by a mechanical process of printing and producing characters, without use of a pen, and it was laboriously completed, for God's Holiness, by Joachim Fust, citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim, on Assumption Eve [August 14] in the year of Our Lord, 1457. New editions, using the same type, were printed in 1459 (dated August 29), 1490, 1502 (Schöffer's last publication) and 1516. Surviving copies It is "the second printed book ever published, and the first with rubricated (red as well as black) printing". There are only ten copies in existence, and as such, this book is rarer than the Gutenberg Bible. Many fragments also survive. The ten known copies of the 1457 edition are listed below: Berlin State Library. Long issue Saxon State Library, Dresden. Long issue. Looted during World War II and taken to the USA, until returned in 1950. Darmstadt University and Public Library. Short issue Austrian National Library. Long issue. French National Library, Paris. Long issue Municipal Library, Angers. Short issue British Library, London. Short issue. Bequeathed by Thomas Grenville. On display in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery Royal Library, Windsor. Short issue. Acquired by George III from the University of Göttingen. John Rylands Library, Manchester. Short issue. Bought from 5th Earl Spencer in 1892. Earlier bought by 2nd Earl Spencer from the German monastery of Rot an der Rot in 1798. Scheide Library, Princeton University, New Jersey. Short issue See also Incunable Notes Further reading McMurtrie, Douglas C. The Mainz Psalter of 1457. Chicago: privately printed, 1931. Masson, Irvine. The Mainz Psalters and Canon Missae, 1457-1459. London: Bibliographical Society, 1954. External links 15th-century Christian texts Incunabula Mainz Memory of the World Register 1457 books 15th-century Latin books