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Miriam Kramer

Summer of Strange: A Small World

Flowers of the Four Seasons is a Japanese-printed book measuring .75 by .75 mm, currently holding the Guinness World Record for smallest book. Somehow Toppan Printing still managed to fit 22 pages into it, along with miniature illustrations of flowers from each of the four seasons. The names of the flowers are also present, written in Japanes, Chinese, and Roman characters, though you would need a microscope to read the tiny text.

This is truly a unique work of art, but you may be surprised to find there is a whole world of miniature collectible books. Previously, The Chameleon by Anton Chekhov held the Guinness World Record at .9 by .9 mm. Before that, Old King Cole was at the top of the list with 1 mm in both height and width, and it is still the smallest book in the Library of Congress.

According to my research, there are over 900 of these tiny books, but due to the difficulty of their production, only so many copies are made of each. So it would be pretty incredible to get your hands on one of them. But what I find more incredible is that they haven't all been lost!

 

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