Image Comparison between Original and Duplicated Books on Goryeo History (高麗史) from 15th and 16th Centuries in Joseon Dynasty of Korea: Metal Type Prints vs. Re-engraved Woodblock Prints |
Woo Sik Yoo1,2, Choon Dong Yoo3 |
1WaferMasters, Inc., Dublin, CA 94568, U.S.A. 2Institute of Humanities Studies, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea 3Department of Korean Language and Literature, College of Humanities, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, 24341, Korea |
Correspondence:
Woo Sik Yoo, Tel: +1-650-796-8396, Email: woosik.yoo@wafermasters.com |
Received: 9 November 2024 • Revised: 20 December 2024 • Accepted: 20 December 2024 |
ABSTRACT |
In 1482, during the Joseon dynasty (조선, 朝鮮, 1392-1910), volumes of books on the history of the previous Goryeo dynasty (고려, 高麗, 918-1392) were written and printed with metal type. The similarities and differences between these books on the Goryeo history (고려사, 高麗史), printed with metal type in the 15th century and the identical book printed using re-engraved woodblocks in the 16th century were compared. The printed pages had the same width in both the metal printed books and woodblock books, but differences in page height were observed: the original metal printed books from the 15th century had larger heights than the woodblock printed books from the 16th century. Using image comparison and analysis between various versions of works of Goryeo history, we investigated the correlations between the directional shrinkage of the wood as a potential root cause of the size difference in only one direction between the metal type and the re-engraved woodblock-printed versions. It was confirmed that the comparison of the size and directions of the printed areas is a very effective method of determining the printing method and the sequence of changes in very similar versions of old Korean books. |
Key Words:
Image analysis, The book of Goryeo history (高麗史), Wood shrinkage, Metal type print, Woodblock print, Printing method identification |
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