Office of Records That Should Not Exist

The First Revision History

HAEB-1455-ERRATA THIS MATTER HAS ALWAYS BEEN CLOSED CAP Rev. 12.4

Event class

HN-1, Documentary irregularity

Public impact

Level 3, Administrative

Issuing office

Office of Records That Should Not Exist

Date of event

1455

Date opened

April 20, 2026

Date closed

April 20, 2026

Published

August 13, 2026

Case summary

The Office of Records That Should Not Exist, acting through its Documentary Irregularities Unit, reviewed a single printed leaf bound into a Latin Bible printed at Mainz in the middle of the fifteenth century.

The leaf is headed ERRATA. It lists fourteen numbered entries. The last five entries describe revisions to the Current Approved Past, including Revision 12.2 and Revision 12.4. One entry thanks Dr. Lena Or, Chief Historian, for her review.

The Unit determined that the leaf is a printer’s ornament, that ornament asserts nothing, and that matter asserting nothing cannot be inaccurate.

The determination was published, as Directive 14.6 requires. It now appears as the final entry on the leaf.

Historical anchor

The Latin Bible printed at Mainz and generally dated to about 1454 to 1455 is the earliest substantial book printed with movable type in Europe.

It carries no title page and no printed page numbers, and it does not name its printer. Headings, initials, and decoration were added by hand after the sheets came off the press. Fewer than fifty copies survive, whole or in part, and they differ from one another, because portions of the setting were changed during production.

Movable type was in use in East Asia well before the Mainz work. The contribution made at Mainz was a European system combining cast metal type, an oil based ink, and an adapted press.

HAEB accepts these facts under the Current Approved Past.

The Bureau does not accept that a printed leaf may describe a publication schedule the Bureau had not begun.

Reported nonconformity

In April 2026 the collection holding the volume submitted a routine query concerning a bound leaf its own catalogers had described as unidentified.

The leaf is a single sheet, printed on one side, in a type consistent with the volume.

It carries:

1. The heading ERRATA.
2. Fourteen numbered entries.
3. Entries 1 through 9, which correct three spellings, a repeated line, a transposed heading, and four instances of a letter set upside down.
4. Entry 10: “For 12.1 read 12.1. Winter restored.”
5. Entry 11: “Revision 12.2. No entry.”
6. Entry 12: “For references introduced by 12.2 read nothing.”
7. Entry 13: “Revision 12.4. It is clarified that 12.2 did not occur.”
8. Entry 14: “With thanks to Dr. Lena Or, Chief Historian, for her review.”

Entries 10 through 13 correspond to the published revision log of the Current Approved Past. The correspondence is exact.

The Division of Biographical Integrity confirms that Dr. Or’s approved dates of existence begin in the twentieth century. Dr. Or confirms that she has not reviewed the volume.

Jurisdiction

The Office of Records That Should Not Exist accepted the matter under Directive 9.9. The Documentary Irregularities Unit conducted the review. The Office holds the record.

The Bureau of Premature Invention was consulted on whether the leaf constitutes premature language. It replied that the words on the leaf are ordinary and that a publication schedule is not language.

The Directorate of Retroactive Compliance declined the matter. Retrospective correction of a completed printed edition requires an appropriation, and no appropriation has been requested.

Evidence register

EV-1455-ERRATA-01

The leaf. Held under Directive 9.9. Not published.

Photographed on intake. The photograph shows fourteen entries.

EV-1455-ERRATA-02

Type comparison.

The type on the leaf is consistent with the type of the volume in body, wear, and alignment.

The Unit notes that this is the expected result for an ornament set from the same case.

EV-1455-ERRATA-03

Correspondence from Dr. Lena Or, Chief Historian, requesting removal of entry 14.

I have not reviewed this book. I would like my name taken off it.

Response of the Office:

Ornament is not editable.

EV-1455-ERRATA-04

Second photograph, taken after publication of the determination.

The photograph shows fifteen entries. Entry 15 reads: “Correction issued 2026. The foregoing is ornament.”

EV-1455-ERRATA-05

Third photograph, taken after publication of the finding on entry 15.

The photograph shows sixteen entries. Entry 16 is withheld: ████████████████

Sequence of Bureau activity

1. Intake

The query was received on April 18, 2026 and assigned to the Documentary Irregularities Unit on April 20, 2026.

2. Determination

The Unit found:

1. The leaf is printed matter of the period.
2. The leaf makes statements about publications that did not exist when it was printed.
3. A statement about a publication that does not exist is not a factual claim.
4. Matter containing no factual claim is decorative.
5. Decorative matter is not subject to accuracy review under Directive 9.9.

The leaf was therefore found accurate.

3. Publication of the determination

Directive 14.6 requires that a corrective determination be published. Publication is not discretionary. The determination was published on April 20, 2026.

4. First subsequent inspection

The leaf carried fifteen entries. Entry 15 recorded the correction issued in 2026 and stated that the foregoing is ornament.

The Unit reviewed entry 15 and found it accurate.

5. Second publication

The finding on entry 15 was published, because publication is required.

6. Second subsequent inspection

The leaf carried sixteen entries. Entry 16 was reviewed and withheld.

7. Suspension of review

The Unit suspended further review of the leaf. Suspension of review is not a determination and does not require publication.

8. Closure

The status THIS MATTER HAS ALWAYS BEEN CLOSED was applied on April 20, 2026.

The impression was made with Stamp 12. The earliest recorded impression of Stamp 12 predates vulcanized rubber and is not the subject of this docket.

Corrective action

HAEB completed the following:

1. Classified the leaf as ornament.
2. Suspended review of the leaf.
3. Directed that the leaf be photographed no more than once in a calendar year.
4. Denied the request to remove entry 14, on the ground that ornament is not editable.
5. Amended the Unit’s procedure to require that a determination concerning a self extending document be recorded on a medium the document does not share.

Observed consequence

1. The leaf carries sixteen entries. The determination concerned fourteen.
2. Two of the sixteen entries were issued by the Bureau. Both certify that the leaf has no historical effect.
3. The volume’s holder has asked whether the leaf should be conserved. The Bureau has advised that the conservation of ornament is discretionary.
4. The Office of Inspector General has included the matter in a review of corrective actions that introduce the discrepancy they correct.

Finding

1. The leaf is printed matter of the period.
2. The leaf describes a publication schedule the Bureau adopted in the twenty first century.
3. Items 1 and 2 are both established.
4. The leaf is ornament, and ornament asserts nothing.
5. The Bureau’s entries on the leaf are also ornament.
6. No historical effect was identified, twice.

Disposition

THIS MATTER HAS ALWAYS BEEN CLOSED

The leaf remains bound in the volume. Review is suspended. The Bureau will not inspect the leaf again before 2027.

This matter has always been closed

Public guidance

No action is required of the public.

Owners and custodians of printed books containing an errata leaf that lists corrections not yet made should retain the leaf, refrain from photographing it, and file HAEB Form 88-C, Request for Correction to a Completed Event. Form 88-C is issued at Rev. 1908/1963 and is accepted at either revision.

Do not annotate the leaf. An annotation is an entry.

The book was printed in the fifteenth century and has not been altered. The leaf bound into it is decorative. Its contents will be reviewed in the ordinary course, and the review will be published.

This matter has always been closed.