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Feb 24 4 tweets 2 min read
"A Magnum Opus Beyond Measure: Yongle's Encyclopaedia Enigma". This is the catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Library of China in Beijing in 2018 and then at the Shenzhen Nanshan Museum in early 2020. 1/ ImageImage
The catalogue explores the history of the production of the two versions of this Chinese cultural icon, the Yongle Dadian (Yongle Encyclopaedia), under the Yongle and Jiajing emperors of the Ming dynasty. 2/ Image
It allso includes many associated rare printed and manuscript works related to the Encyclopaedia, and tells the story of the ongoing efforts by China to reclaim the scattered extant fascicles following the destruction by fire of the Hanlin Library in 1900. 3/ Image
This is a well-illustrated catalogue with, unsually, dual texts in Chinese and English (not just English summaries). It's by far the best English-language reference now on the Yongle Dadian. 4/ Image

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More from @incunabula

Feb 26
The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Національна бібліотека України імені В.І. Вернадського) was established in Kyiv in 1918, and is now ranked as one of the world's top 20 largest national libraries.

This is its story. 1/ Image
The library was established on 2 August 1918 by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi as the 'National Library of the Ukrainian State' (Natsionalna biblioteka Ukrayinskoyi Derzhavy). The first head of the 'Provisional Committee on Creation of the National Library' was Vladimir Vernadsky. 2/ Image
The library was originally located in temporary housing - the St. Princess Olga Gymnasium - until 1919. 3/ Image
Read 22 tweets
Feb 25
All six Ukrainian Presidents since 1991, including Volodymyr Zelensky, have taken the oath of office on this book: the 16th century Peresopnytsia Gospels [Ukrainian: Пересопницьке Євангеліє], one of the most remarkably illuminated of all surviving East Slavic manuscripts. 1/ Image
The Peresopnytsia Gospels were written between 15 August 1556 and 29 August 1561, at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Iziaslav, and the Monastery of the Mother of God in Peresopnytsia, Volyn'. The scribe was Mykhailo Vasyl’ovych, son of an archpriest from Sianik. 2/ Image
The Peresopnytsia Gospels are held in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, in Kyiv. Its collection holds more than 15 million items, making it the 20th-largest library in the world. 3/ Image
Read 26 tweets
Dec 29, 2021
A large and luxurious finely-bound 18th century Qur’an, written in black and red in very fine naskhi in an austere, entirely undecorated style, described by Maggs in 1939 as "in the style peculiar to the islands of the Indian Ocean." Possibly originating from the Maldives. 1/
The binding is 18th century red Morocco with a fore-edge flap, very elaborately gilt-tooled with floral designs. The design shows some non-Islamic influences, and may have been executed in a workshop in southern India, possibly one attached to a mission press. 2/
It's a massive tome, 650 folios, on good quality burnished unwatermarked paper, almost certainly of Indian manufacture. The essentially complete absence of any decoration throughout is unusual and very striking. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Dec 27, 2021
Kyffin: A Celebration - Gwasg Gregynog, 2007.
Bound by Stuart Brockman in 2007 in translucent vellum over an original watercolour painting and tooled with chimney smoke in palladium, punctuated with gilt diamond shaped tooling; deep blue and silver patterned endpapers. 1/ Image
A tribute to Kyffin Williams's art with a striking image of a Welsh village stretching across both boards.
Brockman has here brought the "vellucent" technique of translucent vellum over painted boards - first developed by Chivers of Bath around 1903 - into the 21st century. 2/ ImageImageImage
The Bath bookbinder Cedric Chivers first patented his "vellucent" method of art-bookbinding in 1898. An artist would paint on a thin surface medium; then a sheet of vellum, shaved to translucent thinness, was laid over it, giving the underlying painting a luminous warmth. 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 4, 2021
An unusual Somali Qur’an section, copied in a script quite distinct from the majuscule Arabic scripts used either along the Swahili coast or in West Africa, carefully but austerely written by an unnamed holy man in the town of Afgoi in the late 19th or early 20th century. 1/
The text is presented as a continuous block, 10 lines of thick majuscule per page, intended for a reader familiar enough with the Qur’an that it foregoes division markers of any kind - there are no marginal division markers, surah headings, or verse markers. 2/
There's a half-page of Arabic prayers on f.1r and two Italian inscriptions at the end: the first records that this Qur’an section was copied by a holy man in the town of Afgoi in Nov. 1911; the second is a presentation inscription from Dr. Carlo Bottari, dated 17 August 1912. 3/
Read 4 tweets

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