, inside a leather drop back box with onlays. With the 1921 essay by A. Edward Newton about the Gutenberg (though this is now loose leaves with the margins heavily cropped) laid in loosely. We are unable to state for certain that this leaf is one of the so-called 'Noble Fragments', which were the leaves from the incomplete Gutenberg broken by the bookseller Gabriel Wells, and sold off with in a portfolio by Stikeman, with the essay by Newton, but this seems the most likely provenance, with this example also sharing the "neatly executed alternating red and blue lombard headlines" (White, 'Editio Princeps', page135). See Chalmers in de Hamel and Silver, 'Disbound and Dispersed', 18; PMM 1; White, 'Editio Princeps - A History of the Gutenberg Bible', passim. First Edition. Unbound. Good. Folio.