![A woodblock print of a Buddhist incantation that Empress Regnant Shōtoku had mass produced in Japan between 764 and 770 C.E. (Common Era) has joined Yale’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible on display at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The new display includes the wooden pagoda that housed the printed incantation and a photograph of the maker’s mark on the miniature pagoda’s bottom. (Photos by Andrew Hurley)](https://ceas.yale.edu/sites/default/files/shotoku_1.jpg)
February 2, 2023
Mike Cummings | YaleNews
Yale’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible, on view since 1963 in a bronze case on the mezzanine of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is a landmark in the history of the printed word. Today, another landmark of the same history, a 1,250-year-old print of Buddhist prayers — the earliest known printed text that can be reliably dated — joins it on regular display.