Category Archives: books

Manuscripts and Travellers in your local bookstore

Posted on 12/22/2011 by imre

Sam van Schaik and Imre Galambos, Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012). Our book is finally out. It all started about 5 years ago when Sam asked me if I wanted to join … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology, Aurel Stein, books, Dunhuang, Palaeography, published papers, Scribal habits, Tibetan, Travel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Manuscripts of translations made from printed texts

Posted on 12/07/2011 by imre

Recently a 16-volume publication came out with “rare and precious” (guji zhenben 古籍珍本) travel manuscripts in the collection of the National Library of China (NLC). Having flipped through the volumes, I was surprised to find a text titled Xiongyali youji 匈牙利游記 (Record … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th century, books, Dating, exploration, History of scholarship, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Graphic variability in a Ming printed book

Posted on 07/19/2011 by imre

Lately, I have been working with Ming editions of Zhuge Kongming Xinshu 諸葛孔明心書, a military text attributed to Zhuge Liang but which is most likely an early Song forgery. The earliest edition I was able to inspect was a moveably type … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Character variants, Chinese writing, Ming dynasty, Orthography | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A mysterious manuscript about the discovery of Dunhuang manuscripts

Posted on 09/18/2010 by imre

The mysterious manuscript referred to in the title is a little notebook written in a cursive caoshu hand and is currently located at the Gansu Provincial Library. The title Dunhuang xianhua 敦煌闲话 (Idle Chat about Dunhuang) is included in the notebook so … Continue reading →

Posted in 20th century, Aurel Stein, books, Dunhuang, exploration, History of scholarship, Japanese, Otani expeditions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Chinese books, starting at the end

Posted on 08/07/2010 by imre

William B. Langdon’s catalogue of Nathan Dunn’s Chinese collection (A Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Collection, Now Exhibiting at St. George’s Place, Hyde Park Corner, London 1843) has been one of the best-sellers of its time, selling about a 100,000 copies. … Continue reading →

Posted in 19th century, books, History of scholarship | Tagged | Leave a comment