It has been made evident that, so long as Bibles continued to be copied by hand, no stability or uniformity of text could be maintained. As with the Greek Bible, so with the Latin, the later copies become progressively worse and worse. Hence the enormous importance of the invention of printing, which made it possible to fix and stereotype a form of text, and secure that it should be handed on without substantial change from one generation to another. The first book printed in Europe, it is pleasant to know, was the Latin Bible - the splendid Mazarin Bible (so called from the fact that the first copy which attracted much attention in later times was that in the library of Cardinal Mazarin) issued by Gutenberg in 1456, of which a copy may be seen exhibited in the British Museum, and from which the first page is here given in reduced facsimile (Plate XXVIII).

Description & picture from 'Our Bible & the Ancient Manuscripts' by Sir Frederick Kenyon (1895 - 4th Ed. 1939) Page 191 & Plate XXVIII. (Page-size: 37.5 x 27.5cm. )