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manuscripts

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    2/6/20

    How two women pulled off a medieval manuscript heist in post-war Germany

    by Jennifer Bain

    After the Dresden bombings, the Soviet Army seized and inspected the surviving vault. The first bank official to enter the vault afterwards found it pillaged, with only one manuscript remaining. The bank could never confirm if the vault was emptied in an official capacity or if it was plundered.

  • SOURCE: WaPo
    6-7-13

    UNESCO team says destruction to Mali’s fabled Timbuktu is more alarming that first estimates

    UNITED NATIONS — A team of experts led by UNESCO said Friday it has found far more serious damage to Mali’s cultural heritage in the fabled city of Timbuktu than initially estimated, with 16 mausoleums totally destroyed and over 4,000 ancient manuscripts lost.Lazare Eloundou Assomo of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, who led the mission, said a visit to the damaged and destroyed sites on Thursday revealed that the destruction by Islamist rebels who occupied Timbuktu and the rest of the north until early this year “is even more alarming than we thought.”“We discovered that 14 of Timbuktu’s mausoleums, including those that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, were totally destroyed, along with two others at the Djingareyber Mosque,” a famous learning center built in 1327 which also needs to be repaired, he said....

  • SOURCE: CNN.com
    5-28-13

    Timbuktu's manuscripts face new threat

    (CNN) -- For the second time in five months, Timbuktu's treasured collection of ancient manuscripts is under threat.Earlier this year, it was thought that most of the 300,000 precious documents were destroyed by Islamic fundamentalists when the northern Mali conflict entered the fabled city.But as it turns out, only 4,000 documents were burned by the rebels. The rest were smuggled out of Timbuktu six months before the incursion by a team of local families who have long safeguarded their city's famous library, often in their own homes....

  • SOURCE: Al Arabiya News
    2-28-13

    1001 nights ‘younger sibling,’ medieval manuscript found, translated

    Almost everyone is in some way familiar with the epic “1,001 Nights,” we all know the tale of Sultan Shahryar who, heartbroken by his wife’s infidelity, remarries every night only to kill his new bride at sunrise. This carried on until he married his vizier’s daughter Scheherazade who, gifted with an extraordinary ability to weave exciting stories, manages to save her own life by promising to tell the king a new story every night. Throughout the 100,1 nights readers remain enthralled and entangled in the stories narrated by Scheherazade. The Egypt Independent reported on Thursday that a new collection of stories had come to light and been translated, the 101 nights....

  • SOURCE: BBC News
    3-1-13

    Aberystwyth centre to edit Welsh saints' medieval manuscripts [AUDIO]

    New research is beginning into the lives of medieval saints in Wales.The University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth has been awarded a research grant of £750,000 to edit medieval manuscripts, and produce an online digital resource for the public....