Re: Librarians and dust - [re: Gutenberg's weighty volumes]

["White, Eric" <ewhite@MAIL.SMU.EDU>]

I neglected to clarify that Harvard's copy is paper, 2 vols. complete at 324 and 319 leaves.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: Exlibris [mailto:EXLIBRIS@MAIL.ECW.NAME]On Behalf Of White, Eric
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 9:59 AM
To: EXLIBRIS@MAIL.ECW.NAME
Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS] Librarians and dust - [re: Gutenberg's weighty
volumes]


Colleagues,

When the Harvard copy of the Gutenberg Bible was stolen momentarily in 1969, and the thief exiting the 4th floor window of Widener fell from his escape rope (having forgotten to calculate the added weight of the volumes), it was reported that the volumes in the their massive modern bindings reportedly weighed "30 or 35 pounds apiece."  The whole story is in W.H. Bond, "The Gutenberg Caper," HARVARD MAGAZINE, March-April 1986, pp. 42-48.

Eric White
Bridwell Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Exlibris [mailto:EXLIBRIS@MAIL.ECW.NAME]On Behalf Of Martin Davies
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 11:52 AM
To: EXLIBRIS@MAIL.ECW.NAME
Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS] Librarians and dust - the future


Lugging a paper B42 (the cheap trade edition) to the photocopier was no hard 
task. But I couldn't carry both volumes of the BL vellum copy (Grenville) 
even in my prime, say, oh, ten years ago. But then the BL didn't hire 
incunabulists for their brawn. Alas, I never weighed the Grenville copy -- a 
descriptive element strangely wanting in all incunable catalogues.

mcd

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Klappholz" <d.klappholz@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
To: <EXLIBRIS@MAIL.ECW.NAME>
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS] Librarians and dust - the future


> At 11:57 AM 1/28/2006, s cheiner wrote:
>>As for the 40 pound lifting requirement, I find that a
>>  legal size box filled with coated-stock paper weighs
>>in at around 40 pounds. I haven't pulled my Gutenberg
>>Bible volumes from the vault yet to see how much each
>>of them weighs - does any one already know the answer
>>to this to save me the trouble?
>
> WHEW!!! I finally I have a serious, albeit imprecise, contribution to make 
> to this list.
>
> Having moved one volume of a 42-line Bible from a table, back into its 
> home vault, but not having weighed it along the way, I'd guesstimate that 
> it weighed 15-20 lbs., so the complete Bible would likely weigh 30-40 lbs. 
> ... but I should admit that I don't recall if the other volume appeared to 
> be thinner, the same thickness as, or thicker than the volume I carried.
>
> Regards
> Dave