encyclopaedia of manuscript cultures in asia and africa

Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa

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

EMCAA Background

Manuscripts – books written by hand – have been one of the most in�uential manifestations of writing. For thou-sands of years, manuscripts have had a fundamental in�uence on many cultures. In the extensive period between the adoption 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. Such widespread and long-term use gave rise to a great variety of developments regarding the production, function and reception of manuscripts in their respective social and cultural environments, thus resulting in distinct manuscript cultures. In both Asia and Africa, manuscript cultures have furthermore played a signi�cant role in the transmission of knowledge up to the recent past, and some are still alive even today. In order to properly understand Asian and African 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 signi�cantly over the last decades. �is was certainly in-�uenced by the rise of electronic media, which has stimulated historical and systematic inquiry in both the humanities and 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 introductory survey so far. A work which �lls 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 �rst time. It allows for both a comparison with Western European book culture and the introduction of Asian and African manuscript cultures to current discussions in the �elds 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 yet non-existing foundation for exactly this type of research. It will serve as a handbook for students of manuscript studies and as a reference tool for experts, who want to broaden their view by comparison with other manuscript cultures. �e great variety of manuscript cultures examined will ensure that questionable approaches, e.g. deducing universal laws from 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 of expertise, �nd 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 bene�t the “Encyclopaedia of 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 had considered manuscripts and the speci�c culture they represent as archaic and outdated leading to loss and neglect. Knowledge about the signi�cance of manuscripts and their cultural value will enhance the preservation and study of this unique type of artifacts.

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EMCAA Content

Volume I: Introduction. Histories of Manuscript Cultures �e �rst volume of the encyclopaedia introduces the subject and methodological considerations (de�nitions, etc.) as well 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 Comparison �e second volume comprises articles on the systematic categories of “production”, “usage and function” and “re�exion”, 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-simpli�cation or neglect of culture-speci�c characteristics. References to entries are included in Volume III.

Volume III: Dictionary of Manuscript Cultures �e entries in the third volume provide short de�nitions 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.

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

Instruments Brush, Calamus, Ruler,Penbox

Producers Scribe, Copyist, Illuminator,Painter

Production

Writing process Copying techniques, Marks,Script styles

Layout Divisions, Frame, Justi�cation

Embellishment Illumination, Painting

Binding Page ordering systems,Catchwords

Finalizing

Usage and function

Textual functions Reading process(reading aloud/silent)

Non-textual functions Symbolic uses (ritual),Calligraphy

Distribution Transmission, Book-trade,Borrowing

Storage Library, Collection, Catalogue

Destruction, Recycling, Disposal Geniza-like practices

Re�exionTextual scholarship Palaeography, Codicology,

Philology

Knowledge Canonization, 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, �nally, the individual lemmata on the right. As there are many more topics to be dealt with and not each of them is equally relevant for every manuscript culture, the lemmata included 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 � rst half of the seventh century based on the Indic Brahmi scripts of that pe-riod. � e alphabet contains thirty consonants, each of which contains the inherent vowel -a. Vowel modi-� ers for the sounds -i, -u, -e and -o are written above or below the consonants. In addition, letters may be ‘stacked’ vertically, and there are special forms for some letters in these stacks. � e basic unit is the sylla-ble, and syllables are separated with a small dot called tsheg. Larger semantic units are separated with a verti-cal stroke called shad. Tibetan is written horizontally from le� to right.

� e Tibetan tradition distinguishes two basic types of Tibetan script, the ‘headed’ (dbu can) and the ‘headless’ (dbu med). � e � rst script is characterized by short horizontal lines (the ‘heads’) along the tops of many letters, similar to the serifs of the Latin script, while the second script dispenses with these lines. � ere are numerous di� erent styles within the head-less script, including a simple style for teaching chil-dren, ornamental styles for o� cial edicts, and a highly cursive style for handwriting.

Origins and early development

Tibet's historical traditions are almost unanimous in attributing the invention of the Tibetan script to a � g-ure known as Tönmi Sambhota. It is di� cult, if not impossible, 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 as we know it appeared alongside other cultural innova-tions during the � rst rapid expansion of the Tibetan Empire in the � rst half of the seventh century. Ana-logues for most Tibetan letters can be found in the North Indian Brahmi scripts known as “Late Gupta” which � ourished from the � � h to seventh centuries. Tibetan letters for sounds not found in Indian lan-guages were generally created by altering existing forms. (� omas 1951; van Schaik 2011a.)

� e earliest sources of Tibetan writing available to us 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 rock inscriptions tends to prefer straight lines, and does not extend lines any further than necessary. In a simi-lar fashion to Roman Capitals, the letters are evenly proportioned so that most would � t within the shape

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EMCAA Model Article I

Writing Systems: Tibet

Sam van Schaik, � e British Library

Dunhuang manuscript of a commentary on the Upāyapāśa-tantra from the 10th century ad 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 � exible model).

Manuscripts from the same period show the grad-ual development of this square form. While certain of-� cial manuscripts emulate it, many show an increased cursivity, with a reduction in strokes and a curvature of sharp angles. � e development of the headless script from the headed script is clearly seen in these manuscripts as a process of cursivization (Gendun Chophel 1983; van Schaik 2011c). In this early pe-riod there is a clear correspondence between writing styles and genres of manuscript. For example, di� er-ent styles can be identi� ed for o� cial documents, Buddhist scriptures, and the personal manuscripts of Buddhist monks. A� er the fall of the Tibetan empire in the mid-ninth century, these styles were no longer taught, and a number of di� erent calligraphic styles appeared. (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 the recto of a pothi folio in Buddhist / literary texts. It is derived from the Indian manuscript tradition. Other early forms of ornamentation include Buddhist sym-bols such as the lotus � ower, wheel and vajra. In the manuscript tradition (as opposed to the later printed book tradition), ornamental forms of the shad, and small designs composed of circles are sometimes used to mark divisions in the text. (Scherrer-Schaub and Bonami 2002.)

Traditional categories

� e Tibetan historical tradition records that the writing system was revised and standardized several times. � e most important of these revisions occurred in the year 812/3 and is recorded in an imperial edict. � ough this reform, and later ones, were mainly aimed at translation vocabulary, they also seem to have a� ected orthography, with a number of archaic features in the script gradually disappearing from the early 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 classi� cations and de-scriptions of di� erent styles of writing (e.g. Bkras lhun dgon 2003). � ese styles are mainly classi� ed as sub-divisions of the headless script. Such styles include the Drutsa ('bru tsha) the Book Form (dpe tshugs), which are mainly found in Buddhist / literary manuscripts, and the Running Script (’khyug yig), which is a highly cursive style mainly used in letters and notes.

A number of variations on the Running Script are recognized, including the Long Form (tshugs ring), the Short Form (tshugs thung) and the Small Form (tshugs chung). In the modern period, the headed script came to be used primarily in printed books, with the head-less script being used in manuscripts. However, this is less true outside of Central Tibet. In Bhutan and Ti-betan cultural areas to the East and West, the headed script continued to be used in manuscripts.

Modern palaeographical studies

� e palaeographical study of Tibetan writing is still in its infancy. A periodization developed by Cristina Scherrer-Schaub and Georges Bonami using both codicology and palaeographical analysis, divides Tibetan writing styles into three phases: 950–1250, 1250–1430, and 1430 onwards (though the dates are only approximate). � e authors used radiocarbon dating on a sample of manuscripts to con� rm their hypothesis (Scherrer-Schaub and Bonami 2002). A study of the imperial Tibetan epigraphic writing (which in� uenced manuscript styles) has been pub-lished by Helga Uebach (2010). Studies by Sam van Schaik based on the manuscripts from the Dunhuang cave have identi� ed a number of di� erent writing styles 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 the empire (van Schaik 2011a,b,c).

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 Whit� eld (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 Wissenscha� en in Göttingen (II Philologis-che-historische Klasse), Göttingen. 146–165.

Uebach, Helga. 2010. “Notes on the Palaeography of Old Tibetan 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 the bound codex consisting of several quires. � e writing was usually at right angles to the spine. Manuscripts produced in the Maghrib sometimes consisted of un-bound loose leaves or quires, while those from sub-Saharan Africa were predominantly characterised by loose unconnected leaves (Déroche 2006: 88f.). Books from 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 a single gathering is mentioned).

� e scroll was used for speci� c 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 miniature paintings.

� e size of a book has natural limits based on the maximum size of the writing support, a fact that is particularly evident for parchment manuscripts. � e techniques employed for manufacturing paper were another 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 the individual copy, the time and the region.

On the whole, the standard size of Arabic, Persian or Turkish Islamic manuscripts is not signi� cantly dif-ferent from the common size of modern printed books. However, from early times, the Qur’an, the starting point of the Islamic bookmaking tradition, was pro-duced not only in average-sized volumes, but also in volumes both extremely large and extremely small. One of the best-known examples of a large early Qur’an is the oblong square in plano parchment codex from the ʿAmr Mosque in Fusṭāṭ (Old Cairo), written in the 8th century, which measures 540 × 620 mm. It is possible that the pre-Islamic Egyptian tradition of producing large Bibles in� uenced the emergence of such impres-sive copies: the 5th-century Codex Alexandrinus meas-ures 316 × 264 mm, and the Codex Sinaiticus is even larger, measuring approximately 400 × 350 mm. Huge Qur’ans were created in all periods, but the Mamlūk era (1250–1517) witnessed a particular � ourishing in the production of colossal manuscripts, not only in Egypt and Syria, but also elsewhere. � e size of the so-called Baysunqur Qur’an, probably commissioned by Timur around 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 ʿ Amr Mosque 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 and Coptic. Miniature Qur’ans continued to be produced into 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 ʿAlī, from Déroche 2004: 28, ill. 4.


is found in large-formatted volumes much more o� en than 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 texts are usually in smaller formats, and do not show the di-mensional extremes of the Qur’an. A general tendency towards larger leaves, even for non-religious texts, is discernible in the 13th and 14th centuries (Bloom 2001: 52 and 184).

With regard to the material format, it is important to note 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 � ve, and folded in half” (Déroche 2006: 85). � us, equivalents of terms like folio, quarto or octavo (the result of one, two or three folds) are not commonly used to designate the bibliographical or library formats of pre-modern pe-riods. Instead, descriptions of format are based on the manner in which the raw bifolia were cut (Arabic qaṭʿ, 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 towards the end of the 10th century, mentions Sulaymāniyya leaves (containing 20 lines per page) to de� ne 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 two largest 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 Baghdadi sheet ([...] 65 by 98 centimeters).” (Bloom 2001: 53)

� e most common shape for Islamic books in Asia and North Africa was without doubt vertical. � e domi-nance of this shape possibly dates from the beginnings of Islamic book production; in any case, more Qur’ans written in the Ḥijāzī script are vertical than oblong. For reasons still unknown, from the middle of the 8th to the 10th 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 a� er this time, this shape seems to have gone out of fashion for Qur’ans, and although oblong copies of other texts existed, even they are quite exceptional. In the Maghrib, square Qur’ans, as well as other texts of religious importance, are frequently found, although the 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 and Turkey. Such Qur’ans were o� en stored in octagonal boxes or caskets and were purportedly � xed to the sha� s of Muslim armies’ � ags for apotropaic purposes; hence they are called Sanjaq (‘� ag’) Qur’ans. Another special format is the slim oblong book, with the script usually running parallel, although sometimes diago-nally, to the spine. Such manuscripts are called Safīna (‘ship’); it is a shape that seems to have been particularly wide-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 “Muraḳḳaʿ”, � 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 history and 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.

Overview

� e layout of medieval Chinese manuscripts can vary enormously according to their type, function, con-tent, time period, etc. Since the surviving material ranges from random notes with no apparent atten-tion to visual presentation to court-sanctioned copies of Buddhist sutras and Daoist scriptures maintaining a highly consistent visual arrangement, it is perhaps more useful to look at this latter group for describing layout features. Although these regular texts consti-tute only part of the total number of manuscripts that survived from the medieval period, they represent in many ways a basic format emulated or approximated

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

Physically, this basic type of manuscripts consists of rectangular sheets of paper joined together into a long continuous surface rolled up into a scroll. � is format is thought to have originated in Han and earlier times when texts were written on slips of bamboo and wood, which were tied together with a thread and kept as a roll, albeit a much bulkier one than 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 title indicating 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 was used in later times to signify a unit of text larger than a chapter (pian), usually translated into English as ‘volume’ or ‘fascicle’. For medieval manuscripts, the paper sheets that were glued together were called zhang (sheet), and there are examples where a colo-phon at the end of a text records how many zhang were 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 17 characters per line. � ere are numerous examples where the copyist realized that he had run out of space at the end of the line and crammed the last few characters together in order to � t them on that line. But other than these impromptu e� orts to maintain the standard line length, characters are evenly spaced, more or less occupying a square of equal size. Grid lines are drawn using thinner ink and a type of ruler to determine the boundaries of the text in advance. Generally speaking, there are two 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. O� en vertical grid lines 1.8–1.9 cm apart are also drawn for each line, ensuring that the text is cop-ied in straight lines. At the same time, the characters are not aligned horizontally, as it became custom-ary in epigraphic material, where characters were commonly written in strict vertical and horizontal alignment. Gridlines are usually observed but there are also contrary cases when the text runs onto the margin.

� e text runs continuously with very few un� n-ished lines. While in most cases the logical structure of the text is not re� ected in its visual segmenta-tion on the manuscript (i.e. the text in general is not segmented), sometimes a new line is introduced at the beginning of a new logical sequence. While the function of such new lines is apparent, most similar breaks within the text are not marked with a new line and thus this segmentation seems arbitrary from our modern perspective and only partially coincides with our understanding of how the text should be divided. At times a break is expressed not through starting a new line but by inserting a hook-like punctuation mark, signifying that a new section is about to begin.

� e title of the text is written in a separate line before (shouti) and a� er (weiti) the text, in full-size characters squeezed tightly together with no space between them. � is makes the title stand apart from the rest of the text where characters are evenly spaced. As a general rule, the title of the text and chapter (pian) number is written at the beginning of chapters, whereas the volume (juan) number ap-pears at the end of each volume.

Commentaries transmitted as part of the copied text are written inline, using double lines and small-er, typically half-size, characters; thus they do not disrupt 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 o� en 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 number of articles regarding the material aspects of manu-scripts (paper, layout, binding, etc). In English, we have Akira Fujieda’s general description of the Dun-huang corpus from the perspective of manuscript studies, 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.

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 “Manuscript Cultures 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 three key aspects of manuscript cultures: paratexts, visual organization and manuscript collections/manuscripts as collec-tions. �ree scienti�c service projects are developing and applying methods of script recovery, material analysis and image processing for manuscript studies. Finally, a service project provides a data repository to ensure sustainability of the project data. �e projects cover a wide geographic area, including not only Asian and African but also European manuscript 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 bene�ts work on the “Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”. A�liation with the CSMC not only facilitates incorporation of the state of research but also greatly enhances the encyclopaedia through the extensive infrastructure of the centre as well as its network of international relations.

Members a�liated 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 research projects 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 a�er its inception in 1970 was brought to an end in March 2001. A �rst preliminary title list of the manuscripts prepared under the NGMPP forms the basis of the new project. �e main purpose of the project is to produce a descriptive catalogue of a sig-ni�cant part of about 160,000 manuscripts photographed by the NGMPP (it is expected that all manuscripts will be catalogued in the long term).

Members a�liated 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 active exchange in the �eld 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 philology have reached a high standard. Since some regional and linguistic cultures have been studied more intensely than oth-ers in di�erent aspects, an exchange within the framework of Oriental philology will enable Europe-wide development through network activities. �e coordination will on the one hand enable a high degree of standardization between the cultural and language areas and on the other hand facilitate the explication of culture-speci�c methodologies.

Members a�liated 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/

EMCAA People

Chief Editors: Michael Friedrich, Harunaga Isaacson, Jörg B. Quenzer

Area Editors: Michael Friedrich, Jörg B. Quenzer (East Asia)

Harunaga Isaacson, Volker Grabowsky (Central, South and South East Asia)

Dmitry Bondarev, FranÇois Déroche, Philip Jaggar, Tilman Seidensticker (West Asia and Africa)

Sub-Editors: East Asia: William Boltz (University of Washington, Seattle) George Dutton (University of California, Los Angeles) Michael Friedrich (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Imre Galambos (University of Cambridge) Beatrix Mecsi (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) Nathalie Monnet (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris) Constantino Moretti (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) Jörg B. Quenzer (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Kai Vogelsang (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Central, South and South East Asia: Dominic Goodall (École FranÇaise d'Extrême-Orient, Paris) Volker Grabowsky (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Harunaga Isaacson (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Ulrich Kratz (Emeritus School of Oriental and African Studies, London) Sam van Schaik (British Library, London) West Asia and Africa: Alessandro Bausi (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Dmitry Bondarev (Universität Hamburg, CSMC) Paola Buzi (Università di Roma La Sapienza) FranÇois Déroche (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) Jost Gippert (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) Alessandro Gori (Università degli Studi di Firenze) Philip Jaggar (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) Graziano Krätli (Yale University, New Haven) Tilman Seidensticker (Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, CSMC)

Board of Advisors: J.P. Gumbert (Emeritus Universiteit Leiden) Marilena Maniaci (Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale) Jan-Dirk Müller (Emeritus Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) Richard Salomon (University of Washington) Avihai Shivtiel (Emeritus University of Leeds)

Publisher: de Gruyter, Berlin. Articles to be collected in 2013, appearance scheduled for 2015.

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EMCAA Contact

Address: Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures Warburgstraße 26 20354 Hamburg Germany

Email: [email protected]

Cover images copyright (from top le� to bottom right):Dmitry Bondarev; Collection Moh'd S. Idris (Photo: Ridder Samsom); National Book Trust, India; Hunan Provincial Museum, PR China; Linda Lane, Seattle (U.S.); bpk/Museum für Islamische Kunst, SMB/Petra Stüning; Hunan Provincial Museum, PR China; Universität Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut.

Typesetting and layout: � ies Staack.