Manuscript Collections

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Manuscript collections are curated assemblages of handwritten documents, including letters, diaries, and literary works, preserved for research and historical study. These collections are often housed in archives or libraries and serve as primary sources for scholars investigating specific individuals, events, or cultural phenomena.

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Key research themes

1. How are manuscript collections preserved and digitized to protect cultural heritage?

This research theme examines the challenges and methodologies involved in the preservation and digitization of manuscript collections. Preserving manuscripts is vital to safeguarding cultural identity, historical knowledge, and religious heritage. This area of study addresses physical conservation techniques, the impact of environmental and human factors on manuscripts, and the implementation of digital strategies to ensure longer-term accessibility. Given the fragility and rarity of many manuscripts, especially in developing or resource-constrained regions, exploring practical and technical solutions is critical for sustaining these collections for future scholarship and public engagement.

Documentation and Preservation of Rare Manuscript Collections Documentation and Preservation of Rare Manuscript Collections in Bomdila and Tawang Monasteries of Arunachal Pradesh: A in Bomdila and Tawang Monasteries of Arunachal Pradesh: A Study

by Nandita Barman

2021, Library Philosophy and Practice

Key finding: The study quantitatively assessed over 5,000 brittle manuscripts at Tawang Monastery and additional rare manuscripts at Bomdila Monastery, revealing critical levels of physical deterioration due to climatic conditions, lack... Read more

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Manuscript Collection in the Punjab University Library

by Dr Muzammil Tahira

2022, A Treatise on Library and …

Key finding: This study documented the management of over 22,000 manuscripts spanning multiple languages in the Punjab University Library, Pakistan, emphasizing current conservation practices and the nascent digitization initiatives. It... Read more

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"Stuff Happens": A Brief Overview of the 2003 Destruction of Iraqi Manuscript Collections, Archives, and Libraries

by Nabil Al-Tikriti

2012, Library Trends

Key finding: This analysis provides a post-conflict assessment of the destruction and looting of Iraqi manuscript collections during and after the 2003 invasion, attributing primary responsibility to occupying forces’ neglect of legal... Read more

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2. What methodologies and frameworks are used to analyze and classify manuscript collections across cultures?

This theme explores systematic approaches to describing, cataloguing, and typologizing manuscript collections. It addresses how scholars develop universal or culture-specific typologies to describe ownership, content, usage, physical location, and historical development of manuscript repositories. Methodological rigor in cataloguing enhances comparative research, supports provenance studies, and clarifies relationships between collections and their sociocultural contexts. The development of standard questionnaires and typological models facilitates cross-cultural and interdisciplinary scholarship, allowing more nuanced understanding of manuscript heritage dynamics.

Questionnaire for the Study of Manuscript Collections (Towards a Typology of Manuscript Collections)

by Max Jakob Fölster

2015, CSMC - Occasional Paper No. 4

Key finding: Presented a comprehensive questionnaire designed to standardize the description and comparison of manuscript collections across diverse cultures. It systematically addresses aspects such as content, locality, physical... Read more

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Butyrate and Glucose Metabolism in Isolated Colonocytes in the Developing Rat Colon

by Balakrishnan S Ramakrishna

2015, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology &amp Nutrition

Key finding: Expands upon the development and application of the aforementioned questionnaire, emphasizing its role in achieving a typology based on 'thick' descriptions of collections from a wide variety of manuscript cultures. The paper... Read more

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Some thoughts on the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts

by Jos Biemans

2021, Quaerendo

Key finding: Offers critical reflection on the principles and practices of cataloguing medieval manuscripts with focus on the evolution from traditional linear catalogues to dynamic web-based catalogues (databases). The author discusses... Read more

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3. How do context and provenance studies inform our understanding of manuscript collections in situ and historiographically?

This theme encompasses research focusing on in situ studies of manuscript collections, emphasizing codicological, palaeographical, and provenance analysis to reconstruct historical contexts and cultural transmission. It includes ethnographic fieldwork documenting local manuscript cultures, tracing manuscript production, acquisition histories, and relationships between collections and their communities. These approaches enable deeper understanding of manuscript functions, scribal practices, and the socio-religious frameworks shaping the formation and use of collections, particularly in non-Western and historically marginalized settings. The integration of scientific analysis, such as ink and parchment studies, further refines knowledge of materials and regional connections.

Denis Nosnitsin "Deconstructing a manuscript collection: the case of Araʿro Täklä Haymanot (Gulo Mäḵäda, East Tǝgray)""

by Denis Nosnitsin

2019, A. Bausi, A. Gori, D. Nosnitsin, E. Sokolinski, eds, Essays in Ethiopian Manuscript Studies. Proceedings of the International Conference Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts..., Supplement to Aethiopica, 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015), 23–58.

Key finding: Utilized extensive field research to perform a synthetic analysis of the Araʿro Täklä Haymanot ecclesiastical manuscript collection through detailed codicological and palaeographical evidence. The study reconstructed the... Read more

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Denis Nosnitsin - Emanuel Kindzorra - Oliver Hahn - Ira Rabin "A 'Study Manuscript' from Qäqäma (Tegray, Ethiopia): Attempts at Ink and Parchment Analysis"

by Denis Nosnitsin

2019, "A 'Study Manuscript' from Qäqäma (Tegray, Ethiopia): Attempts at Ink and Parchment Analysis", Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Newsletter No. 7, January 2014, 28-31

Key finding: Combined codicological survey with advanced scientific techniques including UV-VIS-NIR microscopy, Raman, and XRF spectroscopy to analyze inks and parchment of a seventeenth to eighteenth-century Ethiopian 'study manuscript.'... Read more

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Denis Nosnitsin "Churches and Monasteries of Tegray. A Survey of Manuscript Collections"

by Denis Nosnitsin

2019, Churches and Monasteries of Tegray. A Survey of Manuscript Collections, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2013 (Aethiopica Supplement 1)

Key finding: Presents comprehensive survey results of 84 ecclesiastic sites and their manuscript collections in the Tegray region, facilitated by ethnographic fieldwork, local documentation, and initial analysis of recorded manuscripts.... Read more

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All papers in Manuscript Collections

Denis Nosnitsin "Churches and Monasteries of Tegray. A Survey of Manuscript Collections"

by Denis Nosnitsin

2013, Churches and Monasteries of Tegray. A Survey of Manuscript Collections, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2013 (Aethiopica Supplement 1)

Ethiopia is the home to an ancient Christian tradition that started with the introduction of Christianity in the 4th century AD. Today, many hundreds Ethiopian churches and monasteries still preserve numerous manuscripts, witnesses of the... more

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Denis Nosnitsin "Deconstructing a manuscript collection: the case of Araʿro Täklä Haymanot (Gulo Mäḵäda, East Tǝgray)""

by Denis Nosnitsin

2015, A. Bausi, A. Gori, D. Nosnitsin, E. Sokolinski, eds, Essays in Ethiopian Manuscript Studies. Proceedings of the International Conference Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts..., Supplement to Aethiopica, 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015), 23–58.

One of the main features of the project Ethio-SPaRe 1 was its intensive field research programme dedicateci to the exploration of the various manuscript collections in situ. 2 The methodological crux was how to best describe and analyse... more

Fig. 28 ATH-009, f. 169r. Fig. 27 ATH-009, f. 3r.

Fig. 1 Ara‘ro Takli Haymanot new and old churches, view from afar. This anc other images © Ethio-SPaRe.

Fig. 2. Ara°ro Takla Haymanot new and old churches under the cliff.

Fig. 3, Ara‘ro Mika’el, view of the church.

Fig. 13, ATH-002, f. 43va Fig. 12 ATH-002, f. 4rb.

Fig. 14 Gadla Takla Haymanot, $a°ada Umba Mar‘awi Krastos (beginning of the Vita).

Fig. 15, Gadla Takla Haymanot, Sa°ada Amba Mar‘awi Krastos (colophon of the work, genealogy of the Saint).

Fig. 19 ATH-008, f. 109v. Fig. 18 ATH-008, f. 33v.

Fig. 20 SM-015, f. 18r. Fig. 21 SM-015, f. 40v (additional note near the image of Mark the Evangelist).

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Denis Nosnitsin - Emanuel Kindzorra - Oliver Hahn - Ira Rabin "A 'Study Manuscript' from Qäqäma (Tegray, Ethiopia): Attempts at Ink and Parchment Analysis"

by Denis Nosnitsin

2014, "A 'Study Manuscript' from Qäqäma (Tegray, Ethiopia): Attempts at Ink and Parchment Analysis", Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Newsletter No. 7, January 2014, 28-31

Fig. 1. QDGM-010. Explicit of the "First Epistle of Paul to Timothy" (f. 160va), and incipit of the "Seconc Epistle of Paul to Timothy" (f. 160vb). this type are not common in small rural libraries of The library of the remote monastery of Qaqama Maryam Kidana Mehrat in Dag’a Tamben (Tagray, North Ethiopia) was investigated by the team of the project Ethio-SPaRe in June and November 2012. A preliminary study of the library showed that the collection was extended and profoundly renovated in the nineteenth century, in the course of the revival the monastery had during the reign of King Yohannes IV (1872-89). The shaping of the collection was apparently linked to the figure of the powerful abbot, Gabra Giyorgis, who donated dozens of books of diverse provenance, which he himself gathered or received as gifts.! As the result, the extensive library contains a huge amount of information, but its heterogeneity poses a very serious challenge to the researcher.

Fig. 2. Micrographs (of f. 44r, intercolumn, section number 26[1]) taken at x50 magnifica- tion and different wavelengths: (a) UV (395 nm, top), (b) VIS (middle), (c) NIR (930 nm, bottom).

Fig. 3b. Raman spectrum (Renishaw in Via spectrometer) of the red spot shown in the inlet (red curve) compared to a reference spectrum of cinnabar (green curve). The excitation wavelength is 785 nm. Blue line crossing the red spot in the inlet corresponds to the XRF line scan shown in fig. a.

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"Stuff Happens": A Brief Overview of the 2003 Destruction of Iraqi Manuscript Collections, Archives, and Libraries

by Nabil Al-Tikriti

2007, Library Trends

On March 20, 2003, military forces of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia invaded Iraq. In the course of this invasion and subsequent occupation, Iraq's cultural infrastructure suffered a great deal of destruction. While... more

Table 1. The State of Iraq Manuscript Collections and Archives

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Emma Abate, Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, and Delio Vania Proverbio, “Giovanni Giorgi and Andrea Molza scriptores. Due volti dell'Orientalistica romana,” in La Biblioteca Vaticana dall'occupazione francese all'ultimo Papa re (1797-1878) (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2020), 263-290

by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger and

2019

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Дамдинсүрэнгийн гэр музейн монгол ном судрын бүртгэл

by Natalia Yampolskaya and

2018

The catalogue describes the collection of Mongolian manuscripts and block-prints preserved at the memorial apartment of academician Tsendiin Damdinsuren in Ulaanbaatar. This is the second, revised and extended edition of the catalogue... more

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