[Mainz: Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust, c. 1455]

Very occasionally we find evidence of textual changes made by Eggestein’s compositors. On this leaf, the opening of the apocryphal Book of Tobit, the usual compositorial marks can be seen, with the cross in the left margin six lines down indicating a page break. In the right-most column two textual additions can be seen in the margin. In the first the compositors mark an omission; the word ‘est’ has been omitted from the phrase ‘[con]taminat[us] est in escis eo[rum]’. In the second a textual error has been noted; the Gutenberg Bible reads ‘in rages civitatem iudeor[um]’ (‘into Rages, a city of the Jews’) rather than ‘in rages civitatem Medorum’ (‘into Rages, a city of Media’).

There is a further mistake on this leaf, added at the time the book was illuminated. The Prologue to Tobit should open with the word ‘Chromatio’, but the illuminator has mistakenly inserted a letter ‘T’, rather than a ‘C’. A later owner has highlighted the error in the margin.

Inc.1.A.1.1[3671], vol. 2, fol. [D1] recto