History’s Bestseller in Type at Houghton

Going solely by intuition, the story of David and Goliath would not be illustrated with both figures dressed in 16th-century armor. Nor would the clash would be narrated in modern German. However, in the Houghton Library, where many of Harvard’s rarest and most valuable books are housed, a centuries-old edition of Luther’s translation of the Bible is opened to an illustration of this anachronistic scene.

“The Bible in Type, from Gutenberg to Rogers: An Exhibition Commemorating the Four-Hundredth Anniversary of the King James Bible” celebrates beautifully-crafted examples of history’s best-selling—and arguably most influential—book, the Bible. The exhibit celebrates the 400th anniversary of the printing of the King James Bible, which was translated in 1611 and remains the most popular English version. It displays works including Harvard’s Gutenberg Bible, the first Bible produced on a printing press, and one of only 48 in existence.

Hope Mayo, the Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts at Houghton Library, organized the exhibit, and selected the Bibles as examples of typography and design. She believes that the Bible can not be overstated as a source and inspiration of visual art.

“I have come to realize that when you read about the history of type design, over and over again, [historians will say that] the greatest achievement of this designer was such-and-such a Bible, or the most important use of this typeface was in a Bible,” Mayo says.

However, the Bible’s importance lies not only in the history of print books, but in modern fonts we use every day. “If you look on your dropdown menu on Microsoft Word, you will see Baskerville, named after John Baskerville, whose greatest creation was the Baskerville Bible. Bruce Rogers, an American designer, used a typeface he had designed called Centaur, which is still available in digital form,” Mayo says.

The beauty of the blackletter text against the startling pristine paper of the Gutenberg Bible belies the painstaking labor with which the book was created. Each letter was individually placed on the printing press, and even more amazingly, the Lucida Blackletter font is still available today.

While the exhibit was primarily organized to highlight the physical beauty of the Bibles’ design, Mayo also hopes that those interested in other aspects of the Bible will find the exhibit informative. “The printers and graphic designers will be interested in, of course, the design and typography,” Mayo says, “but those interested in the literary will pore over the King James version and see the end of Psalms and beginning of Proverbs. And finally, those interested in the Bible as a religious text will see it through that lens.”

W. James Simpson, chair of the Harvard English Department, believes that those interested in the exhibit for its literary aspects should not underestimate the Bible’s influence. “The Bible has influenced the language of literature enormously—both [in terms of] narrative and the actual language of the Bible. Think of all of those stories in Genesis or David in the book of Samuel, think of the language of the Psalms that have so much poetry. Anyone who studies English has to take the Christian and Hebrew Bible seriously,” Simpson says.

The exhibit displays eight Bibles, some of which are mentioned by tour guides as they shepherd their groups onto the steps of Widener Library only a few feet away. Among the older books is the Gutenberg Bible; an Antwerp Polyglot Bible, which includes Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Aramaic text; Luther’s controversial translation into German; and the 1611 printing of the King James Bible. The four newer examples, which would not have looked out of place in a modern design scheme, are all renderings of the King James Bible and include the Golden Cockerel Press printing of the Four Gospels, whose designer, Eric Gill, created two other familiar fonts, Perpetua and Gill Sans.

Mayo hopes that the exhibit, which is open the entire duration of library hours, will serve all members of the community. “These are rare, beautiful and valuable books, and the average man on the street doesn’t often get the chance to look at a Gutenberg Bible. It’s an opportunity for the public to see them and look at them as a religious text and literary influence,” Mayo says.