Jikji printed in Korea, oldest extant book made with movable metal type

Date

July 1377

Category

Science, technology & invention

Region

East Asia

Era

Post-Classical / Medieval

Significance

In July 1377, monks at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju, then part of Goryeo Korea, printed the Jikji (full title Baegun hwasang chorok buljo jikji simche yojeol), an anthology of Seon (Zen) Buddhist teachings compiled by the monk Baegun (1298-1374).

Produced using movable metal type, it is the world's oldest extant book made by this method, predating Johannes Gutenberg's 42-line Bible by roughly 78 years and demonstrating that Korea had developed practical metal-type printing well before Europe. The surviving second volume of 38 leaves was acquired by a French diplomat in the early 1900s and is now held at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris. UNESCO inscribed the Jikji on its Memory of the World Register in September 2001, formally recognising it as the earliest surviving metal-type imprint. The work stands as a landmark in the global history of printing technology and a point of continuing cultural significance for Korea.

Empires active in July 1377

• Ming Dynasty
  1368 CE to 1644 CE
• Kanem-Bornu Empire
  700 CE to 1900 CE
• Ottoman Empire
  1299 CE to 1922 CE
• Solomonic dynasty
  1270 CE to 1974 CE
• Byzantine Empire
  330 CE to 1453 CE
• Golden Horde
  1242 CE to 1502 CE

Related science, technology & invention events

• Legendary origin of smallpox variolation (inoculation) in East Asia
  c. 1000 CE
• Gutenberg's printing press and the first printed Bible
  c. 1440 to 1455 CE
• The print revolution spreads across Europe
  by 1500
• Madhava and the Kerala School develop infinite series
  c. 1400
• Ulugh Beg's Samarkand Observatory and the Zij-i Sultani Star Catalogue
  c. 1428 (observatory); Zij-i Sultani completed 1438-1439
• Ibn al-Nafis Describes the Pulmonary Circulation of the Blood
  c. 1242 CE

Essential reading

• Timbuktu emerges as a centre of Islamic learning
  c. 1325
• Kilwa's Husuni Kubwa palace marks the Swahili coast's golden age
  early-mid 14th century CE
• Kuwae Eruption (Vanuatu)
  c. 1452 CE
• Kingdom of Kongo converts to Christianity under Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I)
  3 May 1491

Further reading

A Little History of Science

The wider story

A Little History of Science

William Bynum

Warm, jargon-free tour of discovery from Babylonian stargazers to the genome.

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