Skip To Main Content

Tangible History

The image shows a person holding up a large open book, with a woman sitting in a chair in the background, in what appears to be a study or library setting.
The image appears to be a page from an old book or document, with dense text written in a language that appears to be Latin or another ancient language. The background is a wooden surface, suggesting this may be a historical or scholarly work.
Tangible History
Ava '26

I took an elective called Religious Art, Music, and Architecture this fall. One class, when we weren’t immersed in Islamic calligraphy or the Heart Sutra, we gathered around a page from one of the Western world’s most valued artifacts: the Gutenberg Bible.

Groton’s archives hold this fifteenth-century folio, and Mr. Melchior, the school’s archivist, introduced it to us that day. He wove the folio’s origins and journey to Groton into his teachings about Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press. Then we each touched the gem.

I can’t recommend the course enough.