Printed Texts-Joshua Molnar

The first artifact shown above is the first historical record of a piece printed with a moveable metal type print.  This is dated to the early thirteenth century during the Goryeo Dynasty in Korea.  It is not told what was contained in the artifact in particular but many of the books printed with this method show the development of the Korean society at the time.  At this time even with the Mongolian invasions happening the society was still using metal to create presses and literature.  This technology of printing allowed for knowledge to spread and to help unify society.  Some other literature printed with the same method as this artifact are, Books on history, medicine, astronomy, language, and law, as well as Buddhist scriptures and the Four Books and Three Classics of Confucianism.  

The second artifact show above is William Caxton's illustrated second edition of the Canterbury Tales.  
This print was created with woodblock prints in 1483.  This was made using Caxton's own printing press that he had set up.  He was both the first English printer, and the first to print a book in English.  This print was a copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, The Canterbury Tales.  This was printed as Caxton realized the commercial potential of the printing technology.  Now this artifact can tell us what type of literature was popular during the specific time period, which can also aid us in describing the social or political landscape at the time.  This poem in particular is about pilgrims traveling from London to the Canterbury Cathedral which can tell us about the religion at the time.  

The last artifact shown above is a picture of a page of Genesis from the Gutenberg Bible.  This was created in the 1450's along with Gutenbergs new way of printing.  Gutenberg not only created this print to spread the Bible and its teachings, but to also spread the product of the new way of printing that had been created.  At the time the printing press was used to create many Bibles to be spread around the world.  While now these prints can show us the religious landscape at the time, and also give us a timeline the the Catholic religion and how is may have changed over time, and how its teachings have come about.  

References:

Google. (n.d.). The invention of movable metal type: Goryeo technology and Wisdom - Cheongju Early Printing Museum - Google Arts & Culture. Google. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-invention-of-movable-metal-type-goryeo-technology-and-wisdom/jQLywilonG6kIg

Wight, C. (2004, September 7). Gutenberg Bible: View the british library's digital versions online. The British Library - The British Library. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/homepage.html

William Caxton's illustrated second edition of The Canterbury Tales. British Library. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/william-caxton-and-canterbury-tales

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