Should France return the world’s oldest metal-printed book to its original home of Korea?

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Description: France will consider lending South Korea the world’s oldest existing metal-printed book for exhibitions here, according to Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin. The two-volume Jikji, or Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings, was written by Venerable Baegun and printed by his two disciples at Heungdeok Temple in Cheongju, in what’s now South Korea, during the Goryeo Kingdom in 1377. This was 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest substantial book printed using metal type in Europe. So how did we get to this point where we’re having to ask to borrow it back?

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