Hand bound Books by Michael Chrisman - in the Traditional Style of Artisans of the 15th-18th Centuries

Michael Chrisman is the owner of the esteemed “Bookbinder Workshop” in New York, a studio for bookbinding and book restoration. In 2007 he discovered 128 virtually forgotten facsimile copies of the Gutenberg Bible (“The Lost Gutenbergs”). The unbound sheets, which had been printed in the United States, were found in storage boxes.

In more than two years of work Michael Chrisman and his partner Tim Yancey developed an elaborate proper binding for these Bibles. It is a binding which is no less impressive than the printed text.

Beside a “Lost Gutenberg” the Gutenberg-Museum presents four other books which were hand bound by Michael Chrisman in the traditional style of the 15th – 18th centuries. There is also an extensive additional program for this exhibition consisting of guided tours on bookbinding in Gutenberg’s time.

The renowned New York bookbinder and book restorer Michael Chrisman will bestow on the Gutenberg-Museum a facsimile copy of the Gutenberg Bible that was hand bound in the style of the 15th century. In November 2011, another copy of these “lost Gutenbergs” will be sold at auction by Hartung & Hartung in Munich. The proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Gutenberg-Museum.