Asian Collections projects
The published catalogues for our major language oriental manuscript collections are now available for free from the Wellcome Library’s website. For details, see our list of catalogues.
The Wellcome Library is currently involved in a number of projects relating to its Asian Collections:
Jain Manuscript Project
This is a joint project with the Bodleian Library (Oxford) and supported by the Institute of Jainology and the Wellcome Trust. It has been in progress for the last three years with two scholars from India - Dr Kanubhai Sheth and Dr Kalpana Sheth - working in the Wellcome Library during the summer months cataloguing Jain
manuscripts. The Wellcome Library preserves some 2000 Jain manuscripts, the largest collection outside India. The collection contains texts unique even on the sub-continent. Jainism is an ancient sect in India that is particularly noted for its belief in non violence. The result of the project will be both an online catalogue and catalogue in hard copy.
Panjabi Manuscript Project
The Wellcome Library preserves the largest collection of Panjabi manuscripts outside India. This project, undertaken by Dr Jeevan Deol of St John's College, Cambridge, will include all Panjabi manuscripts outside India and Pakistan in both online and hard copy catalogues. The project has been supported by the HLF, the Arts and Humanities Research Board of the British
Academy, and the Wellcome Trust.
Iskandar Horoscope
One of the greatest treasures of the Wellcome Library, this superb example of medieval Iranian painting, astral science and mathematical calculation will be published by E J Brill in Leiden as part of the Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series. The edition and commentary are in preparation by Sergei Tourkin of the Institute of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg. The project has been
supported by two Wellcome Trust History of Medicine travel grants and the Friends of the Wellcome Library and Centre.
Rojah Muthiah Research Library Project
Undertaken by the University of Chicago, this is a project to microfilm one of the world's major printed resources of Tamil literature decaying in what was once a private library in Madras. The Wellcome Library is a collaborator in this project and has selected 2500 imprints on medicine and related topics contained in 250 reels of microfilm. Circulating positives and
duplicating negatives have been received with master negatives yet to come. The project has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, which holds the copyright outside India for these imprints.
Japanese Herbal
A rare 17th-century illustrated Japanese herbal, which is one of the earliest pieces of documentary evidence of Western botanical knowledge reaching Japan. The manuscript has been edited by Dr Hartmut Walravens of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
Manchu Kanjur
This project, to publish as a CD-ROM the sole volume of the 'Kanjur' in Manchu translation in the West, is well in hand. The Manchu translation of the canon of Buddhist scriptures known as the Kanjur was ordered by the Ch'ien lung Emperor (r. 1736-96) but was thought to have never been printed since no copy was known until the middle of the 20th century. The
commentary and introduction are being prepared by Dr Hartmut Walravens of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the CD-ROM will be published in Hamburg.
Islamic Calligraphy Project
This important project is led by Dr Nikolaj Serikoff with the collaboration of Dr Hormoz Ebrahimnejad of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL and other colleagues. The project has been generously supported by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL with the Friends of the Wellcome Library and Centre and the Wellcome Trust.
Arabic Manuscript Project
A four-volume catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts preserved in the Wellcome Library has been planned and is already well advanced. Dr Nikolaj Serikoff has completed the first volume comprising the Haddad collection, and the online version has aroused considerable interest as the first online raisonné catalogue of Arabic
manuscripts. This will be the definitive work on Arabic medical codicology.
Shahnama Project
The Wellcome Library is a collaborator in the Shahnama Project, led by Cambridge University and supported by the Arts and Humanities Board of the British Academy. The project will result in the digitisation of all miniatures and illustrations from all known copies of the 'Shahnama', a celebrated Iranian epic
comprising mythology, history, literature and art, which was completed around 1010. The Library's Asian Collections will contribute illustrations from its holdings.
Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts
The Wellcome Library, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and King’s College London, have formed
a partnership to create a free searchable online catalogue of 500 Islamic manuscripts in the Wellcome Library. This work is partly funded by the JISC. Visit our project pages for more information.
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