The earliest known book curse can be traced to Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria from 668 to 627 BCE, who had the following curse written on many or all of the tablets collected at the library aered to be the earliest example of a systematically collected library: " I have transcribed upon tablets the noble prot Ninevah, considducts of the work of the scribe which none of the kings who have gone before me had learned, together with the wisdom of Nabu insofar as it existeth [in writing]. I have arranged them in classes, I have revised them and I have placed them in my palace, that I, even I, the ruler who knoweth the light of Ashur, the king of the gods, may read them. Whosoever shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name on it, side by side with mine own, may Ashur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land " info wiki ,, photographer Michael Roedel