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1377 CEPrimary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Jikji Is Printed: The World's Oldest Book Made With Metal Movable Type

78 years before Gutenberg, Korean monks print a Buddhist text with cast metal characters

On the timeline · around 1377 CE · Unified Silla and GoryeoUnified Silla and GoryeoThe Joseon DynastyJikji Is Printed: The World's Oldest Book Made With Metal Movable Type115012001250130013501400145015001550

Quick facts

Printed
July 1377, Heungdeok Temple, Cheongju
Predates Gutenberg Bible by
78 years
Current location
Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris
UNESCO Memory of the World inscription
September 4, 2001

What happened

In July 1377, monks at Heungdeok Temple outside Cheongju printed Jikji, a Buddhist text of Seon (Zen) teachings, using cast metal type, a fact recorded in the book's own postscript. Only the second of the original two volumes survives; it passed through the hands of the French consul to Seoul, Victor Collin de Plancy, was sold to collector Henri Vever in 1911, and entered the Bibliothèque nationale de France's collections by 1952, where it remains today. UNESCO added Jikji to its Memory of the World Register on September 4, 2001, confirming it as the world's oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type, predating the Gutenberg Bible by 78 years.

Why it matters

Jikji demonstrates that Goryeo Korea had solved movable metal type printing generations before Europe, independently of Gutenberg's later, separately-invented press. The book's survival outside Korea, in a French national library rather than a Korean one, has itself become part of the story that international preservation and colonial-era collecting can be told through.

How we know

Jikji's printing method and date are recorded in its own postscript text; the physical volume is preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and has been examined and authenticated by librarians, conservators, and historians who have staged multiple public exhibitions of the original object.

Sources

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Jikji Is Printed: The World's Oldest Book Made With Metal Movable Type · History of Korea · SourcedStory