Seongnidaejeonseo jeoryo, or “The Essentials of the Great Compendium on Human Nature and Principles” is a summarized version of Seongnidaejeon, or the Great Compendium on Human Nature and Principles. The set of books was edited by Kim Jeong-guk, a civil official in the mid-Joseon Dynasty, using the Geumseong wooden typface kept in a local government office in Naju, and supplementing some missing characters, and 400 sets of copies were published. The epilogue of the books mentions that Kim Jeong-guk, the editor, published in collaboration with Kim Heo-baek, a secretary, the books in the autumn of the 33rd year of King Jungjong’s reign (1538) shortly after he had been appointed as the governor of the Honam province in the previous summer. The typeface used in the books is basically the one kept by the local government of Naju, but some missing characters were newly carved. The set consists of four books (four volumes); the preface os in the opening page of Volume 1, and the epilogue at the end of Volume 4. In Volume 1, a page of seals and notes appears next to the eopilog, followed by the text that begins with Taegeukdo chongnon (“Introduction to the Diagram of Great Ultimate”). The first page of each volume is bordered with black lines single in some volumes and double in some others. A page contains 10 columns of 19 characters. In old Korean books, a leaf is made of a long sheet of paper folded half, so two pages are printed on the same side, not on the opposite sides, of the paper. In these books, there is a thick black vertical line (daeheukgu) along the upper and lower parts of the folded edge; the middle part is printed with the title of the book and the page numbers, over and below which black brackets (heuk eomi, literally, “black fish tails”) decorate the title words. The seals in the shapes of a brass chafing dish (sinseollo) and a bell stamped on the beginning page of each book indicate the books must have been possessed by a celebrity of that time. The epilogue at the end of Volume 4 ends with a note that the set of books were published in the 33rd year of King Jungjong’s reign (1538). The books are in good condition with original covers in place and the inner pages have not been severely damaged by moths. Volume 1 is made up of 64 leaves (i.e.128 pages); Volume 2, with 56 leaves; Volume 3, with 62; and Volume 4, with 67.

(출처 : 문화재청 홈페이지)