The 36-line Bible was probably created between 1459 and 1461 in Bamberg. Unlike the Gutenberg Bible (B42), in which each page has 42 lines of text, the Bamberg edition only has 36 lines and is therefore considerably more voluminous. The printing type used is Johannes Gutenberg's oldest type, the so-called Donat calendar type. In February 1461, the letters were used in Bamberg by Albrecht Pfister for the fable collection "Der Edelstein", the first German-language book with illustrations. The B36 is considerably rarer than Gutenberg's B42. So far, fourteen complete copies are known to exist as well as several fragments, of which some single leaves are kept in the Bamberg State Library.

Dr Eric Marshall White (Princeton, NJ, USA) has worked at the Scheide Library, affiliated with the Special Collections and Rare Books and Manuscripts Division of Princeton University Library, since 2015. The Scheide Library, formerly the private library of the eminent book collector William H. Scheide, is the only library outside of Europe to hold the first six printed Bibles, including the B42, the Mentelin Bible, the B36 and the Fust-Schöffer Bible. Previously, White was responsible for the special collections at the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas for eighteen years. As an expert in early European book printing, he published numerous articles and exhibition catalogues on old and rare books.