Thread by @incunabula

"Mongolia has announced plans to restore the use of its traditional alphabet by 2025, replacing the Cyrillic script adopted under the Soviets as it moves away from Russian influence."
thetimes.co.uk/article/mongol…

Mongolian book-culture was manuscript, not print based, right up until the early 20th century. This is a 19th century version of the Čoyijod Dagini - a popular Buddhist text about virtue, sin and the afterlife, told through a 37-year-old woman’s encounter with Lord Yama in hell.

A 19th century Mongolian novel, manuscript on native paper. Part of the "Tabun ǰuwan" (Five Tales) in Mongolian script. Dated to the first day of the tenth lunar month in the year of Blue Rat (in cyclical Chinese signs, the year jiǎzǐ 甲子), which equates to either 1864 or 1924.

A landmark: The Gospel of St. Matthew translated into Kalmyk Mongolian by Isaac Frederick Schmidt, printed at St. Petersburg 1815. The first translation & printing of any portion of the Bible into Mongolian & also the first European-style book published in the Mongolian language.

The Old Testament printed in Mongolian, at Khodon in Siberia, 1840. Translated by Edward Stallybrass, William Swan and Robert Yuille. Printing started at Selenginsk in 1834, where apparently only the first part of Genesis was completed. In April 1835, the press moved to Khodon.

The first modern-era printing press was established in Mongolia in 1912 at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the Mongolian Bogd Monarchy. The printing house was located next to the ministry and equipped with one printing press from Russia, and 5 employees.

A letter from Arghun, Khan of the Mongol Ilkhanate, to Pope Nicholas IV, 1290, now in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. The letter is in Mongolian script, the seals are in Chinese.

See Mostaert/Cleaves, "Trois documents mongols...", in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 15, 1952.

The red seal imprints both have the same six seal script Chinese characters: 輔國安民之寶 Fǔguó ānmín zhībǎo ("Precious seal of the upholder of the State and the purveyor of peace to the People").