Korea casts movable metal type
The Jikji is printed in 1377, decades before Gutenberg.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 209 years
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Goryeo Korea develops metal movable type, with documented use by 1234 and the surviving Jikji printed in 1377 — the oldest extant book printed with metal type, now in Paris. Korea also produces the Tripitaka Koreana, over 81,000 woodblocks carved without known error and still preserved. In 1443 King Sejong promulgates Hangul, an alphabet designed from scratch on phonological principles so that ordinary people could become literate.