It is one of the many pieces in the exhibition "Imprimer! L'Europe de Gutenberg" at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), where it is next to other extremely rare and precious volumes, all from the Old Continent.

It is "the first printed from metallic movable type still preserved," explains to AFP a curator of the exhibition Caroline Vrand, curator in the department of prints and photography.

"Gutenberg was probably not aware of this Korean invention," says the BnF. Rather, he perfected techniques in force in Europe, "where one knows how to print and reproduce the image from about 1400 using an engraved matrix, first on wood, then on copper".

Xuanguang era

Unique in the world, Jikji is a crucial part of its heritage that South Korea seems to have lost for a long time.

The South Korean media has again looked at the history of this Buddhist teaching manual, in Chinese characters ("hanja"), from "Year 7 of the Xuanguang era". Of his two volumes, only the second survives.

Several Korean journalists were present at the press visit of the exhibition on Tuesday, the day before it opened. Yonhap news agency pointed out that the book had not been shown since 1973.

The Jikji, a Korean book from 1377, exhibited as part of the exhibition "Print! The Europe of Gutenberg" at the National Library of France (BnF), April 12, 2023 in Paris © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

The Republic of Korea would like to see him again on its territory one day, as part of a loan that remains to be negotiated.

"With this exhibition as an opportunity, if we collaborate and build a good relationship based on trust, I think we could have a valuable chance to see Jikji in Korea in the future," said Kim Jung-hee, president of the Foundation for Korean Cultural Heritage Abroad, during her visit to the exhibition.

Visitors are reminded of the conditions under which this book reached France.

The first French diplomat stationed in Seoul, Victor Collin de Plancy, who arrived in Korea in 1887, bought it there at an unknown date and seller.

180 francs

At that time, no one appreciated its historical significance. But he will get a clearer idea. "A collector of antiquarian books, he acquired the Jikji, and noted with emotion that the work dates back to the Xuanguang era (1371-1378)," reads the BnF website.

The Jikji was shown at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. In 1906, Collin de Plancy had to leave a Korea, which had become a Japanese protectorate the previous year. He sold the book, along with the rest of his rich personal collection, at an auction at the Hôtel Drouot in 1911.

The Jikji, a Korean book from 1377, exhibited as part of the exhibition "Print! The Europe of Gutenberg" at the National Library of France (BnF), April 12, 2023 in Paris © Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

The buyer is another collector, Henri Vever. He pays 180 francs, the equivalent of more than 60,000 euros today, according to INSEE.

After his death, the jeweler's family bequeathed the volume to the National Library in 1950.

The first to locate this jewel, in the late 1960s, was Park Byeong-seon, a Korean researcher based in Paris who listed the wealth of her country in the French capital.

This historian contributed to the return to South Korea of other treasures of the BnF, the royal manuscripts of the Joseon dynasty, loaned by the France since 2010. But, unlike the Jikji, they had been taken by force during a French military expedition in 1866.

In addition, the BnF exhibition presents many objects testifying to the abundant beginnings of printing, which will revolutionize the dissemination of culture and religious texts.

Among them, a replica of the press designed by Gutenberg, loaned by the museum dedicated to him in Mainz (western Germany), two copies of his Bible or the oldest known Western engraved wood, the "Protat Wood" (around 1420).

© 2023 AFP