568 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



eighth century, Egypt soon after, whence via Morocco (c. 1100) to 

 Spain, and so to Central Europe, having also reached Italy via Libya 

 and Sicily. 



Without considering the part that seal-stones and rubbings from 

 graved stones (lithography in its simplest form) may have played in 

 the evolution of printing, let me say that there may be some doubt as 

 to the accuracy of a reference to printing in China at the end of the sixth 

 century, and emphasize the fact that the earliest datable block-print 

 extant is of A. D. 770 and comes from Japan. Block-printing must, 

 however, have been practised in China sufficiently long before this for 

 it to have attained such considerable development in Japan, since the 

 relics of A. D. 770 (for a number have been preserved) are of the series 

 of one million charms ordered by the Empress Shotoku. Examples of 

 these preserved in the Horiuji monastery at Nara in Japan, in the 

 British Museum, and in the museum at Leipzig, show that the strips of 

 paper used are about 18 inches long by 2 wide, each bearing 30 columns 

 of 5 characters each. 61 



Japan produced no books at this time, or if she did they have not 

 come down to us. The earliest printed book (i. e., scroll) that can be 

 dated with certainty is Chinese and was produced in May 868 — no 

 primitive piece of printing like the Japanese charms but a superb 

 version of one of the holiest of Buddhist texts, the Diamond Sutra, 

 though there is reason to believe that a copy of the Kuan Yin Sutra 

 in the British Museum may be even earlier, of 8th century date 



(pl. 4). 



The T'ang dynasty came to its end within a hundred years of the 

 printing of the Diamond Sutra, and it is not my purpose to attempt to 

 carry my sketch of the contacts of West and East beyond the years of 

 that dynasty. A kindly critic has suggested that I should conclude 

 with a summary. This seems unnecessary, for I have done little 

 more than touch on each of the subjects that I have put before you. 

 I may, however, express the opinion that early contacts between 

 Europe and the Far East will, as knowledge advances, prove to have 

 been far more numerous than has hitherto been generally accepted. 



H Carter op. cit., p. 36. 



