Opening the Chrysalis: Willard D. Straight’s Sketches, Photographs, and Accounts of Korea’s Interaction with the Outside World, 1904–5

Willard D. Straight – architect, diplomat, photographer, publisher, sketcher, and writer – arrived in Korea in 1904 as a correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, and became the US vice consul in Seoul in 1905. By utilizing a number of images from the Willard Dickerman Straight Papers of Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, and by referring to other relevant sources of/about Straight, this essay presents a textual analysis and comprehensive visual reading about the country which Straight observed in a very crucial transition period in global history. It provides a glimpse at the perspective of an early twentieth-century American diplomat, eyewitness, photographer, and writer on the cultural, industrial, and technological transformations that Korea experienced in the early 1900s as a consequence of its interaction with major world powers.

Tracing the Sources of V.G. Tiesen­hausen in the Arabic Volume on the History of the Golden Horde

Research objective and materials: This article is devoted to the analysis of the results of the work carried out on the sources used by Vladimir Tiesenhausen in the compiling the Arabic volume of the “Collection of Materials Relating to the History of the Golden Horde”. Results and novelty of the research: A comparative study of texts extracted by Vladimir G. Tiesenhausen in 1884, with their new editions, presented the following picture: one group of publications represents academic editions with quality translations, accompanied by professionally executed commentaries. Another part of the sources was published based on one part of existing copies. As practice shows, sometimes the older and complete copies of published works remained out of coverage in such publications; their existing editions are not taken into account. The third group of sources is composed of works that remain in manuscript form to the present day. One such work – “al-‘Aylam al-zakhir fi akhbar al-awa’il wa-l-awakhir” by Mustafa ibn Hasan al-Janabi – exists in numerous copies. Searches and the discovery of its copies in Turkish funds show such source studies’ problems as incomplete cataloging of manuscript collections, unprofessional descriptions by compilers of some catalogues, inconsistency in the provided titles of the works and the names of their authors. The autograph (Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Yeni Cami, no. 831) and two full texts (Köprülü Kütüphanesi, Fazıl Ahmet Paşa, nos. 1031, 1032) are of great value in the publication of “al-‘Aylam al-zakhir”. The result is the formation of a creative portrait for the author of a published work and the creation of a complete image for his work on the basis of its copies. This may ensure against potential errors.

KOLEKSI MANUSKRIP INDONESIA DALAM KATALOG ONLINE EROPA DAN URGENSI DIGITALISASI

Outside Indonesia, Indonesian manuscripts are preserved in universities, libraries and museums in various parts of the globe. And the exact number of collections is not known as various projects of manuscript digitization and cataloging continue to emerge. This paper discusses two things. First, remarkable European institutions preserving Indonesian manuscripts will be reviewed. We will look at their manuscript collections and to what extent they deal with the digitized collections. Secondly, as a great number of Indonesian digitized manuscripts in Europe is accessible online and free of charge, this paper will study how digitizing Indonesian manuscript becomes crucial. It argues that comprehensive manuscript digitization is – for now – the main goal of preservation. Manuskrip Indonesia tidak hanya tersimpan di Indonesia, jumlah pastinya tidak diketahui dan terus berubah karena katalogisasi naskah-naskah tersebut masih terus dilakukan di lembaga-lembaga yang menyimpannya – universitas, museum maupun perpustakaan – di berbagai belahan dunia. Artikel ini membahas dua hal: Yang pertama, akan dijabarkan lembaga-lembaga penting yang menyimpan naskah-naskah kuno Indonesia dan memiliki sistem preservasi dan katalogisasi yang unggul; Yang kedua, mengingat sebagian dari koleksi digital di Eropa tersebut bahkan dapat diakses secara online dan tidak berbayar, artikel ini juga mengkaji pentingnya digitalisasi naskah. Argumen yang dimunculkan adalah digitalisasi naskah yang komprehensif merupakan tujuan utama preservasi untuk saat ini.

Manuscript waste in reconstructing book collections of medieval Elbląg

Medieval manuscript collections on the territory of Teutonic Prussia have been particularly affected by numerous unfortunate events in modern history, such as Polish-Swedish wars and the turmoil after World War II. Still, the attempts to reconstruct the local collections may shed new light on the intellectual history of this historical region. To this date this kind of research was based mostly on the preserved manuscripts with Prussian origin or provenance, that is to say produced or used on the territory of Prussia, currently held in Polish or foreign libraries and on the evidence on the lost volumes derived from archival inventories. The article, taking as an example the history of collections of the city of Elbląg, discusses the potential of systematic studies of parchment waste used in bindings of manuscripts and printed books for reconstructing the intellectual landscape of the territory in question. It systematizes different types of provenance evidence that links the parchment waste to the territory of Teutonic Prussia by an analysis of content, script, musical notation, bindings and other material evidence.

A Family of Books: The Damascene Shaṭṭīs and Textual Transmission

The article explores continuities between manuscript and print culture by way of an investigation into the book-related practice of three members of the Ḥanbalī al-Shaṭṭī family. By using a diverse set of sources, it presents a view on the turn from manuscript to print during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that moves beyond technological determinism. By examining authorship, manuscript collections, and print publication, it proposes to include the institution of the family as well as the emerging global market for Arabic manuscripts into research of this medial shift.

Arabic Language Literary Heritage in the Works of Central Asian Thinkers in the 10th-12th Centuries

In the 10th-12th centuries there had been a rapid flourishing of literary creativity in the Arabic language in the regions of Central Asia such as Mawaraunnahr and Khwarezm. Tens of thousands of Arabic-language manuscripts have been stored in manuscript collections all over the world, including the manuscript collection of our Republic. Some of them have been selectively studied by orientalists. At the same time, the number of still unexplored manuscripts is very large, and there are manuscripts containing vivid artistic creations among them. Translating and researching of these works in order to bring the treasures of spiritual and aesthetic heritage to our people is a responsible and honorable task of Uzbek orientalists.This article expounds on the contributions of the Central Asian thinkers in the development of Arabic literature in the 10th-12th centuries, in the establishment of its genres, and the formation of its primary trends. In the article, a brief overview of the main literary works of the period and their influence on the direction of the literary development both in Central Asia and the entire world of Islam is given. The rich Arabic literature of Mawarannаhar and Khwarezm spurred vibrant cultural growth locally during the first stage of the Islamic Renaissance and further development of the social and moral thought of its peoples. Abu Bakr al-Khwarezmi, Abu Ali Sina, Mahmud al-Zamakshari, and many other Central Asian thinkers combined both scientific and literary endeavors throughout their lives. During this very period, the main body of the greatest literary monuments was created. Additionally, the perspectives of a deeper study of this literary heritage as part of the world heritage and the entire human civilization are examined in this article. A comprehensive study of the Arabic literary heritage of the 9th-12th centuries may, on one hand, help to fill out the gap in the studies of the literary activities of the period. On the other hand, even though certain steps in this direction have been made, prospects of research from the position of literary studies demand a deeper exploration of literary activities, thematic categories, poetics, uniqueness of local genres, and other facets, which will help make certain the size of the contribution of Central Asian scholars to the development not only of Eastern literature but of Western as well.

THE KYIV CHRONICLE OF THE 12TH CENTURY: THE AUTHOR IN SEARCH OF A HERO

The Kyiv Chronicle is a continuation of the most famous piece of the Ukrainian Chronicle Corpus — The Tale of Bygone Years. In manuscript collections of the 15th-18th centuries, it is an integral part of the chronicle of Rus, describing the events from 1117 to 1198. Ukrainian scholars traditionally work with the oldest record — the Hypatian Codex created before 1425. This text has undergone the least interference from scribes. Several generations of authoritative medievalists studied the stylistics and genre diversity of the work in detail. They convincingly argued that the Kyiv Chronicle became a compilation of individual literary pieces. The works were gathered, edited, and compiled by the abbot of Vydubychi St. Michael’s Monastery in Kyiv Moisei at the end of the 12th century. There were four compilations — from 1168, 1170, 1179, and 1190, which formed the basis of Moisei’s version. Petro Boryslavych’s style in the Kyiv Chronicle can be traced most clearly, and scholars attribute the authorship of the most part to him. In particular, Ukrainian and foreign medievalists have no doubt that he was the author of the chronicle fragment that deals with the life of Iziaslav Mstyslavych, his son Mstyslav Iziaslavych and his nephew Riuryk Rostyslavych. The study focuses on the features of the Kyiv Izvod text authored by Petro Boryslavych. The author aimed not just to glorify his prince-patron but tried to model the ideal image of a ruler, describing the actions and characterizing the personalities of contemporary rulers. As to the genre peculiarities of the Tale of Iziaslav, it significantly differs from the other stories on one important event in the life of princes that were singled out by the researchers within the Kyiv Izvod. The Tale of Iziaslav is a large text that covers events of a long period. Therefore, it is reasonable to define this work as a story-chronicle or a biographical chronicle.

Crafting the Tyrolian Catalogue: Some Remarks about Cataloguing the Manuscript Collection of the Innsbruck University and Provincial Library Tiroler Wortarbeit: Zum Abschluss der Katalogisierung des Handschriftenbestands der Innsbrucker Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek

Recently, the manuscript collections of the ULB Tyrol have been completely catalogued. Now that the last three volumes have been published, this paper examinates the project as a whole and, looking ahead, asks about the conditions for the success of modern cataloging. In den vergangenen Jahren sind die Handschriftenbestände der ULB Tirol vollständig katalogisiert worden. Ausgehend von den letzten drei Katalogen, würdigt der Beitrag das Gesamtprojekt und fragt ausblickend nach den Gelingensbedingungen moderner Katalogisierungsprojekte.

More product, less process in film collections: a case study at the Pacific Cinematheque

This thesis is an applied case study, wherein a donation of materials was assessed at the Pacific Cinematheque Archive between January – June 2019. The archive has struggled to process their backlog due to a strain on resources—an issue that is prevalent in the archival profession, and particularly in small institutions. The objective was to apply broad principles from Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner’s 2005 paper “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival processing,” aimed at large paper and manuscript collections, to managing backlog at the Pacific Cinematheque Archive in order to help establish a minimal processing workflow that would allow for faster access to materials in the future. The case study explores the applicability of Greene & Meissner’s processing framework in a small, film-centric archive, as well as the implications of making archival selections in this setting and the importance of preserving and providing access to these films.