圖書館找出4毫米大小書籍的身世

在美國愛荷華大學圖書館特藏部門的眾多袖珍書中，多年來有1本差不多瓢蟲大小的書(0.138英寸寬和高，0.04英寸厚)，館員們一直對它的內容感到好奇。

圖片來源：The University of Iowa Libraries

直到最近才在顯微鏡下看出這本書的內容，發現它包含了聖經創世紀第一章的摘錄。此外也得知這本書是1965年出版，當時還以世界最小書籍來行銷販售。

圖片來源：The University of Iowa Libraries

看得出是東京出版的

圖片來源：The University of Iowa Libraries

再仔細追查發現，它原是隨著另一本比它稍微大一點點的袖珍書(聖經)一起銷售的，而這二本書之前一直被圖書館分開來存放，這次終於可以團圓了。

圖片來源：The University of Iowa Libraries

底下是當年在紐約世界博覽會中販售的包裝

圖片來源：The University of Iowa Libraries

下面是一段報導的影片

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwlikNRUj7Q

看到這裡比較令我好奇的是，這本長寬各4毫米的書是不是世界最小的書呢? 答案是否定的，根據金氏世界紀錄記載，世界最小的印刷書是下面這一本^[3]，與愛荷華大學圖書館這本都是來自日本同一個印刷公司：

The smallest printed book measures 0.74 x 0.75 mm (0.0291 x 0.0295 in) and is entitled “Flowers of the four seasons". 250 copies of it were printed by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd Printing Museum (Japan) in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, from April to December 2012 .

There are 22 pages in the book. It contains pictures of the flowers of the four seasons, their names in Japanese hiragana, katakana and English transliteration, as well as names of the seasons in Chinese characters and in English. The book is sold as a set together with an enlarged version of it and a magnifying glass. 149 copies of the book are sold as of 11 June 2013.

延伸閱讀：
1. The University of Iowa Libraries － Identifying our 4mm Miniature Book
2. KWWL － UI 4 millimeter book found to contain Bible scriptures
3. Guinness World Records － SMALLEST PRINTED BOOK