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Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Culturesin Asia and Africa

e “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” (EMCAA) is an ambitious projectaiming to fill a long existing gap in manuscript studies. Dealing comprehensively with the diversity ofmanuscript cultures in Asia and Africa, it will not only describe the state of research in the relevantfields but establish for the first time a reliable foundation for systematic, historical and comparative

research in manuscript studies.


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EMCAA Background

Manuscripts – books written by hand – have been one of the most influential manifestations of writing. For thou-sands of years, manuscripts have had a fundamental influence on many cultures. In the extensive period between theadoption of writing and the invention of mechanical and digital techniques of reproduction – in some cases spanning

several millennia – manuscripts were the most important means of transmitting knowledge in a written form. Suchwidespread and long-term use gave rise to a great variety of developments regarding the production, function andreception of manuscripts in their respective social and cultural environments, thus resulting in distinct manuscriptcultures. In both Asia and Africa, manuscript cultures have furthermore played a significant role in the transmissionof knowledge up to the recent past, and some are still alive even today. In order to properly understand Asian andAfrican societies and their histories, it is crucial that the impact of manuscript cultures is taken into account.

In the West, scholarly interest in manuscripts has increased significantly over the last decades. is was certainly in-fluenced by the rise of electronic media, which has stimulated historical and systematic inquiry in both the humanitiesand cultural studies. At the same time, manuscripts were rediscovered in Asia and Africa as part of cultural heritage,and vast quantities of extant manuscripts (conservatively estimated at approximately 10 million) have begun to be

catalogued and made accessible. However, for some manuscript cultures there has not even been an introductorysurvey so far. A work which fills this gap and serves as a foundation for further research is still a desideratum.

EMCAA Aims

With the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”, an historic and systematic overview will be pre-sented for the first time. It allows for both a comparison with Western European book culture and the introduction ofAsian and African manuscript cultures to current discussions in the fields of media, art and literary studies. However,this encyclopaedia is not conceived as a mere summary of existing research, but will in many respects provide a yetnon-existing foundation for exactly this type of research. It will serve as a handbook for students of manuscript studiesand as a reference tool for experts, who want to broaden their view by comparison with other manuscript cultures. egreat variety of manuscript cultures examined will ensure that questionable approaches, e.g. deducing universal lawsfrom European developments, or taking dichotomies such as East vs. West as a starting point, will be put to the test.

e Chief and Area Editors were able to engage renowned scholars to act as Sub-Editors for their respective region ofexpertise, find experts for each lemma and ensure currentness of the contributions. e Advisory Board consists of

eminent scholars mainly from European manuscript studies whose expertise will largely benefit the “Encyclopaediaof Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”.

Furthermore, the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” will raise awareness of Asian and Af-rican manuscripts as cultural heritage. In some regions, colonial administrations and modernist governments hadconsidered manuscripts and the specific culture they represent as archaic and outdated leading to loss and neglect.Knowledge about the significance of manuscripts and their cultural value will enhance the preservation and study ofthis unique type of artifacts.

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EMCAA Content

Volume I: Introduction. Histories of Manuscript Culturese first volume of the encyclopaedia introduces the subject and methodological considerations (definitions, etc.) aswell as the layout of the work. It also contains an outline of the histories of manuscript cultures and provides a sum-

mary of the state of research for each major manuscript culture, including current, local discussions. ese macro-articles are accessible to non-specialists and include suggestions for further reading in Western languages.

Volume II: Manuscript Cultures in Comparisone second volume comprises articles on the systematic categories of “production”, “usage and function” and “reflexion”,e.g. “writing support”, “writing substance”, “textual” and “non-textual functions”, “textual scholarship” and “knowledge”,with sections on each manuscript culture. e contributions are written by specialists for the respective manuscript cul-ture to avoid any over-simplification or neglect of culture-specific characteristics. References to entries are included inVolume III.

Volume III: Dictionary of Manuscript Cultures

e entries in the third volume provide short definitions of key terms and specialist information, but also include im-portant persons, manuscripts and libraries for each manuscript culture. Cross-references to vols. I and II are integrated.

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Chief Imam of Borno translating a biography of the Prophet Muhammad (Kitāb-al-Shifāʿ com-posed in the 12th century by Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ) into Old Kanembu. Maiduguri, Nigeria.© Dmitry Bondarev, 2005.


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EMCAA Content

Lemmata for Volume II of the Encyclopaedia (sample selection)

Category Sub-sections Lemmata

Preparation

Writing supportPapyrus, Parchment,Paper, Tree bark, Palmleaf,Bamboo

Book formats Codex, Scroll, Quires

Writing substance Ink, Pigments, Blood

InstrumentsBrush, Calamus, Ruler,Penbox

ProducersScribe, Copyist, Illuminator,Painter

Production

Writing processCopying techniques, Marks,Script styles

Layout Divisions, Frame, Justification

Embellishment Illumination, Painting

BindingPage ordering systems,Catchwords

Finalizing

Usage and function

Textual functionsReading process(reading aloud/silent)

Non-textual functionsSymbolic uses (ritual),Calligraphy

DistributionTransmission, Book-trade,Borrowing

Storage Library, Collection, Catalogue

Destruction, Recycling, Disposal Geniza-like practices

Reflexion

Textual scholarshipPalaeography, Codicology,Philology

KnowledgeCanonization, Teaching,Commentaries

e above list shows the general layout of volume II of the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”,from the main categories on the le to the sub-sections and, finally, the individual lemmata on the right. As there aremany more topics to be dealt with and not each of them is equally relevant for every manuscript culture, the lemmataincluded in the above list are a sample selection for the purpose of illustration only.

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Overview

e Tibetan writing system is a syllabic alphabet, cre-ated or standardized in the first half of the seventhcentury based on the Indic Brahmi scripts of that pe-riod. e alphabet contains thirty consonants, each ofwhich contains the inherent vowel -a. Vowel modi-fiers for the sounds -i, -u, -e and -o are written aboveor below the consonants. In addition, letters may be

‘stacked vertically, and there are special forms forsome letters in these stacks. e basic unit is the sylla-ble, and syllables are separated with a small dot calledtsheg . Larger semantic units are separated with a verti-cal stroke called shad . Tibetan is written horizontallyfrom le to right.

e Tibetan tradition distinguishes two basictypes of Tibetan script, the ‘headed (dbu can) and the‘headless (dbu med ). e first script is characterizedby short horizontal lines (the ‘heads) along the topsof many letters, similar to the serifs of the Latin script,

while the second script dispenses with these lines.ere are numerous different styles within the head-less script, including a simple style for teaching chil-dren, ornamental styles for offi cial edicts, and a highlycursive style for handwriting.

Origins and early development

Tibet's historical traditions are almost unanimous inattributing the invention of the Tibetan script to a fig-ure known as Tönmi Sambhota. It is diffi cult, if notimpossible, to determine whether such a person ex-isted – let alone whether he really did invent a script.Nevertheless, it is quite clear that Tibetan writing aswe know it appeared alongside other cultural innova-

tions during the first rapid expansion of the TibetanEmpire in the first half of the seventh century. Ana-logues for most Tibetan letters can be found in theNorth Indian Brahmi scripts known as “Late Gupta”which flourished from the fih to seventh centuries.Tibetan letters for sounds not found in Indian lan-guages were generally created by altering existingforms. (omas 1951; van Schaik 2011a.)

e earliest sources of Tibetan writing available tous are inscriptions carved on stone pillars and rocks(as well as a few cast in metal) dating from the mid-

eighth to mid-ninth centuries. As with other epi-graphic scripts, the writing style of the Tibetan rockinscriptions tends to prefer straight lines, and doesnot extend lines any further than necessary. In a simi-lar fashion to Roman Capitals, the letters are evenlyproportioned so that most would fit within the shape

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EMCAA Model Article I

Writing Systems: Tibet

Sam van Schaik, e British Library

Dunhuang manuscriptof a commentary on theUpāyapāśa-tantra fromthe 10th century writ-ten in ‘headless script,IOL Tib J 321.© e British Library


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of a square (though the need to vertically stack Tibet-an letters requires a more flexible model).

Manuscripts from the same period show the grad-ual development of this square form. While certain of-ficial manuscripts emulate it, many show an increasedcursivity, with a reduction in strokes and a curvatureof sharp angles. e development of the headlessscript from the headed script is clearly seen in thesemanuscripts as a process of cursivization (GendunChophel 1983; van Schaik 2011c). In this early pe-riod there is a clear correspondence between writingstyles and genres of manuscript. For example, differ-ent styles can be identified for offi cial documents,

Buddhist scriptures, and the personal manuscripts ofBuddhist monks. Aer the fall of the Tibetan empirein the mid-ninth century, these styles were no longertaught, and a number of different calligraphic stylesappeared. (van Schaik 2011b.)

Some form of ornamentation is seen in the earli-est Tibetan manuscripts. e ‘head letter (mgo yig )is a curl which is used to denote the beginning of therecto of a pothi folio in Buddhist / literary texts. It isderived from the Indian manuscript tradition. Otherearly forms of ornamentation include Buddhist sym-

bols such as the lotus flower, wheel and vajra. In themanuscript tradition (as opposed to the later printedbook tradition), ornamental forms of the shad , andsmall designs composed of circles are sometimes usedto mark divisions in the text. (Scherrer-Schaub andBonami 2002.)

Traditional categories

e Tibetan historical tradition records that the

writing system was revised and standardized severaltimes. e most important of these revisions occurredin the year 812/3 and is recorded in an imperial edict.ough this reform, and later ones, were mainlyaimed at translation vocabulary, they also seem tohave affected orthography, with a number of archaicfeatures in the script gradually disappearing from theearly ninth century onward. ese include the ‘strong

da (da drag ) and ‘supporting a (a rten). (Ribur Nga-wang Gyatso 1984; Scherrer-Schaub 2002.)

Tibetan literature includes classifications and de-scriptions of different styles of writing (e.g. Bkras lhundgon 2003). ese styles are mainly classified as sub-divisions of the headless script. Such styles include theDrutsa ('bru tsha) the Book Form (dpe tshugs), whichare mainly found in Buddhist / literary manuscripts,and the Running Script (’khyug yig ), which is a highlycursive style mainly used in letters and notes.

A number of variations on the Running Script arerecognized, including the Long Form (tshugs ring ), theShort Form (tshugs thung ) and the Small Form (tshugs

chung ). In the modern period, the headed script cameto be used primarily in printed books, with the head-less script being used in manuscripts. However, this isless true outside of Central Tibet. In Bhutan and Ti-betan cultural areas to the East and West, the headedscript continued to be used in manuscripts.

Modern palaeographical studies

e palaeographical study of Tibetan writing is still

in its infancy. A periodization developed by CristinaScherrer-Schaub and Georges Bonami using bothcodicology and palaeographical analysis, dividesTibetan writing styles into three phases: 950–1250,1250–1430, and 1430 onwards (though the dates areonly approximate). e authors used radiocarbondating on a sample of manuscripts to confirm theirhypothesis (Scherrer-Schaub and Bonami 2002).A study of the imperial Tibetan epigraphic writing(which influenced manuscript styles) has been pub-lished by Helga Uebach (2010). Studies by Sam van

Schaik based on the manuscripts from the Dunhuangcave have identified a number of different writingstyles in use during the Tibetan imperial period (sev-enth to mid-ninth century) and argued that a para-digm shi in Tibetan writing followed the end of theempire (van Schaik 2011a,b,c).


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Select Bibliography

Bkras lhun dgon. 2003. Yig rigs gsum ldan gyi gzungs sn- gags. Lanzhou: Kan su'i mi rigs gyi dpe skrun khang.

Gendun Chophel. 1983. “e Evolution of U'med from

U'chen Script.” Tibet Journal 8.1: 56–57.

Ribur Ngawang Gyatso. 1984. “A Short History of Tibetan

Script.” Tibet Journal 9.2: 28–30.

Scherrer-Schaub, C.A. 2002. “Enacting Words: A Diplo-

matic Analysis of the Imperial Decrees (bkas bcad) and

eir Application in the sGra sbyor bam po gnyis pa Tra-dition.” Journal of the International Association of Bud-

dhist Studies 25.1–2: 263–340.

Scherrer-Schaub, C.A. and G. Bonani. 2002. “Establishing

a typology of the old Tibetan manuscripts: a multidisci-

plinary approach.” In Susan Whitfield (ed.), Dunhuang

Manuscript Forgeries. London: e British Library. 184–

215.

omas, Frederick William. 1951. “e Tibetan Alpha-

bet.” In Festschri zur Feier des 200jährigen Bestehens der Akademie der Wissenschaen in Göttingen (II Philologis-

che-historische Klasse), Göttingen. 146–165.

Uebach, Helga. 2010. “Notes on the Palaeography of OldTibetan Inscriptions: Zhol and bSam yas.” In Anne Chay-

et et al (eds.), Edition, éditions: l’écrit au Tibet, évolution et

devenir . München: Indus Verlag. 411–428.

van Schaik, Sam. 2011a. “A New Look at the Invention of

the Tibetan Script.” In Yoshiro Imaeda, Matthew Kapstein

and Tsuguhito Takeuchi (eds.), Old Tibetan Documents

Monograph Series, vol. III . Tokyo: Tokyo University of

Foreign Studies. 45–96.

van Schaik, Sam. 2011b. “Towards a Tibetan Paleogra-phy: A Preliminary Typology of Writing Styles in Early

Tibet.” In Jan-Ulrich Sobisch, Jörg Quenzer and Dmitry

Bondarev (eds.), Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field .

Berlin: de Gruyter.

van Schaik, Sam. 2011c. “e Origin of the Headless Style

(dbu med) in Tibet.” In Nathan Hill (ed.), Tibeto-Burman

Linguistics. Leiden: Brill.


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EMCAA Model Article II

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e most common book form in the world of Arabic,Persian and Turkish manuscripts is without doubt thebound codex consisting of several quires. e writingwas usually at right angles to the spine. Manuscriptsproduced in the Maghrib sometimes consisted of un-bound loose leaves or quires, while those from sub-Saharan Africa were predominantly characterised byloose unconnected leaves (Déroche 2006: 88f.). Booksfrom the Indian subcontinent were sometimes com-

posed of a single quire of huge amounts of folios or bi-folia (ibid.: 69, where a ‘monobible with 280 bifolia in asingle gathering is mentioned).

e scroll was used for specific purposes such as di-plomas or calligraphic copies of the Qur’an.

Another special form was the accordion-fold book(Ar. muraqqaʿ ‘patched), composed of pieces of card-board held together by cloth hinges. From c. 1500 on-wards, such books were used in Turkey, Iran and In-dia for collections of calligraphy samples or miniaturepaintings.

e size of a book has natural limits based on themaximum size of the writing support, a fact that isparticularly evident for parchment manuscripts. etechniques employed for manufacturing paper wereanother reason for limitations. Other factors determin-

ing size include the need of being impressive, portabili-ty, and, in the case of small books, the legibility of script(if considered necessary). e importance of these fac-tors varied according to the content of the manuscript,the total amount of text to be copied, the purpose of theindividual copy, the time and the region.

On the whole, the standard size of Arabic, Persianor Turkish Islamic manuscripts is not significantly dif-ferent from the common size of modern printed books.

However, from early times, the Qur’an, the startingpoint of the Islamic bookmaking tradition, was pro-duced not only in average-sized volumes, but also in volumes both extremely large and extremely small. Oneof the best-known examples of a large early Qur’an isthe oblong square in plano parchment codex from theʿAmr Mosque in Fusṭāṭ (Old Cairo), written in the 8th century, which measures 540 × 620 mm. It is possiblethat the pre-Islamic Egyptian tradition of producinglarge Bibles influenced the emergence of such impres-sive copies: the 5th-century Codex Alexandrinus meas-

ures 316 × 264 mm, and the Codex Sinaiticus is evenlarger, measuring approximately 400 × 350 mm. HugeQur’ans were created in all periods, but the Mamlūk era(1250–1517) witnessed a particular flourishing in theproduction of colossal manuscripts, not only in Egyptand Syria, but also elsewhere. e size of the so-calledBaysunqur Qur’an, probably commissioned by Timuraround the year 1400 and produced in Central Asia,exceeds all others: it is 177 cm tall and 101 cm wide(Déroche/Gladiss 1999: 38 and 42).

An extremely small, oblong-shaped copy of the

Qur’an on parchment (Paris, BN Arabe 399) has an esti-mated date not much later than the Qur’an of the ʿAmrMosque mentioned above (towards the end of the 9th century). e leaves measure as little as 42 × 73 mm.Pre-Islamic models also exist for such small Qur’ans,in the form of small-scale Bible copies in Greek andCoptic. Miniature Qur’ans continued to be producedinto the 20th century. As Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an

Book Format: Arabic, Persian and Turkish

Tilman Seidensticker, University of Jena

Monumental Qur’an, ascribed to Ḥusayn Ibn ʿAl, from Déroche2004: 28, ill. 4.


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is found in large-formatted volumes much more oenthan any other Islamic book, whether in Arabic, Per-

sian or Turkish. Although extremely large or small cop-ies of other texts are sometimes also found, such textsare usually in smaller formats, and do not show the di-mensional extremes of the Qur’an. A general tendencytowards larger leaves, even for non-religious texts, isdiscernible in the 13th and 14th centuries (Bloom 2001:52 and 184).

With regard to the material format , it is important tonote that in the Islamic world (just as in classical antiq-uity and the early Western medieval period) it was un-

usual to fold writing material to make quires; instead,“bifolia were cut to the desired dimension in advance,then gathered, usually in groups of four or five, andfolded in half” (Déroche 2006: 85). us, equivalentsof terms like folio, quarto or octavo (the result of one,two or three folds) are not commonly used to designatethe bibliographical or library formats of pre-modern pe-riods. Instead, descriptions of format are based on themanner in which the raw bifolia were cut (Arabic qaṭ ʿ ,cf. Gacek 2001: 117). ere is evidence that standard-ized bifolia sizes existed. e Arab bookseller and bibli-

ographer Ibn al-Nadīm, who lived in Baghdad towardsthe end of the 10th century, mentions Sulaymāniyya leaves (containing 20 lines per page) to define a stand-ard unit with regard to the number of words in a cer-tain text. “e Egyptian historian al-Qalqashandi (d.1418) enumerated nine sizes of paper, of which the twolargest were the standard, full-sized Baghdadi sheet,measuring one [...] cubit (approximately [...] 73 cen-timeters) high by one and a half cubits (approximately[...] 110 centimeters) wide, and the reduced Baghdadisheet ([...] 65 by 98 centimeters).” (Bloom 2001: 53)

e most common shape for Islamic books in Asia andNorth Africa was without doubt vertical. e domi-nance of this shape possibly dates from the beginningsof Islamic book production; in any case, more Qur’answritten in the Ḥ ijāzī script are vertical than oblong. Forreasons still unknown, from the middle of the 8th to the10th century, Qur’ans were almost exclusively oblong.

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Small octagonal Qur’an from Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Ms.orient. Octav 81, fol. 196a).

But aer this time, this shape seems to have gone outof fashion for Qur’ans, and although oblong copies of

other texts existed, even they are quite exceptional. Inthe Maghrib, square Qur’ans, as well as other texts ofreligious importance, are frequently found, althoughthe square shape is neither exclusively reserved for reli-gious books nor limited to that area.

A very special Qur’an shape, found in later periods,is the small octagonal, especially found in Persia andTurkey. Such Qur’ans were oen stored in octagonalboxes or caskets and were purportedly fixed to theshas of Muslim armies’ flags for apotropaic purposes;hence they are called Sanjaq (‘flag) Qur’ans. Another

special format is the slim oblong book, with the scriptusually running parallel, although sometimes diago-nally, to the spine. Such manuscripts are called Safīna (‘ship); it is a shape that seems to have been particularlywide-spread in Persia.

See also Gacek 2009, s.v. “Atlas books” (14); “Fold-ing of sheets” (104-5); “Paper” (especially “Appella-tions and sizes”, 191-3); on the accordion-fold albums“Muraḳḳ aʿ”, e Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., VII:602-3 (B. W. Robinson).


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Select Bibliography

Bloom, Jonathan M. 2001. Paper before print. e historyand impact of paper in the Islamic world. New Haven/Lon-

don: Yale University Press.

Déroche, François et al. 2006. Islamic codicology. An intro-

duction to the study of manuscripts in Arabic script. Lon-

don: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation.

Déroche, François, and Almut von Gladiss. 1999. Der

Prachtkoran im Museum für Islamische Kunst. Berlin: Mu-

seum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Gacek, Adam. 2001. e Arabic manuscript tradition. A glossary of technical terms and bibliography. Leiden/Bos-

ton/Köln: Brill.

Gacek, Adam. 2009. Arabic manuscripts. A vademecum

for readers. Leiden/Boston: Brill.


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Overview

e layout of medieval Chinese manuscripts can varyenormously according to their type, function, con-tent, time period, etc. Since the surviving materialranges from random notes with no apparent atten-tion to visual presentation to court-sanctioned copiesof Buddhist sutras and Daoist scriptures maintaininga highly consistent visual arrangement, it is perhaps

more useful to look at this latter group for describinglayout features. Although these regular texts consti-tute only part of the total number of manuscripts thatsurvived from the medieval period, they represent inmany ways a basic format emulated or approximated

by many other manuscripts. At the same time, it isimportant to note that this layout largely pertains tocopies of texts in the strict sense of the word, i.e. lit-erary, philosophical or religious compositions, ratherthan writings of an administrative nature (corre-spondence, contracts, etc.).

Physically, this basic type of manuscripts consistsof rectangular sheets of paper joined together intoa long continuous surface rolled up into a scroll.

is format is thought to have originated in Hanand earlier times when texts were written on slips ofbamboo and wood, which were tied together with athread and kept as a roll, albeit a much bulkier onethan the paper scroll used later. is was the juan

EMCAA Model Article III

Manuscript Layout: Medieval China

Imre Galambos, University of Cambridge

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Manuscript Or.8210/S.13, an undated copy of the Lotus sūtra. e illustration shows the end of the manuscript with the end titleindicating the number of the juan. e grid lines are also fairly visible, dividing the paper into evenly spaced lines (i.e. columns).© e British Library Or.8210/S.13.

(scroll, roll), originally a codicological unit that wasused in later times to signify a unit of text larger thana chapter ( pian), usually translated into English as‘volume’ or ‘fascicle’. For medieval manuscripts, thepaper sheets that were glued together were calledzhang (sheet), and there are examples where a colo-

phon at the end of a text records how many zhangwere used in the production of that particular copy.

In the regular layout of copies of canonical texts,each sheet contains 27 or 28 lines of text, with 17characters per line. ere are numerous exampleswhere the copyist realized that he had run out ofspace at the end of the line and crammed the lastfew characters together in order to fit them on thatline. But other than these impromptu efforts tomaintain the standard line length, characters areevenly spaced, more or less occupying a square of

equal size. Grid lines are drawn using thinner inkand a type of ruler to determine the boundaries ofthe text in advance. Generally speaking, there aretwo horizontal grid lines, one across the top and


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EMCAA Model Article III

the other across the bottom part of the paper, delin-eating the circa 2.5–3 cm top and bottom margins.

Oen vertical grid lines 1.8–1.9 cm apart are alsodrawn for each line, ensuring that the text is cop-ied in straight lines. At the same time, the charactersare not aligned horizontally, as it became custom-ary in epigraphic material, where characters werecommonly written in strict vertical and horizontalalignment. Gridlines are usually observed but thereare also contrary cases when the text runs onto themargin.

e text runs continuously with very few unfin-ished lines. While in most cases the logical structure

of the text is not reflected in its visual segmenta-tion on the manuscript (i.e. the text in general is notsegmented), sometimes a new line is introduced atthe beginning of a new logical sequence. While thefunction of such new lines is apparent, most similarbreaks within the text are not marked with a newline and thus this segmentation seems arbitraryfrom our modern perspective and only partiallycoincides with our understanding of how the textshould be divided. At times a break is expressed notthrough starting a new line but by inserting a hook-

like punctuation mark, signifying that a new sectionis about to begin.

e title of the text is written in a separate linebefore (shouti) and aer (weiti) the text, in full-sizecharacters squeezed tightly together with no spacebetween them. is makes the title stand apartfrom the rest of the text where characters are evenlyspaced. As a general rule, the title of the text andchapter ( pian) number is written at the beginningof chapters, whereas the volume ( juan) number ap-pears at the end of each volume.

Commentaries transmitted as part of the copiedtext are written inline, using double lines and small-er, typically half-size, characters; thus they do notdisrupt the general spatial arrangement. In court-commissioned sutras, corrections, such as the inser-tion of characters, deletion or reversal marks, etc.,are also done in a small script so that they do not in-terfere with the visual appearance of the manuscript;

therefore, they are oen not immediately visible, un-less one actually reads through the text.

Recent scholarship

Research on the layout of medieval Chinese manu-scripts is scarce. is is a subject that has primar-ily been studied by Jean-Pierre Drège, in a numberof articles regarding the material aspects of manu-scripts (paper, layout, binding, etc). In English, wehave Akira Fujieda’s general description of the Dun-huang corpus from the perspective of manuscriptstudies, and in this context layout is also discussed.

Select Bibliography

Drège, Jean-Pierre. 1989. “Du rouleau manuscrit au livre

imprimé.” In Roger Laufer (ed.), Le Texte et son inscrip-

tion. Paris: CNRS. 43–48.

Drège, Jean-Pierre. 1991. Les bibliothèques en Chine au

temps des manuscrits. Paris: École française d'Extrême-

Orient.

Drège, Jean-Pierre. 1979. “Les cahiers des manuscrits de

Touen-houang.” In Contributions aux études sur Touen-

houang . Genève/Paris: Droz. 17–28.

Drège, Jean-Pierre. 1997. “La matérialité du texte: Prélim-

inaires à une étude de la mise en page du livre chinois.” In

Viviane Alleton (ed.), Paroles à dire, paroles à écrire: Inde,

Chine, Japon. Paris: Éditions de l'École des hautes études

en sciences sociales. 241–252.

Fujieda, Akira. 1996. “e Tunhuang manuscripts: a gen-eral description.” Zinbun IX: 1–32.


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EMCAA Infrastructure

e Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

e initiation of the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” in October 2007 was one of the outcomes

of a long tradition of manuscript studies in Hamburg, which further led to the founding of the Research Group “ManuscriptCultures in Asia and Africa” (2008–2011). Since its establishment in July 2011, the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cul-tures (CSMC) became the new institutional home of the encyclopaedia. e CSMC can be regarded as an extended follow-up of the Research Group and like its predecessor is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

e CSMC consists of around 50 scholars who are working in 21 projects. 17 research projects are focussing on threekey aspects of manuscript cultures: paratexts, visual organization and manuscript collections/manuscripts as collec-tions. ree scientific service projects are developing and applying methods of script recovery, material analysis andimage processing for manuscript studies. Finally, a service project provides a data repository to ensure sustainabilityof the project data. e projects cover a wide geographic area, including not only Asian and African but also Europeanmanuscript cultures.

All three Chief Editors as well as many of the Area- and Sub-Editors of the encyclopaedia are members of the CSMC,which directly benefits work on the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”. Affiliation with theCSMC not only facilitates incorporation of the state of research but also greatly enhances the encyclopaedia throughthe extensive infrastructure of the centre as well as its network of international relations.

Members affiliated to EMCAA:

Alessandro Bausi (Principal investigator)Dmitry Bondarev (Principal investigator)Michael Friedrich (Director, Principal investigator)Volker Grabowsky (Pincipal investigator)

Harunaga Isaacson (Principal investigator)Jörg B. Quenzer (Vice-Director, Principal investigator)Tilman Seidensticker (Principal investigator)Kai Vogelsang (Principal investigator)

http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/

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ai leporello manuscript containing the Phra Malai Kham Luang , a poetic version of a Buddhist legend (dated 1874, Sig.: Cod. orient. 509, ©Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg)


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EMCAA Network

e editors of the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” cooperate with various other researchprojects and institutions in Hamburg and worldwide:

Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP)e Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP) is the successor of the well-known and widely re-nowned Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) which thirty-one years aer its inception in 1970was brought to an end in March 2001. A first preliminary title list of the manuscripts prepared under the NGMPPforms the basis of the new project. e main purpose of the project is to produce a descriptive catalogue of a sig-nificant part of about 160,000 manuscripts photographed by the NGMPP (it is expected that all manuscripts will becatalogued in the long term).

Members affiliated to EMCAA: Harunaga Isaacson (Director)

http://www.uni-hamburg.de/ngmcp/

Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies (COMSt)e program scheduled for the period from 2009 to 2014 aims at facilitating cross-cultural academic dialogue and activeexchange in the field of Oriental manuscript studies focused on the Mediterranean and North African cultural areas.Oriental studies are considerably lagging behind Occidental manuscript studies, where e.g. Greek and Latin philologyhave reached a high standard. Since some regional and linguistic cultures have been studied more intensely than oth-ers in different aspects, an exchange within the framework of Oriental philology will enable Europe-wide developmentthrough network activities. e coordination will on the one hand enable a high degree of standardization between thecultural and language areas and on the other hand facilitate the explication of culture-specific methodologies.

Members affiliated to EMCAA: Alessandro Bausi (Chair) Paola Buzi (Team leader) Jost Gippert (Team leader) Marilena Maniaci (Team leader)

http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/COMST/

Other Partners:

Cultural Heritage of Christian Ethiopia: Salvation, Preservation, Research (Ethio-SPARE)http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/ethiostudies/ETHIOSPARE/

Union Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in German Collections (KOHD)http://kohd.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/

Sanskrit Manuscripts Project, Cambridgehttp://sanskrit.lib.cam.ac.uk/

Tombouctou Manuscripts Project, Cape Townhttp://www.tombouctoumanuscripts.org/

École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO)http://www.efeo.fr/


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