The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press marking that was to be the start of the age of the printed book. The book was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany in the 1450s. Only twenty-one complete copies survive, and they are considered by many sources to be the most valuable books in the world, even though a completed copy has not been sold since 1978.
The Gutenberg Bible is printed in the black letter type styles that would become known as Textualis and Schwabacher. The inks used by scribes to produce manuscripts were water-based. Gutenberg developed an oil-based ink that would better adhere to his metal type. His ink was primarily carbon, but also had a high metallic content, with copper, lead, and titanium predominating.
A single complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible has 1,272 pages; with 4 pages per folio-sheet, 318 sheets of paper are required per copy. The 45 copies printed on vellum required 11,130 sheets. The 135 copies on paper required 49,290 sheets of paper. The handmade paper used by Gutenberg was of fine quality and was imported from Italy. Each sheet contains a watermark, which may be seen when the paper is held up to the light, left by the papermold.
Gutenberg made three significant changes during the printing process. The first sheets were rubricated by being passed twice through the printing press, using black and then red ink. This was soon abandoned, with spaces being left for rubrication to be added by hand.
references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Biblewww.ideafinder.com/features/.../won-printbook.htm
nventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Gutenberg.htm
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