What is the oldest book in the world

Before you answer the question, which book is the oldest in the world, you need to find out what can be considered a book. If you keep in mind the modern concept of "book", that is, a stack of pages with printed text, connected, will be the oldest Korean "Cicci". If the letters can be handwritten, the most ancient is called the gospel of Garima. But in the broader sense of oldest surviving book is the "Epic of Gilgamesh".

The "epic of Gilgamesh" and other ancient books

In a broader sense the book can be called a work written or recorded in any manner on different media. In ancient times, when it was invented writing, as a material for the creation of books and documents used a variety of means at hand: metal, wood, clay. The oldest such book is the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh", written on clay tablets and preserved to our days. Its second name – "all battered". The full version of the epic have been found in excavations of the library of king Ashurbanipal, the researchers place it a the VII century BC. But the most ancient fragments, containing the famous poem belong to the XVIII century BC.

An impressive age and boasts of the Chinese treatise, the legendary founder of Taoism Laozi called "Tao Te Ching", it refers to the IV century BC. This book is written on bamboo and is a pile of bamboo sticks. One of the oldest books can be called ancient Egyptian papyri with the legends, myths and stories.

Could be the oldest written work on the Ground has not yet been found. It can be found on tablets of wood, stone and other materials.

The oldest book in hardcover

If you count book of paper or other thin sheets, fastened together in the form of bales with the binding, then the oldest book in the world is Ethiopian Christian manuscript called "the gospel of Garima". Scientists have found that this ancient text, is divided into two books were written between about 330 and 650 BC: most likely, this happened in V-VI century. The alleged Creator of the book – the Ethiopian St. Isaac Garima, who arrived in the country from Constantinople in 494 year and contributed to the Christianization of Ethiopia. The book is written on a thin goat skin for Ethiopic.

"The gospel of Garima" is stored in the Museum by a British charitable organization.

The oldest printed book

The oldest printed book is a Korean edition of "Cicci" Buddhist document that tells about the sermons of Buddha and other teachers and telling about the essence of the teachings. One century before the invention in Europe of printing the Koreans were able to create the first printed book using metal type: wax Board is attached to the mirror characters, cut from paper, after which the Board was annealed in a furnace and worked the clay forms, which was filled with molten metal. The book was created in 1377. In Europe, the first printed book appeared in 1480, this was the Gutenberg Bible.