IFAO

During the Mamluk period, Cairo was renowned for its book markets and the richness of its public and private libraries. Book collectors, including scholars and prominent Mamluk amirs who vied to collect the rarest items, played a vital role in preserving earlier manuscripts and in commissioning the production of copies. Thousands upon thousands of these books later enhanced Ottoman and European libraries. Over the last century, there has been renewed interest in the history of the book, libraries, book-collecting, and reading in Islam. While several studies have been published, these focus on data provided by primary sources (chronicles, biographical dictionaries, treatises, catalogues of libraries, etc.), but largely overlook information supplied by the books themselves: ownership marks, reading notes, seal impressions, and so forth. These paratextual marks are now the object of greater scrutiny, as they constitute original pieces of valuable information on the history of the books. More than ever, these marks also give us the opportunity to analyze the itineraries of these objects. The Ex(-)Libris ex Oriente (ELEO) project aims to gather together as many of these marks as possible, in order to carry out various research projects in this growing field. The goal of this lecture is to present the database, the projects linked to it, and the preliminary results the project has yielded since the database was launched in 2015.

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 le mercredi à 18h, 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 Wednesdays at 6 p.m., in French or English.