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incunabula's profile
Incunabula
Incunabula
Incunabula
@incunabula

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Incunabula

@incunabula

Bibliophile. Rare book collector. The history of writing, and of the book, from cave painting to cuneiform tablet to papyrus scroll to medieval codex to Kindle.

Joined August 2017

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    Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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    This is the oldest surviving book printed with movable type. Printed in Tangut script with movable wooden type during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Western Xia, it dates to c. 1150 - 3 centuries before Gutenberg and 2 centuries before the famous Korean Jikji printing. 1/7pic.twitter.com/Njr2ZTasDB

    5:41 PM - 9 Dec 2019
    • 980 Retweets
    • 2,434 Likes
    • Selena Unspooky Brisbane inhabitant Thick-head Glasswort Elio Francesconi Mamol Edward Jones David Li Matthew Balentine Il tramonto dell' €
    13 replies 980 retweets 2,434 likes
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      2. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        The book is The Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union 吉祥遍至口和本續 [shown in Tangut script below]. 9 volumes - 7 of which are complete - were discovered in the ruins of the Baisigou Pagoda in Helan County, Northwest China in 1991, after it had been illegally blown up. 2/7pic.twitter.com/AXUHXSUfqE

        2 replies 24 retweets 91 likes
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      3. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        The Baisigou Pagoda was situated in a remote location in the Helan Mountains, about 10km from the nearest road. A local peasant discovered that the pagoda had collapsed; investigation revealed it had been blown up by unknown criminals intending to steal the relics inside. 3/7pic.twitter.com/9p5RgINYML

        1 reply 14 retweets 76 likes
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      4. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        In August of 1991 an expedition led by the archaeologist Niu Dasheng (牛達生) from Ningxia Museum carried out investigations at the site. A number of artefacts, concentrated in a small area in the middle of the collapsed pagoda, under about a metre of rubble, were discovered. 4/7

        1 reply 11 retweets 66 likes
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      5. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        The artefacts included woodblock prints of Buddhist images, tablets inscribed in ink with Tangut script, a scroll written in cursive Tangut characters, and more than 30 volumes of printed books and mss, including the 9 volumes of the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union. 5/7pic.twitter.com/bDdCesFF5z

        4 replies 20 retweets 94 likes
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      6. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        The book is currently held at the Ningxia Institute of Archaeology in Yinchuan, and because of its immense historical significance it's included in the official list of 64 Chinese cultural treasures which are forbidden from ever leaving the country for exhibition abroad. 6/7pic.twitter.com/wwuoAo65sx

        2 replies 17 retweets 102 likes
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      7. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        For more on the Tangut script, see @BabelStone's wonderful site here: https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Tangut/  And you'll find more photos of the Baisigou Square Pagoda discoveries, including the movable type 'Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union' volumes here: https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Tangut/BaisigouFangta.html … 7/7

        2 replies 19 retweets 80 likes
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      8. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 9 Dec 2019
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        A few more photos of the 'Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union', including one showing the volumes as they were first found in the rubble of the collapsed Baisigou Square Pagoda.pic.twitter.com/PU5XmqMWKa

        3 replies 13 retweets 78 likes
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      9. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        There's no English language book (yet) on this, but the premier Chinese reference has an English abstract: Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Bàisìgōu Xīxià Fāngtǎ 拜寺沟西夏方塔 [The Western Xia Square Pagoda at Baisigou]. Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 2005

        1 reply 7 retweets 44 likes
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      10. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        One of the characteristic features of the book which indicates it was printed using movable type is that very occasionally characters are found inverted, ie printed upside down - typical of books printed with movable type but which can't accidentally occur in a woodblock edition.pic.twitter.com/zolnmWeFze

        1 reply 20 retweets 77 likes
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      11. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        That it was specially printed using wooden type rather than clay type is indicated by the occasional presence of uneven lines between the columns of characters, which were left by bamboo strips used to set the wooden type (but which were never used for setting clay type).

        2 replies 9 retweets 61 likes
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      12. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        Tangut, a Tibeto-Burman language, was the language of the Western Xia, an empire which was annihilated by Genghis Khan in 1226. Almost all its written records and architecture were destroyed, and its history remained obscure until 20th-century research in the West and in China.pic.twitter.com/0F3pRnC6ZT

        1 reply 25 retweets 63 likes
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      13. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        The Baisigou Square Pagoda is not the only ancient structure in northeast China to yield relics of Tangut printing. When the Hongfo Pagoda, in Helan County, Ningxia, was renovated in 1990 a number of Western Xia printed texts were discovered, together with original woodblocks.pic.twitter.com/rem5EHDyV7

        1 reply 11 retweets 54 likes
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      14. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        The Tangut script was a logographic writing system. At the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known. According to the History of Song (1346), the script was designed by the high-ranking official Yeli Renrong under Western Xia Emperor Li Yuanhao's supervision in 1036.pic.twitter.com/0gmv571JuY

        2 replies 10 retweets 33 likes
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      15. Incunabula‏ @incunabula 10 Dec 2019
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        A great number of Buddhist scriptures were translated from Tibetan & Chinese, and block printed in the Tangut script. Although the Western Xia dynasty collapsed in 1227, the script continued to be used for another few centuries, the last surviving example occurs as late as 1502.pic.twitter.com/a9elNLDaxC

        2 replies 11 retweets 38 likes
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      16. End of conversation

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