M.J. Rose

The oldest book in the world…and it comes with such an incredible, mystery-infused discovery story. Enjoy!

From The Huffington Post,

Buddhism’s Diamond Sutra: The Extraordinary Discovery Of The World’s Oldest Book

By Joyce Morgan

“Ask people to name the world’s oldest printed book and the common reply is Gutenberg’s Bible. Few venture that the answer is a revered Buddhist text called the Diamond Sutra, printed in 868 A.D. Or that by the time Gutenberg got ink on his fingers nearly 600 years later — and his revolutionary technology helped usher in the Enlightenment — this copy of the Diamond Sutra had been hidden for several centuries in a sacred cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert and would remain there for several more.

Its discovery is the result of a series of accidents and its significance realized belatedly. The book unwittingly came to light when a Chinese monk clearing sand from a Buddhist meditation cave in 1900 noticed a crack in a wall. It suggested the outline of a doorway. Plastered over and painted, the entrance had been deliberately concealed.

The monk, Abbot Wang Yuanlu, broke in and discovered a small chamber, about nine feet square and full from floor to ceiling with scrolls. They had been hidden and perfectly preserved in the dark, dry grotto for 1,000 years. Although he didn’t know it, among the nearly 60,000 scrolls was the Diamond Sutra of 868 A.D., a woodblock printed scroll, more than 16 feet long, complete and dated, with an instruction that it be given away for free.

Ironically, this enduring scroll, with its illustrated frontispiece depicting the Buddha teaching his disciples, is about impermanence. The Diamond Sutra, for centuries a revered and popular scripture, distills Buddhism’s central belief: that all is change…”

For the rest, click here.

When artists are supported, there’s more art for everyone to enjoy.

Artsy Editorial via Artsy.net,

What We Can Learn from the Brief Period When the Government Employed Artists

By Tess Thackara

“Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko are best-known as pioneers of Abstract Expressionism. But all four were also among thousands of artists and other creatives employed by the government through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between the years of 1935 and 1943. That the arts would be funded significantly by the federal government—never mind that it would actively employ artists—may well raise an eyebrow today. But working under a subdivision of the WPA known as the Federal Art Project, these artists got to work to help the country recover from the Great Depression, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Evidence of impoverishment and a portfolio showcasing one’s skills and commitment to the arts were all that was needed to qualify for the WPA initiative. This and the Federal Art Project’s non-discrimination clause meant that it attracted, and hired, not just white men but also artists of color and women who received little attention in the mainstream art world of the day. These artists created posters, murals, paintings, and sculptures to adorn public buildings.

Hospitals, post offices, schools, and airports were decorated with some of the roughly 200,000 artworks created through the program. Yet no accompanying agency was established to preserve the works. So following the dissolution of the WPA in the lead-up to World War II, many were destroyed, sold as scrap, or hastily auctioned off with little record—save a small portion that were discovered at a Long Island salvage dealer, bought by a Lower West Side curio shop owner, and repurchased by their artists for three to five dollars a pop, as Christopher DeNoon notes in the book Posters of the WPA…”

For the rest and an incredible gallery of images, click here.

Happy Tuesday, Museum goers. Enjoy this irresistible list of mysterious books — all of which you will be curious about…

From Ranker,

12 Mysterious Books Throughout History No One Can Explain
by Juliet Bennett Rylah

“There are certain books that aren’t exactly listed in great detail on Amazon. These weird and mysterious works often have unknown authors and describe forgotten histories or strange and fantastical worlds. There are some books that are so mysterious that no one has ever been able to read them, as they are written in cryptic codes that have yet to be cracked. Some contain odd pictures depicting battles or the origin of the earth, or flora and fauna that we’ve never seen in the world we know.

While some argue that these works are hoaxes intentionally left behind to befuddle us, others insist that these books hold ancient truths. Read on to find out what’s in the Vatican’s secret archives and meet a Chicago area janitor who spent years writing and illustrating an epic saga about a child slave rebellion in the secrecy of his own home…”

For the rest, click here.