ИВР РАН (Санкт-Петербург)

Vorobyeva-Desyatovskaya M. and Rezvan E. [Review:] Manuscripts from the Himalayas and the Indian Subcontinent. Catalogue 17. Sam Fogg Rare Books. Catalogue by Sam Fogg and Bob Miller. Photography by Matt Pia. Typesetting, Page Artwork and Printing by Titus Wilson and Son, Kendal, Cumbria. London: 1996, 161 pp. // Manuscripta Orientalia. Vol. 2. No. 2. June 1996. P. 65—66.

The publication under review is a special type of a catalogue of Oriental manuscripts which came to Europe in the last few years through private collectors. As a rule, people travelling in the East enjoy buying various rarities, Oriental manuscripts among them, from local traders. The attention of non-specialists is attracted first of all by illuminated manuscripts. Illustrations — drawings, schemes, miniatures, are the only thing which allows this kind of collectors to estimate the contents of what they are buying. In our days, when Eastern medicine, philosophy and especially astrology and magic became more popular than the achievements of Western science, collectors' interest in the subjects enumerated above became even stronger. To evaluate from the scientific point of view the manuscripts which come to the European market and to provide the collectors with right recommendations is a very important task. Such recommendations not only allow to estimate the real value of many private collections, they help also to understand the achievements of Oriental culture accumulated and reflected in the manuscripts...

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