An Italian academic has claimed that Gutenberg did not print his world famous 42-line bible using moveable type, but with laboriously made full-page lead stamps.

Bruno Fabbiani, a lecturer at Turin University, argued that inconsistency in the printed characters proved that moveable type could not have been used.

He claims that other German typographers, inspired by Gutenberg's system, actually invented moveable type.

Eva Hanebutt-Benz, director of the Gutenberg museum in Mainz, said the imprint of a single letter which had fallen on one page of the bible proved that it had been printed with moveable type.

Story by Josh Brooks