MEMORY OF THE WORLD

Contents

The book is ordered by the date the documents were recorded

Title Page

Foreword

The emotional power of documents

World map

Memory of the World Register

MEMORY OF WORLD DOCUMENTS

The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy

Rigveda

Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer

Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb, Mount Lebanon

The Phoenician alphabet

Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)

Ancient Naxi Dongba literature manuscripts

Mashtots Matenadaran ancient manuscripts collection

Saiva manuscripts in Pondicherry

Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’

Codex Purpureus Beratinus

Vienna Dioscurides

Earliest Islamic (Kufic) inscription

Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman

Lucca’s historical diocesan archives

The Book of Kells

Laghukālacakratantrarājatikā (Vimalaprabhā)

The collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies

Philippine Paleographs (Hanunoo, Buid, Tagbanua and Pala’wan)

Georgian Byzantine manuscripts

Deeds of sultans and princes

Illuminated manuscripts from the Ottonian period produced in the monastery of Reichenau (Lake Constance)

Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century

Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute manuscripts

Codex Suprasliensis

The works of Ibn Sina in the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library

Al-Tafhim li Awa’il Sana’at al-Tanjim

Ostromir Gospel (1056–1057)

Bayeux Tapestry

Archangel Gospel of 1092

Illuminated codices from the library of the Bratislava Chapter House

Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy

The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection

Miroslav Gospel – manuscript from 1180

Tabula Peutingeriana

Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from medieval Europe

Magna Carta, issued in 1215

Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana

MS. GKS 4 2°, vol. I–III, Biblia Latina. Commonly called ‘The Hamburg Bible’

Hereford Mappa Mundi

The King Ram Khamhaeng inscription

Library Ets Haim–Livraria Montezinos

The manuscript of Ubayd Zakoni’s Kulliyat and Hafez Sherozi’s Gazalliyt

Collection of medieval manuscripts of the Czech Reformation

The Deed For Endowment: Rab’ i-Rashidi (Rab i-Rashidi Endowment)

Batu Bersurat, Terengganu (Inscribed Stone of Terengganu)

La Galigo

Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts

Collection of Nezami’s Panj Ganj

Baegun hwasang chorok buljo jikji simche yojeol (vol. II)

Khitrovo Gospel

The Annals of the Joseon dynasty

Kitab al-ibar, wa diwan al-mobtadae wa al-khabar

Slavonic publications in Cyrillic script of the 15th century

Treasures from National Archives and Library organizations

Corpo Cronológico (collection of manuscripts on the Portuguese discoveries)

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

Collection of Gothic architectural drawings

‘Bayasanghori Shâhnâmeh’ (Prince Bayasanghor’s ‘Book of the Kings’)

Stone stele records of royal examinations of the Le and Mac dynasties (1442–1779)

The Hunminjeongum manuscript

The Malatesta Novello Library

The 42-line Gutenberg Bible, printed on vellum

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux at the time of Pierre de Virey (1472)

Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library

Santa Fe Capitulations

Treaty of Tordesillas

Sound Toll Registers

Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha

Archives Insolvente Boedelskamer Antwerpen

Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes

Tabula Hungariae

Beatus Rhenanus Library

Sixteenth to eighteenth century pictographs from ‘Maps, drawings and illustrations’ Archives of Mexico

Negros y Esclavos archives

Collection of Mexican codices

Colección de lenguas indígenas

Bašagic collection of Islamic manuscripts

Collection of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi community in Mexico

Nicolaus Copernicus’ masterpiece ‘De revolutionibus libri sex’

Codices from the Oaxaca Valley

Châtelet de Paris banner register from the reign of Francis I (National Archives Y9, France)

Collection of the manuscripts of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness

Business archives of the Officina Plantiniana

Documentary fonds of Royal Audiencia Court of La Plata (RALP)

The Confederation of Warsaw of 28th of January 1573

Tarikh-e-Khandan-e-Timuriyah

Administrative documents of Astan-e Quds Razavi in the Safavid era

Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)

Tolstoy’s personal library and manuscripts, photo and film collection

Jesuits of America

Codex Techaloyan de Cuajimalpaz

Documentary heritage of enslaved peoples of the Caribbean

El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno

Uigwe: The royal protocols of the court of Joseon dynasty

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

Donguibogam: ‘Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine’

Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals)

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

The IAS Tamil medical manuscript collection

Quebec Seminary collection, 1623–1800 (17th–19th centuries)

Seungjeongwon Ilgi, the diaries of the royal secretariat

Book for the Baptism of Slaves (1636-1670)

Mining maps and plans of the Main Chamber – Count Office in Banská Štiavnica

Collection of 526 prints of university theses from 1637 to 1754

Biblioteca Palafoxiana

Hikayat Hang Tuah

Records of the Qing’s Grand Secretariat

Lu. ‘Altan Tobchi’: Golden History written in 1651

The Atlas Blaeu–Van der Hem

Golden Lists of the Qing dynasty imperial examination

Letters from and to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Archives of the Danish overseas trading companies

Hudson’s Bay Company archival records

Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu archives

Woodblocks of the Nguyễn dynasty

Records of the French occupation of Mauritius

Privateering and the international relations of the Regency of Tunis in the 18th and 19th centuries

Collection of 18th-century maps of the Russian empire

Newspaper collections, Russian Federation

Collection of Arabic manuscripts and books

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Geneva and Neuchâtel collections

Stockholm City Planning Committee archives

Emanuel Swedenborg collection

Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie

Linné collection

Mongolian Tanjur

Qing dynasty Yangshi Lei archives

The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives

Ilseongnok: Records of Daily Reflections

The Endeavour journal of James Cook

National Education Commission archives

Documentary heritage of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Colombeia: Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda’s archives

The Convict Records of Australia

Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789–1791)

Introduction of the decimal metric system, 1790–1837

The Leprosy Archives of Bergen

The Vienna City Library Schubert collection

The masterpieces of Fryderyk Chopin

Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales)

General Archive of the Nation: Writings of The Liberator Simón Bolívar

The Søren Kierkegaard archives

Final document of the Congress of Vienna

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Csoma archive of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

The Bleek collection

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 9, D minor, op. 125

Royal archives (1824–1897)

Catecismo corticu pa uso di catolicanan di Curaçao (first catechism written in Papiamentu language)

Manuscripts and correspondence of Hans Christian Andersen

Records of the Indian indentured labourers

Farquharson’s Journal

Epigraphic archives of Wat Pho

János Bolyai: Appendix, Scientiam Spatii absolute veram exhibens

Brahms collection

Memory of the Suez Canal

The Treaty of Waitangi

The Emperor’s collection

Alfred Nobel family archives

Colonial archives, Benin

The A.E. Nordenskiöld Collection

‘José Martí Pérez’ fonds

Archival documents of King Chulalongkorn’s transformation of Siam (1868–1910)

Arnold Schönberg estate

Jinnah papers (Quaid-i-Azam)

Dainu Skapis – Cabinet of folksongs

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House

Nikola Tesla’s Archive

Benz patent of 1886

Correspondence of the late Sultan of Kedah (1882–1943)

The Historical Collections (1889–1955) of St Petersburg Phonogram Archives

German records of the National Archives

Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party to the people of Queensland

The 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition

Early cylinder recordings of the world’s musical traditions (1893–1952)397

Lumière films

Fonds of the Afrique occidentale française (AOF)

Historic ethnographic recordings (1898–1951) at the British Library

The historical collections (1899–1950) of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv

Letter journals of Hendrik Witbooi

Russian posters of the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Collection of Latin American photographs of the 19th century

Presidential papers of Manuel L. Quezon

Sakubei Yamamoto collection

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

Desmet collection

Roald Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition (1910–1912)

Collection of Jewish musical folklore (1912–1947)

Original records of Carlos Gardel – Horacio Loriente collection (1913–1935)

Archives of the International Prisoners of War Agency, 1914–1923

The Battle of the Somme

Collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian émigré periodicals 1918–1945

League of Nations archives 1919–1946

Constantine collection

First flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922

Kalman Tihanyi’s 1926 patent application ‘Radioskop’

Metropolis – Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version (2001)

C.L.R. James collection

Documentary heritage on the resistance and struggle for human rights in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1961

Sir William Arthur Lewis papers

Thor Heyerdahl archives

Ingmar Bergman archives

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Warsaw Ghetto archives (Emanuel Ringelblum archives)

Astrid Lindgren archives

The Appeal of 18 June 1940

Diaries of Anne Frank

Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office

Archives of the Literary Institute in Paris (1946–2000)

Federal Archives fonds

Audiovisual documents of the international antinuclear movement ‘Nevada-Semipalatinsk’

UNRWA photo and film archives of Palestinian refugees

Los Olvidados

Nita Barrow collection

The Archives of Terror

John Marshall Ju/’hoan bushman film and video collection, 1950–2000

Traditional music sound archives

Neighbours, animated, directed and produced by Norman McLaren in 1952

José Maceda collection

Derek Walcott collection

The Family of Man

Christopher Okigbo collection

Eric Williams collection

The Mabo case manuscripts

Original negative of the Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano

Construction and fall of the Berlin Wall and the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty of 1990

Criminal Court Case No. 253/1963 (The State versus N. Mandela and Others)

Network of information and counter information on the military regime in Brazil (1964–1985)

First Byurakan Survey (FBS or Markarian survey)

Aral Sea archival fonds

Landsat Program records: Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensors

Human Rights Archive of Chile

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives

Human rights documentary heritage, 1976–1983

Liberation Struggle Living Archive Collection

Human rights documentary heritage, 1980

Twenty-One demands, Gdańsk, August 1980

National Literacy Crusade

Radio broadcast of the Philippine People Power Revolution

The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom

Index

Contact information

Photo credits

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

Foreword

by Irina Bokova

Director-General of UNESCO

© UNESCO

UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme in 1992 to protect and promote the world’s documentary heritage through preservation and access – access to encourage protection, and preservation to ensure access.

This vision was vindicated a few months later, when on 25 August 1992, 1.5 million books in the Bosnia National and University Library in Sarajevo were destroyed. With this, a chapter of the history of humanity vanished. Too much of our heritage is lost like this in the heat of conflicts and through the twists and turns of history. Too much also lies hidden and inaccessible in libraries, museums and archives. This documentary heritage carries the memory of human experience. It is a vehicle for identity and a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom. For twenty years, UNESCO has worked to capture and to share this wealth for the benefit of all.

The UNESCO Memory of the World Registry contains today 245 documentary items from all parts of the world – from clay tablets, manuscripts and films to photographs, maps and web pages. This Register is our flagship to preserve, raise awareness and promote access to the documentary treasures of humanity. Preserving this heritage is important for maintaining the cultural heritage and identity of all societies. It safeguards our memories as a force shaping us as social beings in a common humanity.

The Memory of the World encourages every country to establish a national register and propose items for the international register. Heritage can be recorded on any of the carriers used to safeguard memories. These range from listings of archives relating to historical figures, such as Nelson Mandela and Alfred Nobel, to major historical events, voyages of exploration that have transformed the world, and the records of scientific discoveries and anthropological recordings. The scope is as vast, indeed, as is human experience.

Anne Frank’s Diaries or the Epigraphic Archives of Wat Pho need little explanation today. However, other items on the Register, such as the Sakubei Yamamoto collection and the 1824-1897 Royal Archives of Madagascar, may be less well-known but are no less emblematic of human ingenuity.

This book reveals this heritage in all of its diversity. For twenty years, the Memory of the World programme has gone from strength to strength. We must now take it ever further – by increasing nominations from all countries and by raising the visibility of preserving sources of knowledge of outstanding significance. Memory of the World is coming of age at a time when preserving our documentary heritage is more important than ever.

The emotional power of documents

Roslyn Russell PhD

Chair, International Advisory Committee

UNESCO Memory of the World Programme

Among the 245 inscriptions on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives from Cambodia. One photograph in the archives shows a young mother cradling a baby. It is an image that brings to mind countless others of the same subject – a mother and child – especially images of the Madonna and the Christ Child, the essence of serenity and spiritual grace.

But learning of the fate that met this particular mother and child can evoke an almost unbearable pain in the viewer – for these two individuals, after having been meticulously documented in this photograph, were taken out and killed, as were the other subjects of the photographs in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives. These documents form a historical record, to be sure, but they also deliver a powerful emotional charge – and remind us of things that never should be forgotten, or repeated.

World significance, provenance and authenticity, and rarity and uniqueness are key values when assessing the suitability of a nomination of documentary heritage for inscription on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. However, we must never forget the reasons why documents are so important to us, and why we believe so passionately in their preservation.

The historical evidence that documents convey is one reason; others are the beauty and craftsmanship, or the technical innovations some documents display. The capacity of documents to engage our emotions and connect us to people and events in the past is another.

Archivists, librarians and museum curators who work with collections relating to Indigenous people can testify to the powerful emotions that flow when these people find their families mentioned in documents, or see photographs or film footage of their ancestors, or hear recordings of voices speaking their language.

Holy books and writings can also evoke strong emotional responses in members of particular faith systems. For a believer, a document associated with a saint or a prophet is not just a physical object; it possesses a spiritual power over and above its historical significance, or its value as an original, rare or unique item.

The popularity of exhibitions of documents indicates how compelling these can be in connecting people with the past. An exhibition curator explains why visitors flock to see displays of letters by writers, artists, scientists, philosophers, inventors, and political figures: ‘We see the writers’ words directly, unfiltered. The manuscripts give a sense of the authors’ daily lives, friendships, concerns and ambitions, their work and their leisure.’ Original music manuscripts can have the same emotional power, as the viewer sees the erasures, the corrections and the resolutions that lie behind a finished score. Even the pen strokes can convey the passion and intensity of composition. There are few objects of material culture that are more imbued with the personality of their originators than documents such as these.

It is the task of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme to ensure that future generations will be able to access these documents and experience their emotional power, as well as to learn about the historical memories that they convey, or appreciate their beauty and craftsmanship.

Memory of World Register

Albania

Codex Purpureus Beratinus

Angola

Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu archives

Argentina

Documentary heritage of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Human rights documentary heritage, 1976–1983

Armenia

Mashtots Matenadaran ancient manuscripts collection

First Byurakan Survey (FBS or Markarian survey)

Australia

The Endeavour journal of James Cook

The Convict Records of Australia

Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party to the people of Queensland

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

The Mabo case manuscripts

Austria

Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer

Tabula Peutingeriana

Vienna Dioscurides

Collection of Gothic architectural drawings

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library

Tabula Hungariae

The Atlas Blaeu–Van der Hem

The Vienna City Library Schubert collection

Final document of the Congress of Vienna

Brahms collection

Arnold Schönberg estate

The historical collections (1899–1950) of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv

Azerbaijan

Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy

Bahamas

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Farquharson’s Journal

Barbados

Documentary heritage of enslaved peoples of the Caribbean

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Federal Archives fonds

Nita Barrow collection

Belarus

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

Belgium

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Archives Insolvente Boedelskamer Antwerpen

Business archives of the Officina Plantiniana

Belize

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Benin

Colonial archives, Benin

Bermuda

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Bolivia

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness

Documentary fonds of Royal Audiencia Court of La Plata (RALP)

Brazil

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

The Emperor’s collection

Network of information and counter information on the military regime in Brazil (1964–1985)

Bulgaria

Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century

Cambodia

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives

Canada

Quebec Seminary collection, 1623–1800 (17th–19th centuries)

Hudson’s Bay Company archival records

Neighbours, animated, directed and produced by Norman McLaren in 1952

Chile

Jesuits of America

Human Rights Archive of Chile

China

Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)

Ancient Naxi Dongba literature manuscripts

Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)

Records of the Qing’s Grand Secretariat

Golden Lists of the Qing dynasty imperial examination

Qing dynasty Yangshi Lei archives

Traditional music sound archives

Colombia

Negros y Esclavos archives

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness

Croatia

Tabula Hungariae

Cuba

‘José Martí Pérez’ fonds

Original negative of the Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano

Curaçao

Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Catecismo corticu pa uso di catolicanan di Curaçao (first catechism written in Papiamentu language)

Czech Republic

Collection of medieval manuscripts of the Czech Reformation

Collection of 526 prints of university theses from 1637 to 1754

Collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian émigré periodicals 1918–1945

Denmark

The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection

MS. GKS 4 2°, vol. I–III, Biblia Latina. Commonly called ‘The Hamburg Bible’

Sound Toll Registers

El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno

Archives of the Danish overseas trading companies

Linné collection

The Søren Kierkegaard archives

Manuscripts and correspondence of Hans Christian Andersen

Dominica

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Dominican Republic

Book for the Baptism of Slaves (1636-1670)

Documentary heritage on the resistance and struggle for human rights in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1961

Egypt

Deeds of sultans and princes

Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts

Memory of the Suez Canal

Estonia

The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom

Ethiopia

Treasures from National Archives and Library organizations

Finland

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

The A.E. Nordenskiöld Collection

Fiji

Records of the Indian indentured labourers

France

Bayeux Tapestry

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux at the time of Pierre de Virey (1472)

Beatus Rhenanus Library

Châtelet de Paris banner register from the reign of Francis I (National Archives Y9, France)

Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789–1791)

Introduction of the decimal metric system, 1790–1837

Lumière films

The Appeal of 18 June 1940

Georgia

Georgian Byzantine manuscripts

Germany

Illuminated manuscripts from the Ottonian period produced in the monastery of Reichenau (Lake Constance)

Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from medieval Europe

The 42-line Gutenberg Bible, printed on vellum

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes

Letters from and to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives

Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 9, D minor, op. 125

Benz patent of 1886

Early cylinder recordings of the world’s musical traditions (1893–1952)

Metropolis – Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version (2001)

Construction and fall of the Berlin Wall and the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty of 1990

Ghana

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Guyana

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Records of the Indian indentured labourers

Hungary

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Tabula Hungariae

Csoma archive of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

János Bolyai: Appendix, Scientiam Spatii absolute veram exhibens

Kalman Tihanyi’s 1926 patent application ‘Radioskop’

Iceland

The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection

India

Rigveda

Saiva manuscripts in Pondicherry

Laghukālacakratantrarājatikā (Vimalaprabhā)

Tarikh-e-Khandan-e-Timuriyah

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

The IAS Tamil medical manuscript collection

Indonesia

La Galigo

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

Iran

Al-Tafhim li Awa’il Sana’at al-Tanjim

The Deed For Endowment: Rab’ i-Rashidi (Rab i-Rashidi Endowment)

Collection of Nezami’s Panj Ganj

‘Bayasanghori Shâhnâmeh’ (Prince Bayasanghor’s ‘Book of the Kings’)

Administrative documents of Astan-e Quds Razavi in the Safavid era

Ireland

The Book of Kells

Italy

Lucca’s historical diocesan archives.

The Malatesta Novello Library

Bibliotheca Corviniana

Jamaica

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Japan

Sakubei Yamamoto collection

Kazakhstan

Collection of the manuscripts of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

Audiovisual documents of the international antinuclear movement ‘Nevada-Semipalatinsk’

Aral Sea archival fonds

Korea (Republic of )

Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana

Baegun hwasang chorok buljo jikji simche yojeol (vol. II)

The Annals of the Joseon dynasty

The Hunminjeongum manuscript

Uigwe: The royal protocols of the court of Joseon dynasty

Donguibogam: ‘Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine’

Seungjeongwon Ilgi, the diaries of the royal secretariat

Ilseongnok: Records of Daily Reflections

Human rights documentary heritage, 1980

Latvia

Dainu Skapis – Cabinet of folksongs

The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom

Lebanon

Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb, Mount Lebanon

The Phoenician alphabet

Lithuania

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom

Luxembourg

The Family of Man

Madagascar

Royal archives (1824–1897)

Malaysia

Batu Bersurat, Terengganu (Inscribed Stone of Terengganu)

Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals)

Hikayat Hang Tuah

Correspondence of the late Sultan of Kedah (1882–1943)

Mauritius

Records of the French occupation of Mauritius

Mexico

Sixteenth to eighteenth century pictographs from ‘Maps, drawings and illustrations’ Archives of Mexico

Collection of Mexican codices

Colección de lenguas indígenas

Collection of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi community in Mexico

Codices from the Oaxaca Valley

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness

Codex Techaloyan de Cuajimalpaz

Peru

Biblioteca Palafoxiana

Los Olvidados

Mongolia

Lu. ‘Altan Tobchi’: Golden History written in 1651

Mongolian Tanjur

Morocco

Kitab al-ibar, wa diwan al-mobtadae wa al-khabar

Namibia

Letter journals of Hendrik Witbooi

Netherlands

Library Ets Haim–Livraria Montezinos

La Galigo

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie

Desmet collection

Diaries of Anne Frank

New Zealand

The Treaty of Waitangi

The 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition

Nicaragua

National Literacy Crusade

Norway

The Leprosy Archives of Bergen

Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House

Roald Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition (1910–1912)

Thor Heyerdahl archives

Pakistan

Jinnah papers (Quaid-i-Azam)

Panama

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Paraguay

The Archives of Terror

American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness

Philippines

Philippine Paleographs (Hanunoo, Buid, Tagbanua and Pala’wan)

Presidential papers of Manuel L. Quezon

José Maceda collection

Radio broadcast of the Philippine People Power Revolution

Poland

Codex Suprasliensis

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

Nicolaus Copernicus’ masterpiece ‘De revolutionibus libri sex’

The Confederation of Warsaw of 28th of January 1573

National Education Commission archives

The masterpieces of Fryderyk Chopin

Warsaw Ghetto archives (Emanuel Ringelblum archives)

Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office

Archives of the Literary Institute in Paris (1946–2000)

Twenty-One demands, Gdańsk, August 1980

Portugal

Corpo Cronológico (collection of manuscripts on the Portuguese discoveries)

Treaty of Tordesillas

Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha

Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu archives

First flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922

Russian Federation

Codex Suprasliensis

Ostromir Gospel (1056–1057)

Archangel Gospel of 1092

Khitrovo Gospel

Slavonic publications in Cyrillic script of the 15th century

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

Tolstoy’s personal library and manuscripts, photo and film collection

Collection of 18th-century maps of the Russian empire

Newspaper collections, Russian Federation

The Historical Collections (1889–1955) of St Petersburg Phonogram Archives

Russian posters of the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Saint Lucia

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Sir William Arthur Lewis papers

Saudi Arabia

Earliest Islamic (Kufic) inscription

Senegal

Fonds of the Afrique occidentale française (AOF)

Serbia

Miroslav Gospel – manuscript from 1180

Nikola Tesla’s Archive

Slovakia

Illuminated codices from the library of the Bratislava Chapter House

Bašagic collection of Islamic manuscripts

Mining maps and plans of the Main Chamber – Count Office in Banská Štiavnica

Slovenia

Codex Suprasliensis

South Africa

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

The Bleek collection

Criminal Court Case No. 253/1963 (The State versus N. Mandela and Others)

Liberation Struggle Living Archive Collection

Spain

Santa Fe Capitulations

Treaty of Tordesillas

Sri Lanka

Archives of the Dutch East India Company

Suriname

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie

Records of the Indian indentured labourers

Sweden

Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’

Stockholm City Planning Committee archives

Emanuel Swedenborg collection

Alfred Nobel family archives

Ingmar Bergman archives

Astrid Lindgren archives

Switzerland

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Geneva and Neuchâtel collections

Tajikistan

The manuscript of Ubayd Zakoni’s Kulliyat and Hafez Sherozi’s Gazalliyt

Tanzania

Collection of Arabic manuscripts and books

German records of the National Archives

Thailand

The King Ram Khamhaeng inscription

Epigraphic archives of Wat Pho

Archival documents of King Chulalongkorn’s transformation of Siam (1868–1910)

Trinidad and Tobago

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Records of the Indian indentured labourers

Constantine collection

C.L.R. James collection

Derek Walcott collection

Eric Williams collection

Tunisia

Privateering and the international relations of the Regency of Tunis in the 18th and 19th centuries

Turkey

The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy

Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute manuscripts

The works of Ibn Sina in the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library

Ukraine

Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection

Collection of Jewish musical folklore (1912–1947)

United Kingdom

Magna Carta, issued in 1215

Hereford Mappa Mundi

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

Historic ethnographic recordings (1898–1951) at the British Library

The Battle of the Somme

The Appeal of 18 June 1940

United States of America

Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes

Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives

Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

John Marshall Ju/’hoan bushman film and video collection, 1950–2000

Landsat Program records: Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensors

Uruguay

Original records of Carlos Gardel – Horacio Loriente collection (1913–1935)

Uzbekistan

Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman

The collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies

Venezuela

Colombeia: Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda’s archives

General Archive of the Nation: Writings of The Liberator Simón Bolívar

Collection of Latin American photographs of the 19th century

Vietnam

Stone stele records of royal examinations of the Le and Mac dynasties (1442–1779)

Woodblocks of the Nguyễn dynasty

Other

Christopher Okigbo Foundation (Africa) Christopher Okigbo collection

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Archives of the International Prisoners of War Agency, 1914–1923

United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) League of Nations archives 1919–1946

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) UNRWA photo and film archives of Palestinian refugees

Joint Inscriptions between 2 or more countries.

MEMORY OF WORLD DOCUMENTS

ORDERED BY THE DATE THEY WERE RECORDED

The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy

Inscribed 2001

What is it

Ancient Hittite texts preserved in cuneiform on 25,000 clay tablets.

Why was it inscribed

The Bogazköy archive of cuneiform tablets is the only source of information on the Hittites as well as on the social, political and commercial activities of the area. The archive sheds light not only on that area and period, but also on the history and the civilization of human kind as a whole.

Where is it

Archaeological Museums of Istanbul and Anatolian Civilizations Museum of Ankara, Turkey

Anatolia forms a bridge between Europe and Asia, and the area has been the cradle of many civilizations. The Hittites ruled here for nearly 600 years in the 2nd millennium BC, after moving from the Caucasus. They established a powerful state within a bend of the Kızılırmak river (the ancient Halys) with its capital at Bogazköy. The civilization of the Hittites was advanced in its military achievements, political organization, legislation and the administration of justice. Their military, political, social and commercial relations with neighbouring countries were all recorded and kept in archives meticulously.

Ancient Hittite cuneiform script

The state had a federal structure, and the central government was headed by the king who was also the commander of the army, the supreme judicial authority and the chief priest, though he was never actually deified. In fact, the Hittite king, for the first time in the history of the ancient east, possessed no divine attributes.

Excavations from 1906 to 1970 at Bogazköy (ancient Hattusas) uncovered thousands of cuneiform clay tablets in the Great Palace and in the Great Temple. The Bogazköy archive consists of nearly 25,000 cuneiform clay tablets and is the only extant material about the civilization of the Hittites. The tablets are mostly on political, military, social, commercial, religious and artistic topics relating to the Hittites and the neighbouring nations. The archive also includes sets of tablets on law codes, national and international treaties and correspondence.

The archive includes tablets of the Treaty of Quadesh signed between Hittites and Egypt. This well-known treaty of ‘eternal peace’ guaranteed harmony and security throughout the area for a considerable length of time. Now a symbol of the movement for peace, the Treaty of Quadesh adorns the walls of the United Nations Building in New York.

The archive includes tablets of many literary works, chiefly of an epic and mythological character; some of the most important of these tell the story of the exploits and quarrels of the gods. The tablets show the existence of eight different languages, illustrating the polyglot nature of the Hittite Empire.

The correspondence and other documents in the archive have a universal importance since they contain important information not only on the Hittite Empire, but also on the political and civil life of other neighbouring states and cities. Most of our knowledge relating to that period of history in Asia Minor and partially in the Arab region comes from the cuneiform tablets found at Bogazköy.

Sphinx Gate of Hattusas, Turkey

Rigveda

Inscribed 2007

What is it

Thirty manuscripts of the Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas which are the Hindu sacred texts of scripture. The Rigveda contains a collection of Sanskrit hymns and prayers and is believed to date to between 1700 BC and 1100 BC.

Why was it inscribed

The Vedas are among the first literary documents in human history but their significance goes beyond their scriptural importance. The Rigveda is considered the source of the culture that spread beyond the subcontinent to South, Southeast and Central Asia.

Where is it

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, India

The Rigveda is a book of Sanskrit prayers, songs and hymns and is more than 3000 years old. The songs’ composers represent the origins of different families which are considered as the ancestors of the Hindus.

The hymns of the Rigveda vary in nature: most are written in praise and petition to different gods, while others are pieces of poetry. Some are connected with sacrificial rituals, and others accompany specific ceremonies, including marriage and funeral rites. Hymns of creation also feature together with beautiful descriptions of nature and considerations of various aspects of human behaviour.

The language in the Rigveda suggests that it is not a single, unitary work but instead is comprised of earlier and later elements. In fact, the manuscripts are believed to be the composition of several generations of poet-priests over a period of centuries. The songs and prayers also belong to different geographical regions, mostly on the Indian subcontinent, as illustrated by the variety of natural phenomena they mention.

The Vedic culture spread across Central and South Asia and was a significant contributor to the growth and development of Asian civilization. Some scholars also claim the culture extended as far as Europe in prehistoric times. So as well as its place as a sacred text of the Hindus, the Rigveda is considered an important text in studies of comparative religion and mythology, ritual, anthropology, prehistory and poetry.

The Institute holds thirty manuscripts of Rigveda from across India. Of these, twenty-nine are written on paper and one, from Kashmir, is on birch bark. Several of the manuscripts contain the complete intact text of the Rigveda, which is rare. Nevertheless, all are important in the cultural and social heritage of the world. Thirteen manuscripts contain one of the oldest available commentaries on the text, while another five have the Padapatha, the traditional word analysis of the text. These aids have helped greatly in interpreting and understanding the Rigveda.

A modern-day printing of the Rigveda

Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer

Inscribed 2001

What is it

A collection of around 180,000 written objects: papyri, parchment and paper; wooden tablets; ostraka, or pieces of inscribed pottery; cloths; and leather scrolls. The items date from the 15th century BC up to the 16th century AD.

Why was it inscribed

This collection of writing materials and languages is one of the most extensive in the world. Many of the important languages of the ancient world are represented in written form, including Egyptian, from hieroglyphics to Coptic; Greek; Latin; Hebrew and Aramaic; and Arabic. The papyri material covers a wide range of subject matter, from school and legal texts to writings on medicine, war and magic. Together, they allow insights into societies and cultures which have long since disappeared.

Where is it

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

The collection was begun by Austrian historian and Orientalist Professor Josef von Karabacek, who was among the first to realise the importance of the papyri found at the Fayum oasis in Egypt in the late 1870s and early ’80s. Together with his collaborator Theodor Graf, Professor von Karabacek imported thousands of the finds into Austria. Archduke (or Erzherzog) Rainer, a former prime minister and a member of the Habsburg royal family, bought the collection in 1883.

Material continued to come from Egypt and the collection grew to almost its present size within a few years. In 1899 Professor von Karabacek became head of the Imperial Court Library and that same year the archduke gave his collection as a birthday gift to the Emperor Franz Josef I, requesting that it be placed in the Court Library.

The material in the papyri covers every aspect of life: literature, school texts, magic, religion, the afterlife, legal affairs, financial transactions, military matters, medicine, books and writing. Together, they offer a direct insight into the world as it was known at the time. For example, many of the cities, villages, churches and temples of ancient Egypt are known through these papyri. Byzantine tax receipts form a large part of the records, allowing the reconstruction of aspects of the social and economic history of the Byzantine Empire. Roman military papers reveal aspects of governance in Egypt and beyond. Family archives from various periods also feature in the collection.

Erzherzog Rainer, who acquired the collection in 1883.

The Fayum oasis in Egypt, where the papyri were first found in the 1870s.

Among the most important items are the Greek papyri from the period between the end of Byzantine rule and the start of the Muslim control in Egypt in the 7th century AD. The period was one of upheaval, and the contents of the papyri document this. Other items include the oldest written Arabic text and a receipt, written in both Greek and Arabic, dating from the start of Muslim rule in the country.

The collection’s treasures include some unique religious texts of great importance for the documenting of the ancient Egyptian religion, Christianity and Islam. These include Books of the Dead (including one with gilded pictures), rare New Testament papyri and the oldest-known fragment of the biography of the Prophet Mohammed.

Also among the vast wealth of material are individual special items of particular interest. Included is possibly the only surviving piece of the Library of Alexandria, as well as the oldest-known fragment of an ancient song. The works of many ancient writers and poets are represented here.

Many of the most important languages in the Old World exist in original writing in the collection. Examples include the Egyptian languages in their different forms: hieroglyphics, hieratic, demotic and Coptic, as well as Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Pehlewi (Middle Persian). Most numerous are the texts in Arabic and Greek, which was the language of the establishment and of administration for almost a millennium from around 300 BC onwards.

The Austrian National Library has a separate Papyrus Museum which features some highlights of the collection and allows an insight into the lives of some of the people who lived in the Nile Valley over a period of 3000 years.

Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb, Mount Lebanon

Inscribed 2005

What is it

A series of commemorative stelae (carved stone tablets) depicting Lebanese history from the 14th century BC to the present through the inscriptions left by successive armies.

Why was it inscribed

Situated on a strategic north-south road, the stelae, carved with inscriptions in different languages, evoke the history of Lebanon and testify to its relations with the rest of the Middle East and the West.

Where is it

Nahr el-Kalb, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon

The commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb, the Lycus or Dog River, on Mount Lebanon are a series of stone tablets depicting Lebanese history from the 14th century BC to the present through the inscriptions left by successive armies: Pharaonic, Assyro-Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Arab, French and British. Situated at a difficult and very steep crossing point on an important north-south road, the stelae were carved into the rocks with inscriptions in different languages. They evoke the history of Lebanon and testify to its relations with the rest of the Middle East and the West.

The hillside where the stelae are carved forms a strategic location, protected by a water course and steep escarpment that commands the coast road which links the south of the country to the north. From the time of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the road was taken by the Pharaonic armies for two reasons: to ensure easy, rapid access to the timber of the Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libanus), a rare and valuable commodity in Egypt; and to block the road to invaders from the north, in particular the Mitanni and the Hittites. The first stele was built by the pharaoh, Ramses II. Likewise, the Assyro-Babylonians, coming from Mesopotamia, planned their incursions to gain free access to the Mediterranean in order to spread out in all directions. Later conquerors, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Mameluks, Ottomans, French and British, followed suit, marking their passage with stelae which remain the best evidence of their presence.

Commemorative stelae have been carved into the hillside since prehistoric times, marking the passage of armies through the dangerous pass of Nahr el-Kalb, near Mount Lebanon. The stele illustrated here commemorates the passage of French troops in 1861 during the rule of Napoleon III.

This stele marks the passage of French troops under General Gouraud in July 1920, on their way to Damascus.

The stelae are carved in soft, chalky limestone. In all there are twenty-two stelae, carved in many languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform, Greek, Latin, English, French and Arabic. The series of stelae, unique in number and style, are in imminent danger of erosion, on the one hand, and vandalism on the other, making protection and conservation measures a matter of necessity and urgency.

The Phoenician alphabet

Inscribed 2005

What is it

The Phoenician alphabet, developed in 13th-century BC Phoenicia, is a non-pictographic, consonantal alphabet.

Why was it inscribed

The Phoenician alphabet is the writing system that is regarded as the prototype for all alphabets of the world today.

Where is it

Stele no. I is in cadastral lot n.35 that falls within the municipality of Zouk Mosbeh. Stelae nos. II–XXII are located in plot n.98 that belongs to the Order of Antonine (Wakf St Joseph – City of Dbayeh)

The Phoenician alphabet was developed in the 13th century BC in Phoenicia, an area that spanned much of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean in the region of Canaan, the zone of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent. Phoenicia was a seafaring nation with trading links mostly along the southern shores of the Mediterranean, and by the 13th century BC it was the foremost maritime power in the region.

Trading and cultural links brought the Phoenicians into contact with the writing systems used in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the two major powers of the time. The Phoenicians used both these alphabets – hieroglyphics and cuneiforms – but in the 13th century they devised their own system.

What made the new alphabet so innovative was that it used the sounds of the contemporary Phoenician dialect and represented them in letter form. Unlike pictograph-based writing systems, a phonetic alphabet cut down on the number of characters needed for expression, thus simplifying the language and making it easier to use. Their writing system spread into the western and eastern worlds.

There were twenty-two letterforms in the Phoenician alphabet, which was an abjad – that is, all of its letters were consonants. It is widely seen as the precursor to most of the major alphabets in use today. As Greece became the economic and cultural powerhouse, so the Phoenicians’ alphabet gradually gave way to the Greek; furthermore, some letters were modified to function as vowels. However, traces of the Phoenician alphabet can still be found in the Roman era in the 1st century AD.

The sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos bears the oldest example still extant of the full Phoenician alphabet, from around 1200 BC.

Monument to the Phoenician alphabet at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Byblos, Lebanon.

The oldest example still extant of the full alphabet dates from around 1200 BC and is engraved on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Byblos, a Phoenician city.

Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)

Inscribed 2011

What is it

The earliest and most important written work of traditional Chinese medicine. It was compiled over 2200 years ago.

Why was it inscribed

It contains the two basic theories of Chinese medicine, the theories of Yinyang and the Five Elements, and is regarded as the fundamental medical text from which traditional Chinese medicine was systematically recorded, standardized, developed and now applied by and to people of different countries and races.

Where is it

National Library of China, Beijing, China

The Huang Di Nei Jing was compiled some 2200 years ago and it laid down the foundation and inspired further development of traditional Chinese medicine, not only in China but also in neighbouring countries and beyond. Based on the theoretical principles of Yinyang, Qi (or life force) and the Five Elements (or phases), it provides a systematic summary of the relationship between physical and mental activities and the pathological changes in the human body, covering internal medicine, surgery, gynaecology, pediatrics and infectious diseases.

The Huang Di Nei Jing was the first medical text that departed from the old shamanistic beliefs that disease was caused by demonic influences. It expounds the concept of health with the philosophical thinking of Taoism and Confucianism. It sees diseases as closely related to diet, emotion, lifestyle, environment, age and heredity. Emphasis is placed on the unity of man and nature, and the holistic idea of body and mind. Accordingly, human activities should be in conformity with the regular changes in nature, including climatic changes of the four seasons, alternation of day and night and the cyclic phases of the moon. At the same time, emotions should be adjusted and desires restrained, with ethical considerations given to high moral value, an essential element of self-control. The book discusses the principles and prescribes methods of diagnosis and treatment of diseases. A large number of ‘modern’ diseases such as malaria, gout, diabetes, coronary heart disease, rheumatic arthritis and cerebrovascular problems are mentioned in the book with detailed analyses and treatment methods.

The earliest-surviving printed copy of the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, dating from 1339, over 1000 years after the text was first written down.

The book is written in an interlocutory pattern, with the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) raising questions on medical issues and his sage physicians, Qibo and Leigong answering by explaining medical theories and principles with illustrations of clinical experience and practices. The text is written in lively and yet poetic rhyming language, which demonstrates the rich medical knowledge and refined literary culture in China at the time.

Many scholars believe that the Huang Di Nei Jing was not compiled by a single author within a limited period of time; rather, it was the fruit of the joint efforts of many experienced and dedicated physicians over the centuries. The major part of the book was completed with various editions in the Warring States period of Chinese history (475–221 BC) with supplements and revisions made in the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). The original Huang Di Nei Jing had been copied onto bamboo slips, silk scrolls and paper until it was officially published during the 9th and 10th centuries AD. It was further edited by the government-authorized Bureau of Revising Medical Works of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The National Library of China’s copy was printed in 1339 by Hu’s Gulin Sanctum using woodblock printing and is the earliest and the best-preserved version in existence.>

Ancient Naxi Dongba literature manuscripts

Inscribed 2003

What are they

The collection contains 1000 volumes on a variety of subjects dating from c.AD 30 to the Tang dynasty (618–907) in a pictographic script using more than 2000 characters. It is the only surviving script of its type in the world.

Why were they inscribed

These documents represent a unique form of script and written culture which represent an important part of the heritage of mankind.

Where are they

Dongba Culture Research Institute, Lijang county, Yunnan, China

The Naxi people are the descendants of the ancient Qiang tribe, who inhabited the Huang He and Huang Shui valleys in northwest China. After constant nomadic migration, the early Naxi finally settled down in eastern and western areas along the upper reaches of the Jinsha river. Today approximately 300,000 Naxi live at the junction of Yunnan province, Sichuan province and the Tibet autonomous region.

Despite the extremely difficult environmental conditions and the lack of material wealth, the Naxi still managed to create a unique and distinctive ethnic culture. As a consequence of being handed down through a religion whose priests were called ‘Dongbas’, this ancient culture acquired the name of ‘Dongba culture’. Thus, all the pictographic characters, scriptures, ritual dancing, artworks and utensils related to this culture are prefixed by the word ‘Dongba’. What is a continual surprise to many people and what makes this culture remarkable is the fact that the Naxi ancestors were able to create a system of writing with more than 2000 characters, using a particular pictographic script to write down their customs and scriptures. The scripts for writing the ancient Dongba literature are of great value for studies of the origin and development of written languages. It holds an irreplaceable position in the history of the development of the written languages, and is more primitive than the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang dynasty. It is the only surviving script of this type in the world.

The collection records all the aspects of the Dongba culture, ranging from the creation of the world through philosophy, economics, military affairs, culture, astronomy and farming to the social life of the Naxi people, and is an encyclopedia of their ancient society; it also covers every aspect of their religious rituals including praying for blessings, sacrificial offerings for exorcising evils, funerals and divination. The scriptures were written on the tough local paper with bamboo pens and were bound with threads. Written in a unique way and style, all the scripts in Dongba literature look like beautiful paintings. They are also of great value for comparative studies of the techniques of papermaking and binding of literature in ancient times. As they cannot withstand natural ageing and incessant handling, the challenge of how to safeguard this rare and irreproducible heritage is under study. Dongba literature, except for that which is already collected and stored, is on the brink of disappearing, and Dongba culture itself is becoming dispersed and is slowly dying out as a result of the impact of other powerful cultures. There are only a few masters left who can read the scriptures.

There is insufficient evidence to set accurately the time and place of creation of Naxi ancient literature and the Dongba script. However, it is of great value for studies into the origin of classical Chinese, and quite possibly, as Tibetan Buddhism also had a great influence on the Dongba religion, the origins of ancient Naxi Dongba literature may lie not only in the southwest of China, but also in some of the bordering countries.

A modern example of the Dongba pictograms used by the Naxi people in Yunnan province in southern China.

Dongba pictograms used by the Naxi people, the only system of pictograms still in use today.

Mashtots Matenadaran ancient manuscripts collection

Inscribed 1997

What is it

A collection of around 17,000 manuscripts from every sphere of ancient and medieval science and culture in Armenia.

Why was it inscribed

The Matenadaran collection is one of the foremost and most important sets of ancient and medieval manuscripts in the world. The collection covers a broad subject range.

Where is it

Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, Yerevan, Armenia

The Matenadaran (which in Armenian means ‘manuscript repository’) holds a collection of priceless medieval manuscripts that are rare in themselves and are exceptional in the scope of their subject matter. The collection covers religion, history, geography, philosophy, grammar, law, medicine, mathematics and literature, as well as manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Syriac, Latin, Ethiopian, Indian and Japanese.

The Matenadaran was founded at Etchmiadzin at the start of the 4th century AD by the first catholicos (the supreme patriarch) of the Armenian Orthodox Church. It was a centre for the preservation of Greek and Syriac manuscripts and, from the 5th century onwards, the main translation centre in Armenia.

Its position in the Caucasus left Armenia vulnerable to invasion and the country suffered repeatedly. By the start of the 18th century, what had been a rich manuscript collection was reduced to a small percentage of its previous size. Greater stability came when Eastern Armenia was incorporated into Russia in the early 19th century and the collection began to grow again. In 1939 the Matenadaran was transferred to Yerevan where research work is still a major activity today. The treasures of Armenian culture, spread around the world, are still being actively sought and donated to the immense collection.

The oldest relics of Armenian literature date back to the 5th and 6th centuries. Only fragments from this period have survived, often as flyleaves to the bindings of manuscripts. Medieval bookbinders often sewed in leaves of parchment of older or no-longer-used manuscripts between the cover and the first page of a book to protect the writing from coming into contact with the binding. Thanks to this practice, specimens of those earlier works have been preserved. Other pages have been found in caves, in ruins or buried in the ground.

The collection contains the work of the church fathers and other Armenian translations from Greek or Syriac of the 5th century AD, the originals of which have disappeared. These include Six Hundred Questions and Answers about the Book of Genesis by Philo of Alexandria; a body of works of spiritual revelation by Hermes Trismegistos; writings by Basil of Caesarea; and the Chronicon by Eusebius of Caesarea, a vital source for the history of the first three centuries of Christianity.

The oldest binding and miniatures in the Matenadaran date back to the 6th century. The oldest complete manuscript is the Lazarian Gospel, written in AD 887 on parchment, while the oldest extant Armenian paper manuscript is a collection of scientific, historical and philosophical work dating back to AD 981.

St Mesrop Mashtots, after whom the institute and its collection are named, devised the Armenian alphabet in AD 405.

Saiva manuscripts in Pondicherry

Inscribed 2005

What is it

This collection of 11,000 palm-leaf and paper manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam focuses mainly on the religion and worship of the Hindu god Siva in southern India.

Why were they inscribed

It includes the largest collection in the world of manuscripts of texts of the Saiva Siddhanta, a religious tradition whose primary deity is the god Siva, which spread across the Indian subcontinent and beyond, as far as Cambodia, but which, from the 12th century, became restricted to southern India.

Where are they

French Institute of Pondicherry and the École française d’Extrême-Orient, Pondicherry, India

The Sanskrit scriptures of the Saiva Siddhanta were widely spread over the whole of the Indian subcontinent ten centuries ago. The influence of the Saiva Siddhanta can be found in Cambodia and Java and in the ritual traditions of all the Tantric and subsequent theistic traditions in India. After a period of wide-reaching influence, this religious tradition fell into abeyance everywhere but in Tamil-speaking southern India: there is no evidence of adherents of the Saiva Siddhanta outside that area after the 12th century. Surviving post-12th-century ritual treatises, commentaries and other religious literature of the school all appear to have been written in the Tamil-speaking area.

Two large collections of palm-leaf and paper manuscripts of Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam texts are preserved in French research institutions in the south Indian town of Pondicherry. The 1662 palm-leaf bundles at the Pondicherry Centre of the École française d’Extrême-Orient belong to a single collection from the Tirunelveli district in the south of India. More than a third of this material (about 650 bundles) relates to the cult of the Hindu god Visnu and at least sixty of these Vaisnava manuscripts transmit texts that have never been published. The major collection, however, is that of the French Institute of Pondicherry, which includes 8187 palm-leaf bundles and 360 paper codices. The manuscripts have been collected from every area of the Tamil-speaking south of India and the collection contains texts of every branch of pre-colonial Indian learning. Nearly half of the material relates to the worship of the god Siva. The surviving texts, the majority of them unpublished, were originally written from the 6th century to the colonial period.

Although some of the texts are of very great antiquity, these South Indian manuscript copies belong for the most part to the 19th century. Palm-leaf manuscripts kept in South India can perish extremely rapidly and no surviving examples are known to be older than three centuries. As for the paper manuscripts of the collection, they have tended to be much more regularly consulted, being much easier to read, and the most used are now very fragile.

An example of a palm-leaf manuscript showing how the text is written on to palm leaves and how the bundles of leaves are joined together.

Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’

Inscribed 2011

What is it

The Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’ – is a remnant of a liturgical book of the four Gospels written in the Gothic language for Arian Christian Church services in the early 6th century.

Why was it inscribed

The ‘Silver Bible’ contains the most comprehensive extant text in the Gothic language and is one of the world’s best-known remaining artefacts from Gothic culture. Its historical value lies in its contribution to the spread of Christianity.

Where is it

Uppsala University Library, Uppsala, Sweden

The Codex Argenteus is a book for use in religious liturgy that contains the selected portions of the Gospels to be read during church services. The book was written in the early 6th century in northern Italy, probably in the city of Ravenna.

At that time, Ravenna was the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom which stretched from modern-day southern France across to Serbia and took in all of Italy. However, in AD 553 the Ostrogoths were defeated after a long and costly war by the forces of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire which was then at almost the greatest extent of its power. As a result, Gothic language and culture largely disappeared.

The Codex Argenteus contains the most comprehensive still existing text in the Gothic language. It is part of the 4th-century translation of the Bible from Greek into Gothic by Bishop Wulfila, an Arian preacher who had converted the Germanic tribes and was said to have constructed the Gothic alphabet specifically for the translation. Wulfila is also the oldest known non-mythical constructor of an alphabet.

Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’

Christ’s baptism, depicted on the ceiling of King Theodoric’s Arian Baptistry in Ravenna.

A beautiful and impressive object in its own right, the Codex Argenteus was thought to have been made for the Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great (AD 454–526) and intended to be admired in a central place in a church, probably the Gothic Arian cathedral in Ravenna. The pages are high-quality coloured vellum inscribed in a decorative script in silver and gold ink – a degree of ostentation and decoration that suggests a royal connection.

Today the Codex Argenteus is held at Uppsala University Library. Its whereabouts after the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom were unknown until it emerged in the 17th century in the Benedictine Abbey of Werden in Essen; from there, via the royal library in Prague, it arrived in Sweden as a donation to the university library in 1669. The Codex was bound in silver by the royal court’s goldsmith in Stockholm.

Codex Purpureus Beratinus

Inscribed 2005

What is it

Two Gospels found in Berat, Albania, dating from the 6th and 9th centuries.

Why was it inscribed

The two Beratinus codices are masterpieces of religious art and important evidence of the development of Christian thought. They represent one of the most valuable treasures of the Albanian cultural heritage.

Where is it

Albanian National Archives, Tirana, Albania

‘Codex Purpureus’ refers to manuscripts written in gold or silver lettering on parchment dyed purple, originally restricted for the use of Roman or Byzantine emperors. The Beratinus Codices are two Gospels found in Berat, Albania: ‘Beratinus-1’ dates from the 6th century, and ‘Beratinus-2’ from the 9th century.

They are two of the seven ‘purple codices’ written from the 6th to the 18th centuries that survive today. These are of global importance, illustrating the development of ancient biblical, liturgical and hagiographical literature.

‘Beratinus-1’ is a 6th-century uncial illuminated manuscript Gospel written in Greek. It is one of the oldest examples of the New Testament and is an important reference point for the development of biblical and liturgical literature throughout the world.

The ‘Beratinus-1’ manuscript, containing non-standard pre-canonical Gospel passages, has true global importance as it is an indispensable reference point for international research on literary textology. It is also extremely valuable in terms of the history of handwriting and the calligraphic elements of applied figurative art.

The letters and words are not separated from one another (scriptio continua). The letters are silver and the initials gold; the manuscript is on parchment. It contains several gold abbreviations, typical of ancient Christianity. It comprises 190 pages.

‘Beratinus-1’ contains the majority of the texts of the Gospels according to St Mark and St Matthew. It is thought that the other two Gospels probably also existed.

‘Beratinus-2’ dates back to the 9th century and was found in a church in Berat. The codex contains simple miniatures (Gospel portraits) and comprises 420 pages. The origin of this manuscript has been and remains the subject of much debate. It includes all four Gospels. The letters are all gold and the manuscript is on parchment. The text is from the standard text period and includes some semiuncial letters.

An example of a Codex Purpureus from the Museo Diocesano di Rossano, Calabria, Italy.

Codex Purpureus Beratinus

This manuscript is an essential landmark in evangelical literature and Christian culture in general. It is a unique record of the development of the world’s ancient evangelical and liturgical literature and a model of evangelical writings in minuscules.

In 1967, after a long period during which they were thought to have been lost, the two Beratinus Codices were found and were handed over to the National Archives in 1971. They are of universal importance as examples of the spiritual heritage of nations and as treasures of the global heritage.

Vienna Dioscurides

Inscribed 1997

What is it

A Byzantine illuminated manuscript of De Materia Medica by Dioscorides, a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist of the 1st century AD. The manuscript was written in the early 6th century and has 491 folios of parchment with more than 400 colour pictures of plants and animals.

Why was it inscribed

The Vienna Dioscurides can be considered as the most important pharmaceutical source of the Ancient World. It was used from early medieval times into the early modern period as a dictionary for medical practitioners. It forms the basis of medical herbal therapeutic knowledge and is possibly the most important, enduring and comprehensive work on herbal and other remedies in the West.

The manuscript itself is a masterpiece of the book art from later Classical Antiquity.

Where is it

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

The Vienna Dioscurides is the oldest and most famous copy of Dioscorides’s 1st century AD work, De Materia Medica. It was copied in the early 6th century for Juliana Anicia, daughter of Flavius Anicius Olybrius, emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in recognition of her patronage in building a church in Constantinople. This same copy passed through many hands that made annotations in Greek, Arabic, Turkish and Hebrew. In 1519 the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II bought the book for the Habsburg Imperial Library.

De Materia Medica was the most important pharmaceutical source of the Ancient World and through medieval times. It was in active use for 1000 years as a pharmacopoeia and reference work for medical practitioners. There are indications that it was first regarded as a luxury copy and later as a medical textbook in daily use in a Constantinople hospital; these changes in use throw some light on social and cultural progress through the centuries. The information it contains also reveals how plant and herbal remedies were used from antiquity through to early modern times.

Dioscorides with a student seated at his feet.

Written ‘on the preparation, properties and testing of drugs’, the book lists more than 1000 natural substances and their medicinal properties. Most of these are botanical, although some mineral- and animal-based remedies are also included. There are more than 400 colour illustrations, the vast majority being of plants; each illustrated plant appears on a page facing the description of medicinal properties. Other full-page illustrations in the book feature Anicia and Dioscorides himself, both in an author portrait and seated among seven noted physicians.

The Vienna Dioscurides also contains five supplementary texts including Dionysius’s Ornithiaca, describing more than forty birds, with illustrations.

Earliest Islamic (Kufic) inscription

Inscribed 2003

What is it

An Arabic inscription, dated 24 Hegira (equivalent to AD 644), engraved on a rock located near al-Ula in the northwest Saudi Arabia.

Why was it inscribed

The inscription, in Kufic script, is the first and oldest dated Arabic inscription in the world and the earliest Islamic inscription.

Where is it

Near al-Ula, Saudi Arabia

This inscription, from the 7th century AD, was carved into a block of red sandstone located south of Qa’a al Muatadil and north of Sharma in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The rock stands on an ancient trade and pilgrimage route that connected the early Islamic city of al-Mabiyat with Madain Saleh, a city known to the Romans as Hegra and which was originally part of the Nabatean kingdom in the 1st century AD, their second city after Petra. By the time the inscription was carved, Madain Saleh was on the pilgrimage route to Mecca further south.

The inscription itself reads: ‘Bismallah Ana Zuhair Kataba zaman maout Omar sanat Arba Wa eshrain’, which translates as, ‘In the name of God I Zuhair wrote the date of the death of Omar the year four and twenty (Hegira)’.

The Omar mentioned in the inscription was Omar or Umar bin al-Khattab, the second caliph to rule after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. He is also named in the Sunni Muslim tradition as one of the four rightly guided, or righteous caliphs who succeeded the Prophet. Although he ruled the caliphate for only 10 years from 634 until his death in 644, his military and political prowess brought the vast expansion of Muslim lands, ultimately including the conquest of the Persian Empire.

Omar also established the Muslim calendar. Its start date was taken to be AD 622, the year the Prophet Mohammed moved from Mecca to Medina. Omar was stabbed and mortally wounded in an assassination attempt. He died on the last night of the month of Dul-Hajj of the year 23 Hegira, and was buried next day on the first day of Muharram of the new year 24 Hegira (corresponding to AD 644).

The inscription is in Kufic script, in a style without dots and in a relatively early or crude form of the script. The term ‘Kufic’ relates to the Muslim city of Kufah which was founded in Mesopotamia (in modern-day southern Iraq) in AD 638, although the script was used in the region before the city was established and may have taken its name because the style was developed there. Kufic script, which fell into disuse around the 11th or 12th century, was generally used as a display script on metal and stone, on coins and in mural inscriptions and, in this instance, on rock.

Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman

Inscribed 1997

What is it

Known as the Mushaf of Othman, it is the earliest extant written version of the Koran. The manuscript is 250 pages long and is written on animal skins.

Why was it inscribed

One of the world’s major and most influential books of religion, the Koran has played a significant role in shaping world history. The Mushaf of Othman is the earliest written version. Compiled in Medina in AD 651, it supersedes all other versions.

Where is it

Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The Koran, which Muslims believe was divinely revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, was transcribed by his followers onto various materials, such as pieces of wood and camel bones. After the Prophet’s death, the first caliph to succeed, Abu Bakr (c. AD 573-634) ordered that scribes should record in writing all such verses, or suras. His later successor Othman (c. AD 579-656) ordered that the suras should be compiled into a book with the help of the four best contemporary scholars of the Koran.

In 651 this first, definitive version of the Koran was transcribed at Medina, the Muslim capital and power base, and was known as the Mushaf of Othman. A ‘mushaf’ is a collection of written pages or book, here of the Koran, and the mushaf was named after the caliph who ordered its creation. This version was declared as a standard, substituting all other versions. The manuscript is written in large black letters in the Arabic Kufic script.

Caliph Othman was assassinated while reading it and the manuscript is believed to be stained with his blood. The succession to the caliphate after the death of the Prophet was a source of conflict among his followers, and Othman’s assassination and its repercussions precipitated the schism into the Sunni and Shia denominations of Islam which has divided the Muslim community ever since.

Mushaf of Othman

Conflicting accounts explain how the Koran arrived at Uzbekistan. According to one, the book was brought by a relative of Othman during a period of disorder in Medina; while another states that Othman’s successor, Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, brought it to Kufah, from where the Uzbekistani leader and warrior Amir Temur brought it as a trophy to Samarkand after a military campaign during the 14th century.

The Khazrati Imam complex in Tashkent, where the Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman is kept.

In the 19th century the book went to Russia, but several years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 it was returned to Uzbekistan where it stayed in a museum until the fall of Communism in 1989, when it was handed over to the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan.

The Koran, an acknowledged masterpiece of Arabic literature, contains a code of conduct and correct living. It records the creation of the world, the stages of divine revelation and the place of humanity in the universe and in relation to the Creator.

Lucca’s historical diocesan archives

Inscribed 2011

What is it

The extensive archives of the Archdiocese of Lucca, which date back more than thirteen centuries. The inscribed documents date from AD 685 to 1000.

Why was it inscribed

Lucca’s Historical Diocesan Archives are among the biggest and most ancient archives in the world. Five codices in the collection preserve 13,000 documents dating back to AD 685 and among these, 1800 documents are earlier than AD 1000.

As church and state were intertwined during the Middle Ages, the archives present a unique and valuable resource of the religious, economic, agrarian, civic, cultural, social and political history of a diocese and its community that was at the religious and geographic heart of Europe.

Where is it

Archives of the Archdiocese of Lucca, Lucca, Italy

The Lucca archdiocesan archive is one of the largest archives in the world from the Early Middle Ages. During the time the archives cover, Lucca, in Tuscany, was ruled by the Lombards and was part of the Carolingian Empire. Its geographical situation placed it at a strategic point in the heart of Europe, along the Via Francigena pilgrimage route which connected Canterbury and Rome.

Parchments from the archives

The wealth of material in the archive dating from the Dark Ages makes the collection exceptional in Western Europe. The documents show the activities of the clerics and laymen who ruled Lucca during this time and their secular as well as religious activities, including relations with the papacy and the imperial powers. Many of the most important characters in early medieval Europe are mentioned in the papers, including Charlemagne, Otto I, king of Italy and later Holy Roman Emperor, and his successors, Otto II and Otto III.

The papers show the changes and evolution of the community and its territory, which were also closely related to the growth and development of Italy and Europe through the four centuries.

Lucca today

Detail of a codex from the archives

Volto Santo de Lucca

The history of the local people, their society, economy, culture and other aspects such as demographic patterns can all be traced through the documents. Lucca was a rich community and imperial and papal privileges and provisions, agrarian and commercial contracts, sales, loans and donations are all recorded.

The community’s religious and spiritual expression is particularly notable in the edification of churches and the development of the cult of the Holy Face, the town’s patron. The Holy Face, or Volto Santo, is a wooden crucifix believed to have been sculpted by Nicodemus, a friend and contemporary of Christ, and brought to Lucca in AD 742. Bound up with religious expression is the city’s artistic outflowing, in the wealth of religious buildings, the decoration of its churches and in the production of its silk factory, used to make religious vestments.

The documents reveal further changes, both through the centuries and in different geographical areas, in practices in handwriting, parchment and miniature preparation and the use of colours and gold in manuscripts.