Mainz Gutenberg Museum unveils 500‑year‑old wooden printing block replica

The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz has added a newly crafted replica of a 15th‑century wooden printing block to its exhibition. The block, originally used for the Biblia Pauperum – a text‑light illustrated Bible produced between 1460 and 1464 – was painstakingly recut from a historic wood‑stock by graphic designer Jorge Larguito, who spent over 100 hours on the work. Larguito, a Portuguese native based in Denmark, created the replica to demonstrate the labor‑intensive nature of block printing, which was eventually overtaken by Johannes Gutenberg’s movable‑type technology.

Museum director Ulf Sölter said the replica allows visitors to see how block printing operated and why it fell out of use in the 16th century. The museum acquired the original Biblia Pauperum a few years ago for roughly two million euros, and the new wooden block will help illustrate the transition from block‑based to type‑based printing that revolutionised knowledge dissemination.