IFAO

Over the past decades the manuscript has gained a new position in historical scholarship, including in Arabic history. Rather than seeing it as the supposedly neutral carrier of a given text, scholarship has increasingly turned to the individual manuscript as an artefact to be studied in its own right – even if it is a rather unspectacular and ‘run-off-the-mill’ manuscript on the shoddy end of manuscript culture. In consequence, what had been seen as ephemeral and marginal to the manuscript has moved into the mainstream focus of scholarly interests, e.g. paratextual notes (be it on ownership or transmission) as well as scribbles by manuscript users. These marginalia have turned out to play a crucial role in order to see manuscripts in their specific social and cultural contexts. This lecture takes up this recalibration in scholarship to discuss the example of a late 15th-century Damascene book collection. By discussing the trajectories and the provenance of this collection’s manuscripts, it considers the different stages of their life cycles which are discernible on their folia.

Les conférences de l’Ifao

Les conférences de l'Ifao ont pour objectif la transmission des résultats des recherches en cours ou très récentes, par des chercheurs confirmés. Y sont conviés essentiellement les chercheurs impliqués dans les différentes opérations scientifiques de l'Ifao lors de leur passage par l'Institut. ِElles sont également parfois le lieu de présentation d'ouvrages récemment parus à l'Ifao par leurs autheurs. Les conférences de l'Ifao ont lieu traditionnellement les mercredis aprés-midis, en français ou en anglais.

IFAO Lectures series aim to transmit the results of current or very recent research by confirmed researchers. They are mainly animated by researchers involved in IFAO's various scientific programs and projects during their stay at the Institute. They are also sometimes the occasion for presentations, by their authors, of books recently published by the IFAO.

IFAO Lectures series are traditionally held on Wednesday afternoons, in French or English.