This piece was inspired by the hard work and ingenuity that went in to creating the first printed Bible and the events which followed when suddenly everyone could have access to the holy written word of God – not just the learned monks and clergymen, but all men could read it and know for themselves.
It was also inspired by the Police Academy movies and Cocoon.
The Steve Guttenberg Bible
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March 3, 2010 at 10:49 am
Epic.
March 3, 2010 at 11:00 am
Three Wise Men and a Baby?
March 3, 2010 at 11:09 am
Keep ‘em coming
March 3, 2010 at 11:34 am
Eat your heart out.
March 3, 2010 at 11:48 am
4 – Yep, he would have been perfect as the Silver Surfer. Too bad he didn’t get the role.
March 3, 2010 at 11:51 am
He’s got armadillos in his trousers.
March 3, 2010 at 11:57 am
That picture is criminal.
(The linked one, not the posted one. The OP one is awesome.)
March 3, 2010 at 12:02 pm
It takes two thousand stripling warriors?
March 3, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Makes me nostalgic. The first Bible I read had a Gothic typeface. It was a doozy to figure out, but hey, I had nothing but time! (AKA: in my fifth year, I was too foolish to pick another Bible if I wanted to read one.) Gladly I was already wise to some texts that were available as both the old-fashioned Gothic and the newfangled Roman.
And I think MAD went downhill a long way after Bill Gaines died. They have picked up some, though. Namely, ads.
March 3, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Oh, and I forgot to ask: Why a Latin Bible to represent Gutenberg. You do know, that the Gutenberg Bible is in German, right?
March 3, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Because it was a better picture to work with.
March 3, 2010 at 12:13 pm
And yes, I am aware of the Gutenberg Bible being in German.
March 3, 2010 at 12:44 pm
I weep.
No, Gutenberg’s edition is Latin. No, it wasn’t affordable. It was a luxury edition that would have been accessible to the wealthy and ecclesiastic leadership. Who could read Latin.
Do not anger me further, or I shall unleash links to document the above assertions, like unto a thundercloud of unstoppable footnotes.
March 3, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Whoa.
March 3, 2010 at 12:49 pm
You’re right. The Gutenberg bible was not widely distributed and available.
But as stated, its printing was the beginning – it opened the door. And what followed was the Bible eventually getting into more and more people’s hands.
March 3, 2010 at 1:16 pm
#6–Kathryn, it may interest you to know this piece of trivia:
The only animal other than humans that is known to contract leprosy is the nine-banded armadillo.
You’re welcome.
March 3, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Jonathan Green,
You’re right–it was in Latin, but we knew that, of course. This was actually a test. For you, mostly, but also for others. You passed (barely). Everyone else failed.
March 3, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I have to admit it’s been a few years since my last art history class and when doing research for this post I spent most of my time focusing on the works of Steve Guttenberg.
And I dare anyone to challenge the accuracy of my claim that he was in fact in the movie Cocoon.
March 3, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Or am I thinking of Jeff Goldblum?
Oh crap! I am not sure of anything anymore.
March 3, 2010 at 1:55 pm
My recollection of a book I read on the history of Bible publication is that, while the Gutenberg edition was significantly cheaper than a manuscript Bible, it was still expensive enough that only one copy is known to have originally belonged to a private, non-institutional owner.
March 3, 2010 at 1:56 pm
It’s true, JNS. This was long before the days of Dover for mathematicians and Penguin for the masses.
March 3, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Yes, JNS, that’s my understanding as well. Institutional ownership was often the typical case for books. (On the other hand, trying to find the original owner of any 15th-century book is hard, and it’s difficult to know whether an institutional owner is the original purchaser or the beneficiary of a later donation.)
March 3, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I’m just wondering why you chose the book of Judith.
March 3, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Pure genius.
March 4, 2010 at 12:47 am
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was . . . PROCTOR!!!!
March 4, 2010 at 12:50 am
Jonathan Green,
I’m confused. Why would they go to all that trouble to translate it from the King’s English into Latin?
March 4, 2010 at 2:59 am
Yeah, the Gutenberg Bible is often thought to be German, because it’s connected with.
What the printing press did do is facilitate the religious reformation’s spread considerably. It was still quite complicated to print a bound book (the layout problems alone were not simple), let alone using more than one color. It did make it very efficient to produce different kinds of fliers, that were distributed among the populace. The price was still a factor, since paper was not a commodity that you bought for a few bucks a ream.