Jikji
The world’s oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type, from Korea 78 years before Gutenberg’s Bible.
Jikji is a collection of Buddhist teachings. Only the second volume survives, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.
Materials: Paper, ink, bronze types
Manufacture: The types were cast in bronze alloy in sand-and-wax moulds and printed by rubbing the paper against them.
The slightly uneven lines – each character is its own small metal type.
Chinese characters in columns read top to bottom, right to left.