What is the oldest book still in existence?

the Diamond Sūtra A Buddhist holy text, the Diamond Sūtra is considered to be the oldest surviving dated printed book in the world. Found in a walled up cave in China along with other printed materials, the book is made up of Chinese characters printed on a scroll of grey printed paper, wrapped along a wooden pole.

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Writing and literature are thought to have been first developed between the 7th and 4th millenium BC. Since the dawn of writing an incredible array of different materials have been used for recording text, including clay, silk, pottery, papyrus, even coffins – so the question of the oldest surviving book depends very much on how you classify one. The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines a book as: a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover; a long written work. This definition rules out clay tablets, scrolls and similar, though many scholars have expanded the definition to include any significant piece of writing bound together inside a cover. The question can also touch on the nature of the book. Some scholars have considered that a significant book should contain a worldview, setting it apart from mere accounting or administrative records. We have tried to pull together what we hope is an interesting range of some of the oldest surviving books in the world. We cover everything from the earliest surviving printed books, to the oldest known surviving book in existence.

Madrid Codex

Most likely produced in Yucatán, the book is written in Yucatecan, a group of Mayan languages which includes Yucatec, Itza, Lacandon and Mopan. Experts disagree on the exact date the Madrid Codex was created, though it is said by some to have been made before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century. The book is currently held in the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain.

Source: 1. Image: 1.

Estimated age: 494 years old.

Gutenberg Bible

Printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany, it is considered to be oldest printed book using movable type in the West – though in China there were examples of book printing many centuries earlier, such as the Diamond Sūtra. There are 48 original copies in known existence, of which 21 are complete. The above image is of the New York Public Library’s copy, the first to come to the USA.

Source: 1. Image: 1.

Estimated age: 559 years old.

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Celtic Psalter

The Celtic Psalter is described as Scotland’s Book of Kells. The pocket-sized book of Psalms is housed at the University of Edinburgh, where it went on public display in 2009 for the first time. You can view pages of the Celtic Psalter on the University of Edinburgh website here.

Estimated age: 938 years old.

Diamond Sūtra

A Buddhist holy text, the Diamond Sūtra is considered to be the oldest surviving dated printed book in the world. Found in a walled up cave in China along with other printed materials, the book is made up of Chinese characters printed on a scroll of grey printed paper, wrapped along a wooden pole.

Source: 1. Image: 1.

Estimated age: 1,145 years old.

Siddur, Jewish Prayer Book

The complete parchment, still in its original binding, is so old that it contains Babylonian vowel pointing – akin to the Old or Middle English for the English language. This allowed experts to date the book to the times of Geonim – Babylonian & Talmudic leaders during the Middle ages.

Source: 1. Image: 1.

Estimated age: 1,173 years old.

Book of Kells

The book is an incredibly ornate illuminated manuscript Gospel book, written in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament.

Estimated age: 1,213 years old.

St Cuthbert Gospel

Europe’s oldest known surviving intact book is the St Cuthbert Gospel, bought by the British Library in 2012 for £9 million pounds as part of a fundraising campaign. Only just surviving the Vikings conquests, the book was moved to Durham to avoid Viking raiders, narrowly escaping destruction. You can now view the a digitised version on the book on the British Library website.

Estimated age: 1,315 years old.

Nag Hammadi Library

Considered to be some of the oldest surviving bound books – 13 leather bound papyrus codices were discovered in 1945 buried inside a sealed jar, by a local man in the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The books, containing Gnostic texts, are dated from around the first half of the 4th century AD. Written in the Coptic language, the codices are thought to have been copied from Greek. The Nag Hammadi codices are currently found at the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt.

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Estimated age: 1,693 years old.

Pyrgi Gold Tablets

Found in 1964 in the excavation of a sanctuary in ancient Pyrgi, Italy, the three gold plates date back to 500 BC.

Containing holes around the edges, scholars think they were once bound together.

Two are written in Etruscan text, with one written in Phoenician – comprising of a dedication from King Thefarie Velianas to the Phoenician goddess Astarte. The plates are now displayed at the National Etruscan Museum in Rome, Italy.

Estimated age: 2,513 years old.

Etruscan Gold Book

Thought to be the oldest multi-page book in the world, dating to about 660 BC, the Etruscan Gold Book was discovered 70 years ago whilst digging a canal off the Strouma river in Bulgaria. The book is made from 6 sheets of 24 carat gold, bound together with rings. The plates are written in Etruscan characters, and also depicted is a horse, horseman, a Siren, a lyre, and soldiers. The book was donated to Bulgaria’s National History Museum in Sofia, by an anonymous 87 year old donor. Etruscans were an ancient race of people that migrated from Lydia – in now what would be modern Turkey – settling in central Italy nearly 3 thousand years ago.

Sources: 1, 2. Image: 1.

Estimated age: 2,673 years old.

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wiganlanebooks.co.uk - 10 of the Oldest Known Surviving Books in the World

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