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 we keep in mind the modern concept of "book", that is, a pile of pages with printed text interconnected, then the oldest will be the Korean "Chikchi". If the letters can be handwritten, then the most ancient is called the Gospel of Garima. And in a broader sense, the oldest surviving book is The Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Epic of Gilgamesh and other ancient books
In a broader sense, a book can be called a work recorded or recorded in any way on various media. In ancient times, when writing was invented, a variety of improvised means were used as material for creating books and documents: metal, wood, clay. The oldest such book is the Sumerian work "The Epic of Gilgamesh, " written on clay tablets and preserved to this day. Her second name is "About Everything Who Saw". The full version of the epic was found in the excavations of the library of King Ashurbanipal, scientists date it to the 7th century BC. But the oldest fragments containing the famous poem date back to the 18th century BC.
The Chinese treatise of the legendary founder of Taoism Laoji entitled "Tao De Jing" boasts an impressive age, its creation dates back to the 4th century BC. This book is written on bamboo and is a pile of bamboo sticks. Ancient Egyptian papyri with legends, myths and stories can be called one of the oldest books.
Perhaps the oldest recorded work on Earth has not yet been found. It can be found on plates of wood, stones and other materials.
The oldest book in binding
If we consider as a book paper or other thin sheets bound together in the form of a bale with a binding, then the oldest book in the world is an Ethiopian Christian manuscript called "The Gospel of Garima." Scientists have found that this ancient text, divided into two books, was written between about 330 and 650 years of our era: most likely, it happened in the V-VI century. The alleged creator of the book is the Ethiopian saint Isaac Garim, who arrived in the country from Constantinople in 494 and contributed to the Christianization of Ethiopia. The book is written on thin goat skin in Old Ethiopian.
The Garima Gospel is in the museum of a British charity.
