The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has updated its site displaying one of the only five copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the US.   There is much to admire here, and much to be curious about.  The illustration of the watermarks that distinguish the Pforzheimer Bible, the map of locations of other copies (complete and incomplete), the page-turning interactivity and the inclusion of a kids section are welcome.

The interactive map showing the spread of printing, however, does not compare well with those at Jeremy Norman’s From Cave Paintings to the Internet Database Maps, and an explanation of how the Center’s Bible was digitized, something on the order of Ann Tomalak’s informative essay at the British Library’s site describing what conservators must do to prepare fragile manuscripts for digitization, would enrich the Ransom Center’s offering.   

Equally the history of Gutenberg the man and his work with Johann Fust could have been more detailed as could the history of printing and its spread.  Jeremy Norman’s site is still hard to rival.  Other related sites worth a bookmark:

Sarah McCarthy’s review of Hendrik Willem van Loon’s Observations on the Mystery of Print and the Work of Johann Gutenberg at the New York City’s Center for Book Arts

Jeremy Norman’s speculation on Gutenberg’s possible contribution to stereotype printing

The British Library’s site where you can compare paper and vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible

The Göttingen Gutenberg Bible site where you can also find reproduced the notarial instrument on the financial dispute between Gutenberg and Fust

The Keio University site that allows you to compare the Keio Gutenberg Bible with that of the University of Cambridge (require Javascript plugin)

And of course the Mainz Gutenberg Bible.