The Library of Congress hosted the “From Jikji to Gutenberg Scholarly Colloquium” on April 13–14, 2023. My opening remarks are available to view on YouTube and a transcript is included below.
Good morning, and welcome. My name is Jacob Nadal, and I am Director for Preservation at the Library of Congress. I bring greetings from the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, and I look forward to participating in as much of this symposium as I am able to.
It is an honor for me to welcome attendees, from seven nations , to the Library of Congress , to take part in this From Jikji to Gutenberg colloquium. It is gratifying that Dr. Fackson Banda is here today to add UNESCO’s encouragement and it is thrilling to know that , for the first time in decades , the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is exhibiting Jikji , alongside two beautiful 42-line Gutenberg Bibles , in a new exhibition , called To Print: Gutenberg’s Europe.
While it is generally recognized that Johannes Gutenberg printed the monumental 42-line Gutenberg Bible in Mainz, Germany about the year 1455 CE , it remains largely unknown outside of East Asia that the Diamond Sutra was printed from woodblocks in China in 868 , or that Jikji , printed in 1377 in Cheongju, South Korea, is acknowledged as the oldest surviving book printed from moveable metal type. And while these facts in the history of printing are understood by specialists, your multi-disciplinary collaboration is an important step towards converting information that is known to experts into general knowledge.
Your work , to tell the story of the invention of printing more fully is an example of how good scholarship is also inclusive scholarship. The story of Jikji and Gutenberg is a compelling story of how human creativity can flourish along similar lines in different times and places, and is a powerful statement about our common desire to disseminate our ideas to the betterment of all. It is a compelling research effort that gives us new reason and new ways to ask questions about how ideas were exchanged, or how the choices people make about the means of recording and sharing information both shape and are shaped by their cultural contexts.
The Library of Congress has supported this project from its inception and has already benefitted from the scholarly exchange as part of this effort. The Library now better understands the importance of several Korean types among its most distinctive collections. These pieces of metal type are now recognized as being among the earliest surviving examples of Korean cast metal type held in America. The Library’s Conservation Division has carefully documented and rehoused this collection and is collaborating closely with the Library’s Asian Division, as well as with Korean scholars to gain further insight into the types’ age and provenance. Combined with conservation expertise regarding the Gutenberg Bible, the Library is pleased to be able to make meaningful contributions to this project.
Support from both the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities speaks to the worldwide encouragement underlying this first face-to-face meeting. This colloquium should help solidify plans for From Jikji to Gutenberg to publish a scholarly, 400-page exhibit catalog and coordinate multiple exhibits in libraries internationally in 2027, commemorating the 650th anniversary of the printing of Jikji. This collaboration between sister institutions and UNESCO’s International Centre for Documentary Heritage in Korea will help make clear to a broader audience what is generally known about the ancient roots of printing.