October 4, 1534

Luther Bible

Complete Luther Bible goes on sale at Leipzig’s Michaelmas fair

An unbound copy cost 2 guilders and 8 groschen — compared by one modern scholar to the price of five calves.

The fair opened on 4 October 1534

The Leipzig Michaelmas fair opened on 4 October 1534 with the first complete edition of Luther's Bible translation available for sale. The fair continued through 11 October.

The book was printed in Wittenberg, by Hans Lufft. The Michaelmas fair itself was in Leipzig — a rival commercial centre, not Luther's town.

Six parts, two volumes

Lufft printed the edition as six separately titled and foliated parts — Pentateuch, historical books, poetic books, prophets, Apocrypha and New Testament — normally bound in two volumes.

The visual program included decorative initials and 117 woodcuts associated with the Cranach workshop and other artists.

An unbound copy sold at Leipzig for 2 guilders and 8 groschen.

Not one man's work, and not the first German Bible

The edition completed Luther's previously published New Testament and Old Testament installments with assistance from Wittenberg scholars including Philipp Melanchthon, Justus Jonas and Caspar Cruciger.

It was the first complete edition of Luther's translation, not the first German Bible; printed German Bibles existed before him.

Buyers could now obtain the New Testament, Old Testament and Apocrypha as one coordinated complete edition, and demand produced further complete editions in 1535 and 1536.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

October 4 is the opening date of the Leipzig Michaelmas fair in the contemporary Julian calendar; it corresponds to October 14 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
Catalogues variously count 117, 124 or 128 woodcuts depending on whether repeated images, title-page cuts and decorative pieces are counted separately. The Library of Congress and Christie’s both support 117 illustrations.
The edition was printed in Wittenberg but marketed at the Leipzig fair. The listed title’s “fair opens in Wittenberg” conflates the printing place with the fair location.