Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library

ANAMED Library Talks organized by the ANAMED Library continues in December, 13 with Cemal Kafadar, Gülru Necipoğlu, Cornell Fleischer. The talk is entitled “Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library”. In this talk the three speakers will discuss their jointly edited publication on an inventory of manuscripts kept in the book treasury of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. This unique inventory was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II from his royal librarian ʿAtufi in the year 908 (1502-3) and was transcribed in a clean copy in 909 (1503-4). The inventory is preserved in the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MS Török F. 59). It records over 5,000 volumes, and more than 7,000 titles, on virtually every branch of human erudition at the time. This month’s talk will be in English and will take place online. Tülay Artan will be the moderator.