WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:29.361 00:00:29.361 --> 00:00:31.194 Just thank you so much  for the introduction.  00:00:31.194 --> 00:00:31.212 Just one correction,  I'm no longer  00:00:31.212 --> 00:00:31.233 at the Oxford Center  for Islamic Studies.  00:00:31.233 --> 00:00:31.263 So not that my old  employer gets mad at me  00:00:31.263 --> 00:00:31.287 that I claim something  that I don't have.  00:00:31.287 --> 00:00:31.326 I wanted to go back a little bit about what we heard yesterday, 00:00:31.326 --> 00:00:31.353 but I wanted to say also we didn't really 00:00:31.353 --> 00:00:31.383 get that clear instructions with regards to that we should 00:00:31.383 --> 00:00:32.466 have a YouTube ready talk. 00:00:32.466 --> 00:00:35.070 So I have actually put a license on the talk. 00:00:35.070 --> 00:00:38.130 And here are the visual references 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:40.300 for the material that I want to show. 00:00:40.300 --> 00:00:41.920 And this is the second slide. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.890 So everybody, I will have captions and what comes, 00:00:44.890 --> 00:00:46.390 but they will be somewhat shortened. 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.320 And so people should be able to find everything 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.510 that I've shown. 00:00:51.510 --> 00:00:54.240 I want to link back to certain things that came up yesterday 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:56.070 and that I found relevant to what 00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:58.350 I'm trying to say here myself. 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:01.043 The first thing is that I think it makes a huge difference 00:01:01.043 --> 00:01:03.210 whether we think-- when we talk about collections -- 00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:06.780 whether we think about buying texts or hunting manuscripts. 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:09.450 And I personally would not use the term hunting manuscripts, 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:12.240 whether we are talking about collections 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:14.550 and the early modern period or other collections, 00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:19.590 I don't find that very felicitous with regards 00:01:19.590 --> 00:01:21.330 to its phrasing. 00:01:21.330 --> 00:01:24.630 And the other thing is I will throughout now actually try 00:01:24.630 --> 00:01:26.130 only to use the term book. 00:01:26.130 --> 00:01:28.260 And I argue that if you talk about, 00:01:28.260 --> 00:01:32.400 and I'm talking really primarily about material created 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:37.650 before 1800, that, at that point, 00:01:37.650 --> 00:01:40.620 we have, in the Middle East and Muslim-ruled societies, 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:43.020 a manuscript culture for which the standard book 00:01:43.020 --> 00:01:45.030 form is the manuscript. 00:01:45.030 --> 00:01:47.280 And I think by using the term manuscript when 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.030 we talk about pre-modern Islamic book cultures, 00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:54.600 we are putting our modern contemporary associations 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:57.870 with manuscripts, as being unique, particularly valuable 00:01:57.870 --> 00:02:00.780 and particularly precious, to material 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:03.820 that wasn't necessarily perceived in this way. 00:02:03.820 --> 00:02:03.852 And in order to avoid that trap, I'm 00:02:03.852 --> 00:02:03.872 not going to use manuscript. 00:02:03.872 --> 00:02:03.916 I would also argue that, we see this actually in reference 00:02:03.916 --> 00:02:03.948 books like Brockemann [ GAL= Geschichte der arabischen 00:02:03.948 --> 00:02:03.988 Litteratur ] and Sezgin [ GAS = Geschichte des arabischen 00:02:03.988 --> 00:02:03.996 Schrifttums ]. 00:02:03.996 --> 00:02:04.032 Because if you look at the regular Brockelmanm entry, 00:02:04.032 --> 00:02:04.060 Brockelmann actually does not distinguish between manuscripts 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:04.072 and printed books. 00:02:04.072 --> 00:02:04.096 There are certain, very popular works 00:02:04.096 --> 00:02:04.136 where you find in Brockelmann no reference to a manuscript, 00:02:04.136 --> 00:02:06.136 if it was already available in printed editions. 00:02:06.136 --> 00:02:25.623 00:02:25.623 --> 00:02:28.206 And I think every librarian with whom I've ever talked and who 00:02:28.206 --> 00:02:28.233 worked with digital media, they will tell you that 00:02:28.233 --> 00:02:28.263 the transition between media [ = handwritten book to printed 00:02:28.263 --> 00:02:28.299 book to digitized book ] is much less pronounced than the talk 00:02:28.299 --> 00:02:28.320 of an exclusive manuscript culture actually assumes. 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:28.353 So I would like to tone down the idea of preciousness 00:02:28.353 --> 00:02:29.728 by not using the term manuscript. 00:02:29.728 --> 00:02:47.078 00:02:47.078 --> 00:02:48.828 The next point is, we've heard quite a bit 00:02:48.828 --> 00:02:48.836 of looting and Tuerkenbeute. 00:02:48.836 --> 00:02:48.848 Legally nonetheless, it is this way, 00:02:48.848 --> 00:02:48.862 that we have in pre modern warfare 00:02:48.862 --> 00:02:48.874 the most important legal terminations are 00:02:48.874 --> 00:02:48.882 with regard to sieges. 00:02:48.882 --> 00:02:48.896 And a siege functions in that way 00:02:48.896 --> 00:02:48.908 that there is first a negotiation. 00:02:48.908 --> 00:02:48.922 If the surrounded, besieged unit doesn't surrender, 00:02:48.922 --> 00:02:50.172 it forfeits property and life. 00:02:50.172 --> 00:02:57.000 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:12.400 we 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.358 So whether we are from our modern perspectives, 00:03:14.358 --> 00:03:14.394 for modern rules of warfare, consider 00:03:14.394 --> 00:03:14.424 looting illegal is one point. 00:03:14.424 --> 00:03:14.472 Whether this material that was taken in connection 00:03:14.472 --> 00:03:14.526 with sieges, then circulated in Europe, was taken illegally 00:03:14.526 --> 00:03:14.544 is another issue. 00:03:14.544 --> 00:03:14.592 And I think this is a complex situation, 00:03:14.592 --> 00:03:14.664 but we also need to deal with it in a somewhat differentiated 00:03:14.664 --> 00:03:15.164 manner. 00:03:15.164 --> 00:03:35.530 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:36.030 fallacy. 00:03:36.030 --> 00:04:17.251 00:04:17.251 --> 00:04:19.834 The final thing is that we heard a lot about cultural heritage 00:04:19.834 --> 00:04:19.840 and cultural appropriation. 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:19.858 There is currently also a debate on ethical ownership. 00:04:19.858 --> 00:04:19.878 And we could-- I hope that we will have time 00:04:19.878 --> 00:04:19.900 to go into these things more, in a more detailed manner, 00:04:19.900 --> 00:04:21.025 in the discussion tomorrow. 00:04:21.025 --> 00:04:37.478 00:04:37.478 --> 00:04:39.436 This is just a short list to actually summarize 00:04:39.436 --> 00:04:39.472 that people buy books for all sorts of reasons. 00:04:39.472 --> 00:04:39.504 And I don't necessarily think that we actually 00:04:39.504 --> 00:04:39.544 should only think as book buying for one particular reason. 00:04:39.544 --> 00:04:39.584 And the primary reason that we have books and writing 00:04:39.584 --> 00:04:39.596 is actually learning. 00:04:39.596 --> 00:04:39.628 People then also buy books for other reasons, 00:04:39.628 --> 00:04:39.672 but I would still argue that the primary function of books 00:04:39.672 --> 00:04:41.589 is a medium for the transmission of knowledge. 00:04:41.589 --> 00:05:07.638 00:05:07.638 --> 00:05:08.805 We had yesterday examples -- 00:05:08.805 --> 00:05:08.817 I was hoping that Noam would be here today, oh, hi -- 00:05:08.817 --> 00:05:08.828 because you made the point with Shapira having all these Torah 00:05:08.828 --> 00:05:08.829 scrolls. 00:05:08.829 --> 00:05:08.836 I personally believe that he was basically 00:05:08.836 --> 00:05:08.848 hoping to sell them all off to the off the ground coming 00:05:08.848 --> 00:05:08.854 public libraries in North America who 00:05:08.854 --> 00:05:08.862 were desperate to portrait the history of humanity, 00:05:08.862 --> 00:05:08.868 and including into that also Torah 00:05:08.868 --> 00:05:08.875 scrolls as an early form of writing. 00:05:08.875 --> 00:05:08.883 So that's one reason why people buy books. 00:05:08.883 --> 00:05:08.888 Religious observance, leisure reading, bibliophilia, 00:05:08.888 --> 00:05:08.893 conspicuous consumption, and travel memorabilia. 00:05:08.893 --> 00:05:08.903 So the reason why books get acquired and then actually 00:05:08.903 --> 00:05:10.653 leave contexts, I would argue are complex. 00:05:10.653 --> 00:05:48.866 00:05:48.866 --> 00:05:51.324 This is the reason that I would not use manuscript hunting. 00:05:51.324 --> 00:05:51.352 Manuscript hunting is, for me, a term 00:05:51.352 --> 00:05:51.380 that is associated with a particular form 00:05:51.380 --> 00:05:51.400 of conspicuous consumption, and also 00:05:51.400 --> 00:05:51.428 with very particular forms of competitive collecting 00:05:51.428 --> 00:05:51.432 cultures. 00:05:51.432 --> 00:05:51.468 We have competitive collecting cultures in the Middle East 00:05:51.468 --> 00:05:51.480 in particular contexts. 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:51.508 We know that Ottoman and Safavid collectors 00:05:51.508 --> 00:05:51.536 were having quite intense competitions for material. 00:05:51.536 --> 00:05:51.564 Otherwise we wouldn't have certain Muslim forgeries 00:05:51.564 --> 00:05:51.584 coming out of these contexts. 00:05:51.584 --> 00:05:53.584 But I personally would try not to use that term. 00:05:53.584 --> 00:06:22.510 00:06:22.510 --> 00:06:24.200 that 00:06:24.200 --> 00:06:24.700 that. 00:06:24.700 --> 00:06:55.210 00:06:55.210 --> 00:07:00.812 I 00:07:00.812 --> 00:07:02.770 This is just one example to back up my argument 00:07:02.770 --> 00:07:02.824 that the medium is less important than the contents. 00:07:02.824 --> 00:07:02.860 These are [from] the photocopied dictionary 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:02.920 catalog of the New York Public Library from the 1960s. 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:02.980 And there you see these three cards for Shifa manuscripts 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:04.355 [should be: copies] by Qadi Iyad. 00:07:04.355 --> 00:07:18.003 00:07:18.003 --> 00:07:19.795 And the way the manuscripts -- the cards -- 00:07:19.795 --> 00:07:19.840 were organized in the card drawers were [was_] actually 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:19.865 manuscripts and printed books together. 00:07:19.865 --> 00:07:19.915 In the same way, you find them in this way 00:07:19.915 --> 00:07:19.930 arranged in Brockelmann. 00:07:19.930 --> 00:07:19.980 This is my example for an oriental manuscript that gives 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:21.188 you Spanish in Arabic script. 00:07:21.188 --> 00:07:36.836 00:07:36.836 --> 00:07:39.086 This is extremely rare material, but it is originated, 00:07:39.086 --> 00:07:39.110 it comes from Spain or France. 00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:39.150 And we have only roughly 200 of these manuscripts -- 00:07:39.150 --> 00:07:39.162 of these manuscripts. 00:07:39.162 --> 00:07:39.178 Columbia purchased this manuscript 00:07:39.178 --> 00:07:39.214 because I found it in the rare book trade 00:07:39.214 --> 00:07:39.250 and the dealer didn't know what he was selling. 00:07:39.250 --> 00:07:39.274 So luckily, Columbia could buy it, 00:07:39.274 --> 00:07:41.274 and it didn't disappear in a private collection. 00:07:41.274 --> 00:07:57.008 00:07:57.008 --> 00:07:58.300 But we have material like this. 00:07:58.300 --> 00:07:58.360 It is not terribly common, but it's one of the border stones, 00:07:58.360 --> 00:07:58.410 cornerstones that I would argue that we should not use 00:07:58.410 --> 00:07:58.415 [oriental_]. 00:07:58.415 --> 00:07:58.460 We should be wise with regard to [terminology_] -- 00:07:58.460 --> 00:07:58.515 I mean, I understand pragmatism, but still maybe we can get 00:07:58.515 --> 00:07:58.525 around [oriental_]. 00:07:58.525 --> 00:07:58.570 The argument on which my talk is primarily based 00:07:58.570 --> 00:07:58.620 is that I argue we have, within the Islamic world, 00:07:58.620 --> 00:07:58.655 the moment where we get book culture, 00:07:58.655 --> 00:07:59.613 we get also book trade. 00:07:59.613 --> 00:08:21.906 00:08:21.906 --> 00:08:23.448 And I would also make the argument -- 00:08:23.448 --> 00:08:23.526 and that would also lead back to the talks that we had about 00:08:23.526 --> 00:08:23.574 Christian manuscripts and the presence of various Christian 00:08:23.574 --> 00:08:23.598 functionaries, priests and others, 00:08:23.598 --> 00:08:23.658 being in the Middle East and looking for Arab Christian 00:08:23.658 --> 00:08:23.694 material, trying to learn Arabic -- 00:08:23.694 --> 00:08:25.611 we have contact and we have exchange of books. 00:08:25.611 --> 00:08:41.107 00:08:41.107 --> 00:08:43.565 So the moment where we have a book culture, we have also -- 00:08:43.565 --> 00:08:43.600 mmht -- we have books sold internationally. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:43.655 We have the huge problem that, with regards to the early 00:08:43.655 --> 00:08:43.710 modern [era_]-- for the medieval stuff, we have almost no -- 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:43.760 we have almost no preserved books that actually made it 00:08:43.760 --> 00:08:43.770 to Europe. 00:08:43.770 --> 00:08:43.825 But we know from the research of people like Charles Burnett 00:08:43.825 --> 00:08:43.875 that there must have been Arabic texts in some form 00:08:43.875 --> 00:08:44.875 in European collections. 00:08:44.875 --> 00:09:05.678 00:09:05.678 --> 00:09:07.511 So I argue that we have a sophisticated book 00:09:07.511 --> 00:09:07.556 trade in the Middle East. 00:09:07.556 --> 00:09:07.610 And it's a sophisticated book trade 00:09:07.610 --> 00:09:07.664 that distinguishes between high end collectors 00:09:07.664 --> 00:09:07.727 within their own communities, and less sophisticated 00:09:07.727 --> 00:09:09.352 collectors who come and look for stuff. 00:09:09.352 --> 00:09:22.831 00:09:22.831 --> 00:09:24.248 And that from that perspective, it 00:09:24.248 --> 00:09:24.266 is having an international customer base, 00:09:24.266 --> 00:09:24.290 to use a very modern slang, that is 00:09:24.290 --> 00:09:24.311 less sophisticated with regard to what they're 00:09:24.311 --> 00:09:24.344 buying and trying to acquire, gives me, as a book dealer, 00:09:24.344 --> 00:09:24.362 also the possibility of basically selling 00:09:24.362 --> 00:09:24.383 stuff that otherwise I could only recycle. 00:09:24.383 --> 00:09:24.413 I would argue that we have, to a significant amount 00:09:24.413 --> 00:09:24.437 of what we acquire in Western collections, third 00:09:24.437 --> 00:09:24.464 and second grade material that only was still worth 00:09:24.464 --> 00:09:24.488 for a dealer to hold onto because he 00:09:24.488 --> 00:09:24.512 knew he had a foreign customer base that 00:09:24.512 --> 00:09:25.429 was willing to buy it. 00:09:25.429 --> 00:09:55.904 00:09:55.904 --> 00:09:57.946 And to sort of give a little bit more of a schema 00:09:57.946 --> 00:09:57.973 for that, if you think about the book trade, 00:09:57.973 --> 00:09:58.003 and I think that applies to the Islamic book trade 00:09:58.003 --> 00:09:58.033 as well, we have, on the one hand, the makers 00:09:58.033 --> 00:09:58.042 of the commodity. 00:09:58.042 --> 00:09:58.063 And we have in Islamic book trade, 00:09:58.063 --> 00:09:58.075 there's another complicating factor. 00:09:58.075 --> 00:09:58.105 We have a very important tradition of making the books, 00:09:58.105 --> 00:09:58.117 that you use, yourself. 00:09:58.117 --> 00:09:58.147 What Malachi Beit Arié called, with regard to Jewish books, 00:09:58.147 --> 00:09:59.022 user generated books. 00:09:59.022 --> 00:10:22.672 00:10:22.672 --> 00:10:24.880 But at the same time, these user generated books then 00:10:24.880 --> 00:10:24.922 very often, by the next generation, 00:10:24.922 --> 00:10:24.957 actually enter the book trade. 00:10:24.957 --> 00:10:25.006 So user generated books are also something 00:10:25.006 --> 00:10:25.069 that becomes a commercial commodity on a second level. 00:10:25.069 --> 00:10:25.139 And then at the same time, we have formal books. 00:10:25.139 --> 00:10:25.174 Usually, our cataloguing doesn't necessarily 00:10:25.174 --> 00:10:26.841 distinguish between informal and formal. 00:10:26.841 --> 00:10:42.192 00:10:42.192 --> 00:10:44.442 The other thing is we have then two groups of dealers. 00:10:44.442 --> 00:10:44.464 We have a primary market and we have a secondary market. 00:10:44.464 --> 00:10:44.490 Most of the stuff that I will be talking about in the following 00:10:44.490 --> 00:10:44.500 is [from_] the secondary market. 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:44.520 We have quite a bit of knowledge, I would argue, 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:44.542 about high end books -- high end workshops because it's both, 00:10:44.542 --> 00:10:44.564 of a lot of interest to art historians and we have 00:10:44.564 --> 00:10:44.570 the manuscripts preserved. 00:10:44.570 --> 00:10:44.584 But I would argue that with regard 00:10:44.584 --> 00:10:44.604 to our historical research on book production in the Middle 00:10:44.604 --> 00:10:44.622 East, we have a disproportionate knowledge of high end 00:10:44.622 --> 00:10:44.624 production. 00:10:44.624 --> 00:10:44.642 We don't necessarily have good knowledge of cheap books 00:10:44.642 --> 00:10:46.059 and the production of cheap books. 00:10:46.059 --> 00:11:18.860 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:20.840 The other group, and that was actually 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:23.350 quite present in a lot of talks that we had yesterday, 00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:24.770 is the role of the advisor. 00:11:24.770 --> 00:11:27.530 And that is in some ways the éminence grise in all of that. 00:11:27.530 --> 00:11:29.690 Because the advisor is not often acknowledged. 00:11:29.690 --> 00:11:31.190 We don't necessarily know about it. 00:11:31.190 --> 00:11:32.900 And we don't to which degree the advisor 00:11:32.900 --> 00:11:34.520 actually is pulling strings. 00:11:34.520 --> 00:11:36.320 But we have middlemen, and these middlemen 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:41.000 can also be having very fluctuating positions. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:45.860 But the importance of an advisor then sort of advises 00:11:45.860 --> 00:11:47.012 the person who buys. 00:11:47.012 --> 00:11:48.470 And then the other thing is we have 00:11:48.470 --> 00:11:50.282 private and institutional buyers. 00:11:50.282 --> 00:11:52.490 And I think it is also [important_] to keep these two 00:11:52.490 --> 00:11:54.060 things in mind. 00:11:54.060 --> 00:11:58.060 So to complicate the story, I had this already: 00:11:58.060 --> 00:12:00.820 commercial commodity and cultural heritage. 00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:03.160 I wanted to show you, this is a couple 00:12:03.160 --> 00:12:06.370 of quotations from an article about real estate 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:08.440 dealings in Mallorca. 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:12.220 I think one of the problems if I talk about pre-modern book 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:15.580 trade, and we are not necessarily explicitly talking 00:12:15.580 --> 00:12:18.310 about high-end collecting, competitive collecting, 00:12:18.310 --> 00:12:19.840 or bibliophilia. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.240 If you right now look at this material as cultural heritage, 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:26.020 we don't necessarily catch to which degree its trade 00:12:26.020 --> 00:12:30.160 is actually determined by very mundane economic factors. 00:12:30.160 --> 00:12:32.850 And in some ways right now our preference is to think, 00:12:32.850 --> 00:12:35.960 when we think of manuscripts, to think cultural heritage. 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:38.110 It generates, I would argue, intellectual barriers 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:41.380 for better understanding of that. 00:12:41.380 --> 00:12:43.510 And, of course, this is a point where we've 00:12:43.510 --> 00:12:44.680 come to ethical ownership. 00:12:44.680 --> 00:12:47.230 The question of restitution, it wasn't-- we really had not 00:12:47.230 --> 00:12:48.880 discussed that in detail yesterday, 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:52.390 but I think it is important to acknowledge that this is 00:12:52.390 --> 00:12:55.850 the second part of that issue. 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:56.350 possible. 00:12:56.350 --> 00:14:08.780 00:14:08.780 --> 00:14:11.170 And at the same time, whenever you get any auction 00:14:11.170 --> 00:14:13.600 description, to this day, from an auction house, 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.090 they have a disclaimer at the bottom where they tell you, 00:14:16.090 --> 00:14:18.610 you don't have to believe -- they don't take on any 00:14:18.610 --> 00:14:22.590 responsibility for not having provided correct information. 00:14:22.590 --> 00:14:24.770 So it is really caveat emptor. 00:14:24.770 --> 00:14:26.390 So in that regard, the relationship 00:14:26.390 --> 00:14:28.673 between seller and buyer is antagonistic. 00:14:28.673 --> 00:14:30.590 And I think that is also important with regard 00:14:30.590 --> 00:14:34.220 to understanding how material moves. 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:36.410 And we have-- and that's added the complication. 00:14:36.410 --> 00:14:40.240 We have a certain culture of omertá. 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:43.210 For the manuscript that I just had shown you, the Aljamiado 00:14:43.210 --> 00:14:45.580 manuscript, I know the dealer. 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:49.090 Columbia has not put the name of the dealer in the record. 00:14:49.090 --> 00:14:52.360 Columbia will not put in the record what Columbia paid. 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:56.830 So we are generating a culture of silence about this material. 00:14:56.830 --> 00:14:59.980 And I don't know how many of you are 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.530 familiar with the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts 00:15:02.530 --> 00:15:04.090 at the University of Pennsylvania. 00:15:04.090 --> 00:15:07.807 Lawrence Schoenberg donated the collection he and his wife had 00:15:07.807 --> 00:15:09.640 built to Columbia -- to [the University of ] 00:15:09.640 --> 00:15:11.060 Pennsylvania. 00:15:11.060 --> 00:15:13.275 And while he was at a certain point in his life 00:15:13.275 --> 00:15:14.650 having too much cash at his hands 00:15:14.650 --> 00:15:17.290 and decided to invest in scientific manuscripts, 00:15:17.290 --> 00:15:19.900 as somebody who came from IBM, he 00:15:19.900 --> 00:15:24.190 started a database where he was trying to track auction prices. 00:15:24.190 --> 00:15:26.535 Penn has tried to keep this database alive 00:15:26.535 --> 00:15:27.910 and has tried to have people come 00:15:27.910 --> 00:15:30.110 and sort of add information to it. 00:15:30.110 --> 00:15:32.380 But I don't really think it has come off the ground, 00:15:32.380 --> 00:15:34.990 because you don't also, as a buyer, 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:39.250 want to antagonize your dealer, if you actually realize that 00:15:39.250 --> 00:15:41.890 you keep open -- if you sort of openly inform people that you 00:15:41.890 --> 00:15:43.825 actually track what's happening in the market. 00:15:43.825 --> 00:15:46.340 00:15:46.340 --> 00:15:49.390 So that's an added complication. 00:15:49.390 --> 00:15:51.700 What I have here now is the two manuscripts 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:54.880 on which I wanted to focus. 00:15:54.880 --> 00:15:57.280 And this is what got me started on all of this. 00:15:57.280 --> 00:16:01.150 You see on the left the Dioscorides Manuscript 00:16:01.150 --> 00:16:01.950 that is in Bologna. 00:16:01.950 --> 00:16:03.700 Unfortunately, I have never had the chance 00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:04.660 to see that manuscript. 00:16:04.660 --> 00:16:07.030 I learned about it last year when Anna Contadini 00:16:07.030 --> 00:16:09.020 gave a talk about it. 00:16:09.020 --> 00:16:12.478 And so what is fascinating about this manuscript 00:16:12.478 --> 00:16:14.770 that it has this weirdly placed miniature in the middle 00:16:14.770 --> 00:16:16.950 of the manuscript. 00:16:16.950 --> 00:16:20.160 And we know from its provenance history 00:16:20.160 --> 00:16:23.220 that the manuscript was in 1712 in Bologna. 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:26.880 I had always assumed that this type of weird manipulation 00:16:26.880 --> 00:16:30.240 is a very typical modern trade occurrence. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.330 But instead, it is actually something 00:16:33.330 --> 00:16:36.330 that happened pre-modern, which I found extremely fascinating. 00:16:36.330 --> 00:16:39.090 On the other side, you see a medical encyclopedia 00:16:39.090 --> 00:16:42.090 where you have also a completely unrelated figurative painting, 00:16:42.090 --> 00:16:44.910 and the only painting of this sort in the manuscript. 00:16:44.910 --> 00:16:47.580 I will now flip through pages. 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:50.070 You first see various pages from the Dioscorides. 00:16:50.070 --> 00:16:52.650 I show you first, last, a couple of sample pages in between 00:16:52.650 --> 00:16:55.260 that you get some idea of what the overall manuscript looks 00:16:55.260 --> 00:16:55.760 like. 00:16:55.760 --> 00:16:58.050 And then I'm going to do the same with regard 00:16:58.050 --> 00:17:00.060 to the medical encyclopedia. 00:17:00.060 --> 00:17:02.567 So this is the available information about Bologna. 00:17:02.567 --> 00:17:03.900 Bologna is completely digitized. 00:17:03.900 --> 00:17:06.720 But the website doesn't work quite well. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.243 And this is the first page, the textblock is acephalous, 00:17:09.243 --> 00:17:10.410 so the beginning is missing. 00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:12.910 You see, in the left corner, is the stamp of Marsili 00:17:12.910 --> 00:17:14.790 who bought the manuscript. 00:17:14.790 --> 00:17:15.720 This is the last page. 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.269 You have a colophon with a date. 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:20.572 00:17:20.572 --> 00:17:21.780 It's very lovely illustrated. 00:17:21.780 --> 00:17:23.829 It was heavily used and it was also 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:25.890 at a certain point used for actually 00:17:25.890 --> 00:17:29.510 training illustrations. 00:17:29.510 --> 00:17:32.730 And this is not, again, the illustration. 00:17:32.730 --> 00:17:35.900 This is the medical encyclopedia. 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:37.100 That's the first pages. 00:17:37.100 --> 00:17:40.220 This is later added missing text from the beginning. 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:41.720 This is the last page. 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:43.970 You see there the little purple thing 00:17:43.970 --> 00:17:46.580 is the official export stamp of the Iranian government. 00:17:46.580 --> 00:17:49.400 This thing is dated 1341. 00:17:49.400 --> 00:17:54.120 That means we're having an export between 1963 and 1964. 00:17:54.120 --> 00:17:57.680 This is one of the few pages in there that was not re-margined. 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.870 This is a detail to show that this is, indeed, 00:18:00.870 --> 00:18:02.430 an intact page. 00:18:02.430 --> 00:18:04.640 Most of the pages were completely re-margined. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.180 This shamsa is clearly also later addition. 00:18:08.180 --> 00:18:12.030 Here is the only, as far as I can tell, 00:18:12.030 --> 00:18:15.675 the only preserved heading for a table of contents. 00:18:15.675 --> 00:18:17.300 And this is the table of [contents_] -- 00:18:17.300 --> 00:18:20.490 the heading and close-up. 00:18:20.490 --> 00:18:22.140 And here you see -- 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.960 on the left side, you see goftar, the beginning 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:26.040 of the next section. 00:18:26.040 --> 00:18:28.950 And on the opposite, you see this image. 00:18:28.950 --> 00:18:30.360 And these are the bindings. 00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:33.557 Both have later added bindings. 00:18:33.557 --> 00:18:35.640 The Dioscorides is an interesting [codex in ] this 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:38.200 that [the manuscript ] comes from Luigi Marsili. 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:40.020 And so we have two possible points 00:18:40.020 --> 00:18:41.770 where he could have gotten the manuscript. 00:18:41.770 --> 00:18:43.390 He could have bought the manuscript 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:46.090 when he was for almost a year in Turkey 00:18:46.090 --> 00:18:50.230 and stayed with the Venetian, with the Venetian Dragomans 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:51.430 in Istanbul. 00:18:51.430 --> 00:18:55.030 He was also an officer in the Habsburg army, 00:18:55.030 --> 00:18:58.040 and he was involved with the sieges of Buda and Belgrade. 00:18:58.040 --> 00:18:59.980 So he could have gotten the manuscript 00:18:59.980 --> 00:19:01.150 as part of the sieges. 00:19:01.150 --> 00:19:03.250 The manuscript, as far as it has been digitized 00:19:03.250 --> 00:19:04.840 and as far as I've seen cataloguing, 00:19:04.840 --> 00:19:07.570 it doesn't provide any information whatsoever. 00:19:07.570 --> 00:19:09.790 We only know that it was in this version, which 00:19:09.790 --> 00:19:11.800 we have digitized right now, because the first 00:19:11.800 --> 00:19:14.110 and the last page has Marsili's stamp. 00:19:14.110 --> 00:19:16.135 So that suggests that he got it in this version, 00:19:16.135 --> 00:19:16.938 [and_] that it was bound [ without changes 00:19:16.938 --> 00:19:17.800 to the textblock ]. 00:19:17.800 --> 00:19:20.320 Just to show you that, this is how the Dragoman situation 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:23.970 looked like when Marsili stayed there. 00:19:23.970 --> 00:19:26.190 The other manuscript was sold by Hagop Kevorkian, 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:29.160 one of the most important Armenian art dealers. 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:35.970 And just to give you some idea of how wide this network is 00:19:35.970 --> 00:19:38.490 and how important Kevorkian was with regard to building 00:19:38.490 --> 00:19:41.100 American collections, but also selling material 00:19:41.100 --> 00:19:42.810 on the European market. 00:19:42.810 --> 00:19:45.930 And that we really have basically an Armenian family 00:19:45.930 --> 00:19:47.790 network, which is not completely untypical. 00:19:47.790 --> 00:19:51.960 There's a whole -- there are various families who are deeply 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:53.510 involved with antiquities trade. 00:19:53.510 --> 00:19:55.510 And at the same time, you have this Kevorkian -- 00:19:55.510 --> 00:19:57.570 [he is ] a little bit like Yahuda -- 00:19:57.570 --> 00:19:59.220 you have somebody who is working, 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:01.600 being a scholar, but, at the same time, being a dealer. 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:04.800 So we have this ambiguity with regard to advisor roles 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:07.890 that are not necessarily stressing that they actually 00:20:07.890 --> 00:20:09.960 do this for commercial reasons because they also 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.020 can appear like a scholar. 00:20:13.020 --> 00:20:14.853 This is then what happens to the manuscript 00:20:14.853 --> 00:20:16.020 when it comes on the market. 00:20:16.020 --> 00:20:18.570 We have the Persian export stamp. 00:20:18.570 --> 00:20:20.700 Sotheby's tries selling, doesn't sell it, 00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:23.310 it sells it finally in 1981. 00:20:23.310 --> 00:20:25.680 And then it moves around in private collections 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:30.648 till Schoenberg buys it, and now it is in Pennsylvania. 00:20:30.648 --> 00:20:32.940 Pennsylvania right now, when you look the manuscript up 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:34.650 on the website, has enormous amounts 00:20:34.650 --> 00:20:36.990 of information about it, but not good cataloguing. 00:20:36.990 --> 00:20:39.060 This manuscript is advertised as being 00:20:39.060 --> 00:20:43.230 a sort of authentic 14th century manuscript, which 00:20:43.230 --> 00:20:44.700 is a little bit surprising. 00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:47.370 But I think what you have then, that's what I contrasted 00:20:47.370 --> 00:20:50.610 on this slide, is you have basically two damaged 00:20:50.610 --> 00:20:53.220 incomplete presentation copies -- 00:20:53.220 --> 00:20:55.860 and of popular medical textbooks. 00:20:55.860 --> 00:20:58.440 And that also means that we don't have actually text 00:20:58.440 --> 00:20:59.640 critical editions. 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:02.670 It's very difficult to collate the text with regard 00:21:02.670 --> 00:21:05.760 to its completeness and its standards. 00:21:05.760 --> 00:21:09.360 An additional problem is that the Dhakhira-yi Khwaramzshahi 00:21:09.360 --> 00:21:10.500 is super long. 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:12.510 This is about 450,000 words. 00:21:12.510 --> 00:21:14.190 So this is not a short text, this 00:21:14.190 --> 00:21:16.395 is multiples of what the Dioscorides is 00:21:16.395 --> 00:21:17.520 with regards to its length. 00:21:17.520 --> 00:21:20.880 But we also don't have a critical Dioscorides edition. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:23.820 Which is sort of, was one of the surprising discoveries 00:21:23.820 --> 00:21:25.240 when I looked at that. 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:29.790 So what I argue is that the Dioscorides 00:21:29.790 --> 00:21:32.790 is a damaged book that was entered 00:21:32.790 --> 00:21:35.625 into the used-book manuscript trade at a certain point 00:21:35.625 --> 00:21:38.190 because it was damaged enough. 00:21:38.190 --> 00:21:40.620 It still had aspects that made it usable, 00:21:40.620 --> 00:21:43.320 but whoever sold it didn't hide the damage. 00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:46.710 The problem with the Dhakhira is that the Dhakhira 00:21:46.710 --> 00:21:48.600 has-- it's an incomplete text. 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:51.150 But it is presented as an almost complete text. 00:21:51.150 --> 00:21:53.520 And if you look at the cataloguing that comes there, 00:21:53.520 --> 00:21:59.370 it's all exclusively cribbed from auction catalogs. 00:21:59.370 --> 00:22:01.770 And because you have a very long text, 00:22:01.770 --> 00:22:04.170 you don't have any form of easily double checking 00:22:04.170 --> 00:22:05.350 that the text is complete. 00:22:05.350 --> 00:22:07.590 Though I would argue, a very easy way to do it, 00:22:07.590 --> 00:22:09.930 is actually that you don't have nine tables of contents, 00:22:09.930 --> 00:22:10.800 as you should have. 00:22:10.800 --> 00:22:13.020 It's absolutely clear that, already on that level, 00:22:13.020 --> 00:22:16.630 the text is not complete. 00:22:16.630 --> 00:22:20.140 And in both instances, we have figurative paintings 00:22:20.140 --> 00:22:24.010 in the middle of the codex -- which is curious. 00:22:24.010 --> 00:22:25.510 I wanted to show you short [-ly_] -- 00:22:25.510 --> 00:22:27.550 show what is missing from these manuscripts. 00:22:27.550 --> 00:22:30.610 The reason that we have these short uninformative colophons 00:22:30.610 --> 00:22:34.210 in both cases is that, because we have presentation copies, 00:22:34.210 --> 00:22:36.880 we should have actually paratexts at the beginning that 00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:38.210 give us important information. 00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:40.980 So we should have a dedication, we should have a title, 00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:44.160 and we should have some sort of illuminated headpiece 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.110 at the beginning when the text finally starts. 00:22:46.110 --> 00:22:47.820 All of these pieces are missing. 00:22:47.820 --> 00:22:50.070 And [for_] all of these, you could make an argument -- 00:22:50.070 --> 00:22:52.770 if you take the research of people like Elaine Wright 00:22:52.770 --> 00:22:55.920 and others that we have a semantic of, actually, 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:58.630 what a proper Islamic book looks like that has all these parts 00:22:58.630 --> 00:22:59.130 -- 00:22:59.130 --> 00:23:01.140 that these [manuscripts_] were already on this level clearly 00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:03.180 advertising that they were incomplete. 00:23:03.180 --> 00:23:06.420 And I would argue that no -- 00:23:06.420 --> 00:23:09.300 Islam [-ic_] -- bibliophile who understood the Islamic book 00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:13.840 tradition would fall for this stuff in some ways. 00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:15.870 The other thing which I find interesting 00:23:15.870 --> 00:23:18.630 about these two miniatures is that they both actually 00:23:18.630 --> 00:23:21.170 represent visual topoi. 00:23:21.170 --> 00:23:23.720 The one thing is the author portrait. 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:27.770 And in the Dhakhira, we have the weird situation 00:23:27.770 --> 00:23:30.350 of master-student scenes. 00:23:30.350 --> 00:23:33.560 And just to give you some idea that the Dhakhira scene fits 00:23:33.560 --> 00:23:36.125 perfectly into a much longer visual tradition which 00:23:36.125 --> 00:23:37.250 we have in the Middle East. 00:23:37.250 --> 00:23:39.708 So this very famous Theriaken [German version of theriacs = 00:23:39.708 --> 00:23:42.440 antidotes ] manuscript in Paris, and [on_] the other side is 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:45.380 a manuscript in [the_] Aga Khan [Museum, Toronto ], 00:23:45.380 --> 00:23:48.350 which also has a somewhat spurious provenance. 00:23:48.350 --> 00:23:51.140 And I just wanted to show you now how this actually shows 00:23:51.140 --> 00:23:53.000 in sequence with regards to the repair. -- 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:56.800 Ja, I'm almost done. -- 00:23:56.800 --> 00:23:59.278 You see that there is a lacuna after the end 00:23:59.278 --> 00:24:00.070 of the second part. 00:24:00.070 --> 00:24:03.280 You have a page and then you have the miniature. 00:24:03.280 --> 00:24:09.250 So in many ways, the gap in the text is clearly advertised. 00:24:09.250 --> 00:24:15.580 This is how the miniature is inserted into the Persian 00:24:15.580 --> 00:24:16.240 Dhakhira. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:18.280 So you have new leaves. 00:24:18.280 --> 00:24:20.705 The second new leaf has then the miniature. 00:24:20.705 --> 00:24:22.330 And then you have re-margined old leaf. 00:24:22.330 --> 00:24:25.210 And I think the important repair strategy in this content 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.310 is that the whole text is re-margined. 00:24:27.310 --> 00:24:30.820 Giving all pages new margins of the same type of paper 00:24:30.820 --> 00:24:33.370 creates an element of visual unity 00:24:33.370 --> 00:24:36.130 that is doing quite a bit of work here. 00:24:36.130 --> 00:24:37.780 Just to show you this. 00:24:37.780 --> 00:24:39.910 What is a problem that I haven't yet solved 00:24:39.910 --> 00:24:43.360 is that Oxford has a Dioscorides manuscript that 00:24:43.360 --> 00:24:46.750 has an author portrait also preceding the third part. 00:24:46.750 --> 00:24:48.460 So it's in the middle of the text. 00:24:48.460 --> 00:24:52.630 And the problem here is that this is also a manuscript that 00:24:52.630 --> 00:24:53.680 was sold from Iran. 00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:58.690 Osler gets this with the help of a British consul. 00:24:58.690 --> 00:25:04.787 The first 11 leaves in this manuscript are all--were 00:25:04.787 --> 00:25:07.120 at a certain point, all single leaves that got hew stubs 00:25:07.120 --> 00:25:08.037 and were put together. 00:25:08.037 --> 00:25:11.530 So it's completely impossible to reconstruct the collation 00:25:11.530 --> 00:25:14.620 for these early gatherings. 00:25:14.620 --> 00:25:19.330 And just to show you that I have other evidence that -- 00:25:19.330 --> 00:25:22.450 I've looked at this manuscript with conservation in Oxford, 00:25:22.450 --> 00:25:25.690 and I'm very glad that this was possible -- the 00:25:25.690 --> 00:25:29.440 single leaf with the miniature is clearly a single leaf. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:31.600 But how this shows up in this manuscript, 00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:34.527 because it violates all the other formal ways 00:25:34.527 --> 00:25:36.610 in which the manuscript is otherwise put together, 00:25:36.610 --> 00:25:37.520 I don't know. 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:40.600 But the fact-- the provenance with regard to being sold 00:25:40.600 --> 00:25:43.840 in Shiraz -- to me basically suggests that what happened 00:25:43.840 --> 00:25:46.660 there is clearly fishy. 00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:49.000 This is another example of how you actually 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:51.550 advertise an incomplete text that nonetheless 00:25:51.550 --> 00:25:54.400 stays in circulation because it is of interest as a text. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.640 It's a Dilsuz-namah that was once in Istanbul. 00:25:57.640 --> 00:25:59.810 And here, three more Dioscorides. 00:25:59.810 --> 00:26:02.620 This is a Dioscorides without any illustrations. 00:26:02.620 --> 00:26:08.200 And so, an informal text for transmission of knowledge. 00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:10.690 This is the Leiden Dioscorides that is from Samarkand, 00:26:10.690 --> 00:26:12.160 from the 12th century. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:19.600 Here you see, again, a similar layout with regard to Bologna. 00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:22.390 And here, that's the famous Spencer thing. 00:26:22.390 --> 00:26:24.070 And this Spencer, I wanted to show you, 00:26:24.070 --> 00:26:27.310 just to show as the closing argument and closing thought 00:26:27.310 --> 00:26:28.390 to leave you with. 00:26:28.390 --> 00:26:31.900 This is a late 19th century Qajar copy of a manuscript 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:33.910 in the Astan Qods [Razavi Shrine ] in Mashhad. 00:26:33.910 --> 00:26:37.600 So we knew that high-end collectors like Naser-al-Din 00:26:37.600 --> 00:26:41.140 Shah could still command workshops 00:26:41.140 --> 00:26:45.280 that had the skills for doing such form of high-end copy. 00:26:45.280 --> 00:26:48.250 This manuscript also shows to me at least 00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:52.370 that the point of a book is that it can be copied. 00:26:52.370 --> 00:26:54.280 So the whole idea of thinking of the fact 00:26:54.280 --> 00:26:57.100 that the book is produced in order to live forever 00:26:57.100 --> 00:26:58.330 is not necessary. 00:26:58.330 --> 00:27:00.860 And what I find particularly lovely about this one, 00:27:00.860 --> 00:27:03.280 this is the close up of the collation note. 00:27:03.280 --> 00:27:08.080 So in this copy, they took enough care with regard 00:27:08.080 --> 00:27:11.170 to creating this manuscript of a manuscript of a manuscript, 00:27:11.170 --> 00:27:15.130 because this is supposed to be having a 12th century 00:27:15.130 --> 00:27:17.080 model, which nobody really can control 00:27:17.080 --> 00:27:19.975 because it's very hard to get access to Mashhad, to the Astan 00:27:19.975 --> 00:27:21.790 Qods. 00:27:21.790 --> 00:27:25.180 So that's what I was trying to say about paying attention 00:27:25.180 --> 00:27:26.470 to repairs. 00:27:26.470 --> 00:27:27.100 Thank you. 00:27:27.100 --> 00:27:28.300 [AUDIENCE APPLAUDING] 00:27:28.300 --> 00:27:30.990 [MODERATOR]:: Thank you very, very much.