Writing and literature arose between the seventh and fourth millennia BC. A wide variety of materials were used to record the text, including clay, silk, ceramics, papyrus, and even gold. Therefore, the question of the oldest book on Earth largely depends on how you classify it.
We tried to combine the ten oldest surviving books in the world into a single list.
10. Gutenberg Bible - approximate age: 559 years
This book, also known as the 42-line Bible (by the number of lines per page), is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive Bible in the world. Also, many consider it the world's first printed book. This is actually not the case. The book, created by Gutenberg, is one of the first publications. It differs from other incunabula in excellent quality of design.
Its first copies were printed in 1454-1455. Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. 48 original copies of the Gutenberg Bible are known.
9. Celtic Psalter - 938 years
The next in the top 10 oldest books in the history of mankind is the pocket hymnal stored at the University of Edinburgh. It is believed that it was created in the 11th century AD. This makes him the oldest surviving book of Scotland.
It is assumed that the Celtic Psalter was created for a very important person. And the fact that some of the book’s decorations were made in the English Winchester style may indicate the purpose of the book for Saint Margaret of Scotland, who comes from the Anglo-Saxon royal family.
8. The Diamond Sutra - 1150 years
This Buddhist sacred text is the second of the oldest printed books in the world.
The Diamond Sutra was discovered in the Mogao caves in China, at the beginning of the twentieth century. It contains the sayings of Buddha Shakyamuni, which should be rethought by those who seek to comprehend the path of bodhisattvas.
Now one of the oldest books in the world is kept in the British Museum, but is not accessible to visitors. Light is destructive for her, so we can only look at the photos posted on the Web.
7. Siddur - 1178 years
The ancient Jewish prayer book “Siddur”, found in 2013, dates from about 840 AD. This parchment, containing 40 thousand sacred texts, is so old that it contains Babylonian vowels. This allowed experts to attribute the book to the times of the activity of the Gaons (spiritual leaders of the Jewish people) in Babylon.
6. The Book of Kells - 1218 years
The Book of Kells, also known as the Book of Columbus, is in the library of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. It is believed that it was created by Celtic monks around 800 AD.
The book is generously decorated with colored miniatures and ornaments, and contains four Gospels in Latin. Due to the numerous decorations, the text of the manuscript on some pages is difficult to distinguish. However, the Book of Kells was hardly intended to be read, but rather to be used during worship services. And the reader himself quoted the text from memory.
5. Ushnisha Vijaya Dharani Sutra - 1314 years
In 1966, the sutra “Ushnisha Vijaya Dharani” was found in the South Korean Buddhist temple of Pulguks. It was created using the method of woodcut and is the earliest printed book in the world.
This scroll was printed between 704 and 751 years BC. on paper from japanese paper tree. The printed letters of the sutra found in Korea compare favorably with the Chinese Diamond Sutra, as does the thin paper.
4. The Cuthbert Gospel - 1320 years
The oldest book in Europe is the Gospel of St. Cuthbert, bought by the British Library in 2012 for £ 9 million.
The book was a gift placed in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, one of the earliest British Christian leaders. It dates from about 698 AD.
Subsequently, the book, along with the relics of the saint, was transferred to Durham Cathedral, so that they would not be destroyed by one of the Viking raids.
3. Library of Nag Hammadi - 1693
It is one of the oldest libraries in the world. It contains 13 leather papyrus codes that were discovered in 1945 in the Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi.
Books containing Gnostic texts date from around the first half of the fourth century AD. They are written in Coptic, and are supposedly copied from the Greek original. Nag Hammadi codes are currently in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt.
2. Golden tables from Pirgi - over 2500 years
Three gold plates were found in 1964 during excavations of the sanctuary in the ancient Etruscan port of Pirgi, Italy. They have holes at the edges, and scientists believe that the plates were once connected to each other.
On two plates there are inscriptions in the Etruscan language, and one contains text in the Phoenician (Punic) language.
The tablets from Pyrgi tell that the ruler Thefarius Velian from the city of Ceres brought gifts to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, also known as Ishtar.
1. The Golden Book of the Etruscans - 2678 years
In May 2003, the Bulgarian National Historical Museum in Sofia put on public display an ancient book consisting of six pages of gold connected by two golden rings. The 5 by 4.5 cm plates contain Orphic text written in Etruscan, as well as an image of a horse, rider, siren, lyre and soldier. The content of the book suggests that it was created for the funeral of a noble man who was a member of the Orpheus cult that arose in ancient Greece.
The oldest multi-page book in the world dates, tentatively, to 660 BC It was donated to the museum by an 87-year-old Bulgarian man from Macedonia who wished to remain anonymous. He discovered treasure in a grave excavated 60 years ago when he was a soldier working on the construction of a canal along the Struma River. According to the director of the museum Bozidar Dimitrov, the find was confirmed by experts in Sofia and London.
The Etruscans were an ancient people who migrated from Lydia (located on the territory of modern Turkey) and settled in central Italy in the first millennium BC.
