Printed at a Korean Buddhist temple in 1377, the Jikji is the world’s oldest surviving book made with movable metal type — predating Gutenberg’s Bible by some 78 years, though today only its second volume survives, held at the National Library of France in Paris

In July 1377, in a temple on the edge of Cheongju in what is now central South Korea, a group of Buddhist followers finished printing a book using individually cast metal letters. The temple was Heungdeok-sa. The monk whose teachings filled the pages, Baegun Gyeonghan, had been dead for three years. What his followers produced [...] The post Printed at a Korean Buddhist temple in 1377, the Jikji is the world’s oldest surviving book made with movable metal type — predating Gutenberg’s Bible by so