The printing press, probably the most necessary innovations in human historical past, was developed across the identical time by two very totally different cultures, separated by huge distances.
Was it serendipity? Or a borrowed thought gone viral?
An evaluation on the SLAC Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford College goals to make clear this enduring thriller, evaluating the chemical compounds in valuable pages of two mid-Fifteenth century paperwork: Germany’s Gutenberg Bible and early Korean Confucian texts.
“We’re attempting to know the variations and similarities between early printed texts from Asia and from the West,” learning residues left by metallic typefaces, mentioned the venture’s imaging guide Michael Toth.
Their findings might recommend whether or not the thought of movable kind was conceived independently or shared between the areas by historic merchants.
Fragile pages from the traditional paperwork are on mortgage this week from archives in Korea and Stanford Library, in addition to non-public collections, in a world venture led by UNESCO. The findings — from SLAC and different analysis establishments, utilizing totally different approaches — will likely be shared at a convention subsequent April on the Library of Congress.
Already, scientists have detected chemical variations within the paperwork. Are they brought on by distinctive inks or typefaces? That’s nonetheless below investigation.
“We are able to see various concentrations,” mentioned Stanford physicist Uwe Bergmann. “Generally there’s slightly bit extra copper, typically slightly bit extra zinc, typically slightly bit extra lead.”
The invention of the printing press — the unique social media — has lengthy been considered an inflection level in our age of innovation. Beforehand, the written phrase needed to be laboriously copied by hand.
By casting third-dimensional letters in metallic, coating them in ink and urgent sheets of paper, writing was mass-produced. Data reached extra folks, in additional locations, extra rapidly.
Students typically credit score that feat to Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, who round 1440 AD printed copies of the Bible. Earlier than then, the Bible was solely obtainable as a hand-copied quantity in Latin, accessible solely to elite members of the clergy. Gutenberg might print greater than 50 Bibles in roughly the time a room stuffed with monks required to provide a single hand-scribed copy.
Readers demanded to learn in languages they may perceive. That led to the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the scientific revolution and different foundational moments in Western civilization.
However there’s rising proof that some very early printing know-how started in East Asia, with writings by Korean Buddhists round 1250 AD — lengthy earlier than Gutenberg was born.
SLAC is analyzing a Korean Confucius doc that describes influential spiritual philosophies about inside advantage, morality and respect for the group and its values. However as a result of rulers needed their printing for use by the Aristocracy alone, it didn’t take maintain with the vigor of Gutenberg’s work.
Did Germany’s Gutenberg borrow the thought from East Asia?
It's potential that printing know-how unfold from East to West, alongside the Silk Route, mentioned Bergmann.
However as of but, “there isn't any sturdy proof in some way,” he mentioned. SLAC’s scientific findings will likely be included into ongoing historic and literary analysis.
Solely two issues are identified for sure, mentioned physicist and staff member Minhal Gardezi of the College of Wisconsin at Madison: “Gutenberg’s printing press led to a revolution in the best way we disseminate data. And the printing press existed earlier in East Asia.”
Within the golden hills above Menlo Park, the work to resolve that puzzle is performed by SLAC’s synchrotron. In a way referred to as X-ray fluorescent imaging, it sends bunches of electrons hurtling down a tunnel of a particle accelerator to generate pulses of X-ray gentle.
The identical device has dropped at gentle historic Greek textual content in a uncommon doc of the mathematician Archimedes, unreadable attributable to centuries of neglect and injury. It additionally detected chemical compounds throughout the fossilized organs of the feathered dinosaur archaeopteryx, anatomical data essential to understanding the evolutionary hyperlink between reptiles and birds.
Scientists focus the synchrotron’s X-ray beam — solely 60 microns extensive, smaller than a human hair — on a block of textual content from every web page.
Then a pc converts the X-ray patterns right into a spectrum of coloration, totally different shades representing every chemical — inexperienced for zinc, blue for copper and purple for arsenic, for instance. A purple letter would include each copper and arsenic.
“So at a single spot on the paper, we now have all of this data for each single aspect that may very well be there,” mentioned Gardezi.
The staff is creating two-dimensional chemical maps that include the chemical fingerprints of the ink and paper, in addition to metallic residues from the printing course of.
The various chemical compositions of various paperwork, over time, might reveal how or why know-how might need unfold.
To grasp the evolution of the know-how, the staff is extra than simply these two paperwork. Additionally it is scanning 40 early spiritual texts from Korea, in addition to different Western paperwork, resembling a web page from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written within the late 1300s; a doc from the German narrative poem Gregorius, dated 1486; a web page by German astronomer Johannes Kepler, dated 1602; and historic 14th century letters of Saint Catherine of Siena.
The paperwork are priceless. To get to SLAC safely, Stanford Library enlisted a particular courier service. UNESCO’s Angelica Noh carried the Korean paperwork in locked baggage, flying enterprise class.
“They've by no means been studied earlier than, with this sort of a chemical evaluation,” mentioned Bergmann. “So we're in fully new territory right here.”