Browse Items (101 total)

Ethiopia's long history of Christian devotional reading can be seen in this carved and painted wooden book stand, recalling the famous monumental metalwork stands used for communal reading in the churches of the holy city of Lalibela, in northern…

This intimate scene depicts the doomed lovers Layli and Majnun, as Qais--later called 'the mad one' (Persian, majnun) due to his extravagant passion--meets Layli for the first time in their shared schoolroom. The highly detailed painting depicts…

This unbound volume is among the earliest printed books produced in the Mediterranean region. Printed in Istanbul in 1493 by brothers David and Samuel Ibn Nahmias, the four volumes of this Hebrew-language treatise concern devotional, ritualistic,…

A brochure explaining different book formats and the typical features of the Islamic codex

This handwritten Tibetan scroll contains a story collection which, like many tales-within-tales, begins with a challenge: a prince is tasked with bringing a particular corpse from a remote cemetery in the mountains, but he must not say a word to it.…

A closely packed cluster of sages surrounds the boy at lower left, offering knowledge and advice to the young prince. The diverse group of sheiks and ascetics includes Iranian, Uzbek and Mughal Indian scholars, the books on their laps and writing…

Lacquered bindings like this black and gold one, featuring flower and bird motifs, were popular in the nineteenth century. The central design displays a rosebush in various stages of bloom, with three nightingales perched
on its stems. Bindings came…

This Qur'an provides an example of a lacquered book binding, a Persian technique that was first developed in the fifteenth century but became highly popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These glossy bindings are created by building up…

This tiny hymnal (Greek, irmologion), a collection of Christian religious songs, may have been produced in Istanbul. The thriving city, formerly known as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire until 1453, was a vibrant centre for manuscript…

This leather folder or document case (Turkish cilbend or ciltbend) is made with semi-rigid pasteboard covered by fine leather and impressed with a raised design. The innovative techniques developed by bookbinders were made possible by the lightweight…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…

Paper, imported from China beginning in the eighth century, was soon adopted as a writing medium as well as a decorative surface for marbling, with distinctive techniques developed in the fifteenth century in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey, as well…

The shifting tastes of Ottoman patrons can be seen in these two bindings, whose covers feature a distinctive pendant extending from a central medallion. Often beautifully decorated with tooled, stamped, painted, and filigreed leather, some Ottoman…

The intricate golden covers of this book were tooled using a large stamp pressed into the covers along a horizontal central line, creating a perfectly symmetrical design. Now missing the characteristic envelope flap, these covers were likely produced…

Although this looks like the outside cover of a book, it is actually the highly decorated lining of the inner cover, or 'doublure.' Islamic doublures, created using the same techniques as the outer covers, were treated as equally important by both…

These book covers, made in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, exemplify a style of Islamic cover decoration and manuscript illumination that dates to the ninth century, featuring a central medallion with interlocking squares and pendants…

A pencase (qalamdan), carried tucked into a shawl tied around the waist, is the symbolic badge of the scribe's vocation. While some scribes served the general public, preparing documents for those unable to write, others worked for highly educated…

Book stands are used in a wide range of devotional traditions -- Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam -- to protect and pay respect to the book, and to present it to the readers gathered around it. An example of the Islamic book stand (rehal,…

The rectangular form of this porcelain box to hold writing tools, with a stepped base and gently curved lid adorned with roundels containing stylized Arabic inscriptions, suggests that the scribes who used it served the Muslim bureaucrats or…

Known in Arabic as mihbara and in Persian as dawat, inkwells like this one were an essential tool for medieval scribes, protecting the ink from dirt and enabling it to be transported easily. The two loops on either side may have been used as slots…