Immenhausen Gutenberg Bible accessible online

When, in November 1958, a group of confirmation students found some old books while clearing out the old attic in the Immenhausen vicarage, nobody could have guessed that it was a sensational find: they had discovered a volume of the Gutenberg Bible. And indeed, it was to take over fifteen years before researchers believed the Immenhausen school principal Friedrich-Karl Baas, who soon identified the book in question as a copy of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible. It was not until 1975 that the 'Immenhausen Gutenberg Bible' was presented to the public and officially entered as number 48 in the list of surviving copies worldwide.

Together with the most precious manuscripts of the Kassel University Library, such as the Hildebrandlied and the 'Kasseler Willehalm', the Immenhausen Bible was then part of a permanent exhibition in the specially built exhibition vault of the Murhard Library on Brüder-Grimm-Platz from 1978 to 2013.

At the request of the Immenhausen parish, parishioners were once again given the opportunity to view 'their' Gutenberg Bible as part of a special presentation in the rooms of the Murhard Library in the fall of 2023. This was also a good opportunity for the library to digitize the Immenhausen copy, which had previously only been sparsely documented photographically, completely and in the best image quality for the first time using the latest technology and to make it available to the general public electronically via the ORKA repository[https://orka.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/viewer/image/1701858288309/] of the UB/LMB Kassel.

Contact:

Dr. Brigitte Pfeil
Kassel University Library
Head of Department IV: State Library, Head of Special Collections
Phone +49 561 804-7344
pfeil@bibliothek.uni-kassel.de