Moveable Metal Type Exhibit
This gift is both a book and the materials to produce the book. The materials show how, with movable wooden or metal blocks, a book could be quickly printed. The book is a copy of the first volume of WOL-IN-CHON-KANG-JI-KOK (The Moon is printed on a Thousand Rivers) an epic poem from the year 1446.
Korea produced books as early as the 8th century and used metal type print in early 13th century. That is 200 years before Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible of the 15th century. Also unique is the printing paper made of mulberry which is believed to last 800 years or more.
The special significance of this book lies in the fact that the long epic poem is the very first one written in Hangul and printed by the first movable metal type. It was written by King Sejong the Great who created Hangul and made this Buddhist hymn in the year 1446 for his late Queen Soheon. The Hangul graphic is an enlarged page from the book and printed on “hanji”, the Korean paper made from the mulberry tree and used for printing since the 8th century.
This gift was presented by the President of the Republic of Korea, Roh Tae Woo, to the United Nations on 24 September 1991.