Figure 8. Diamond Sutra, 868 CE

Image details

TitleDiamond Sutra

Creator nameUnknown

Creator nationality/cultureUnknown

Creator rolePrintmaker/Engraver/Lithographer

Creation date868 AD

Object typePrint

MaterialsWoodcut on paper

Dimensions11 in. × 16 ft. (27 cm × 5 m)

LocationBritish Library, London

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra

Accession numberOr.8210/P.2

SubjectsIllumination of books and manuscripts, ChineseEarly printed booksScrolls, ChineseDunhuang Caves (China)

StatusStatus
Discovered in the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas in Dunhuanga; considered to be the world's earliest dated, printed book

Related content: Chapters (2) Images (17)

Select a chapter below to view this image within the text.

Chapter 1: The Invention of Paper

Jonathan M. Bloom

Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World

Humans have been around for five million years. For 99.9 percent of that time, or until about five thousand years ago, they did not write at all. The invention of writing around 3000 B.C.E. transformed human society by enabling people to transmit greater quantities of knowledge more accurately across vast distances of space and time. In spite of the power of writing, however, or perhaps because of...

Author

Jonathan M. Bloom

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.17-45

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00217.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20569&redirecttoanchor=48292

Chapter subject tags:Papermaking--HistoryManuscripts (Papyri)ParchmentChristian literature, Early

Introduction: A New Kind of Route

Caroline Fowler

The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas

~“In the year 1525, after Whitsun, in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, I saw this vision in my sleep.” Putting mind to paper, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) painted his dream, creating a work in which water rises like a geological formation from the horizon as...

Author

Caroline Fowler

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-16

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00195.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19957&redirecttoanchor=48292

Chapter subject tags:PapermakingTrade routesEarly printed booksArt, Renaissance

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