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[Chinese rites controversy, Vicariate of Western Tonkin.] - Kinh, Paul, Vietnamese missionary (fl. 1744). Autograph document signed. Co-signed by Jean-Louis Roux M.E.P.Tonkin, 26.07.1744.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Vietnamese missionary as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence ("in manibus meis"), in this case Jean-Louis Roux M.E.P. (1711-52), provicar in the Vicariate of Western Tonkin.

Paul Kinh was probably converted and trained by missionaries of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (M.E.P.) like Jean-Louis Roux. The Diocese of Western Tonkin in North Vietnam, today the Archdiocese of Hanoi, was erected in 1678 and led by M.E.P. missionaries until 1935. This beautifully calligraphed oath is an interesting document of French missionary work in North Vietnam and of the broader implications of the Chinese rites controversy in South East Asia.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in hopes of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's direct successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported critically to Rome on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed "Ex Illa Die" and required all missionaries in East and South-East Asia to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites and similar accommodations to local beliefs and religious practice.

[Chinese rites controversy, Vicariate of Western Tonkin.] - Phan, François, Vietnamese missionary (fl. 1750). Autograph document signed. Co-signed by the Vicar Apostolic of Western …Tonkin, 16.08.1750.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Vietnamese missionary as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence ("in manibus meis"), in this case Bishop Louis Néez (1680-1764), Vicar Apostolic of Western Tonkin.

François Phan was probably converted and trained by missionaries of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (M.E.P.) like Bishop Louis Néez. The Diocese of Western Tonkin in North Vietnam, today the Archdiocese of Hanoi, was erected in 1678 and led by M.E.P. missionaries until 1935. This beautifully calligraphed oath is an interesting document of French missionary work in North Vietnam and to the broader implications of the Chinese rites controversy in South East Asia.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's direct successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported critically to Rome on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed "Ex Illa Die" and required all missionaries in East and South-East Asia to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites and similar accommodations to local beliefs and religious practice.

[Chinese rites controversy, Vicariate of Western Tonkin.] - Huan, François, Vietnamese missionary (fl. 1750). Autograph document signed. Co-signed by the Vicar Apostolic of Western …Tonkin, 20.12.1750.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Vietnamese missionary as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence ("in manibus meis"), in this case Bishop Louis Néez (1680-1764), Vicar Apostolic of Western Tonkin.

François Huan was probably converted and trained by missionaries of the Paris Foreign Mission Society (M.E.P.) like Louis Néez. The Diocese of Western Tonkin in North Vietnam, today the Archdiocese of Hanoi, was erected in 1678 and led by M.E.P. missionaries until 1935. This beautifully calligraphed oath is an interesting document of French missionary work in North Vietnam and to the broader implications of the Chinese rites controversy in South East Asia.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's direct successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported critically to Rome on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed "Ex Illa Die" and required all missionaries in East and South-East Asia to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites and similar accommodations to local beliefs and religious practice.

Sou, Paul, Chinese Lazarist missionary (ca. 1692-1770). Autograph document signed. Co-signed by the Bishop of Macau, Bartholomeu …Hia-su-hiang, 28.08.1744.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Chinese Lazarist as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence.

Paul Sou was born Sou Hong-hiao near Foshan, Guangdong province, and worked early as a missionary in Sichuan. In 1723 he was ordained a priest by the Lazarist Bishop Johannes Müllener, Vicar Apostolic of Sichuan. Sou joined the Lazarists in 1725, thus becoming the first Chinese Lazarist priest. In 1733 he was jailed and flogged in Canton and returned to Sichuan, where he managed to continue his missionary work until 1745, when he was forced to flee to Fuzhou, Fujian province. There he attended the cremation of the martyred Saint Pierre Sanz and took part of his ashes for burial to Macau. In 1749 Sou went briefly to Beijing and then continued his missionary work in Sichuan until 1753, when he retired in Macau.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's immediate successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In reaction to the condemnation, the Kiangxi Emperor, who initially had tolerated the Christian missionaries and enjoyed especially good relations with the Jesuits, officially forbade Christian missions in China. In 1721, Carlo Ambrosio Mezzabarba, the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, was sent to Macau and Beijing as a Papal legate. Despite the concession of "eight permissions" regarding the practice of the Chinese rites, officiated in a pastoral letter to the missionaries from 4 November 1721, the Emperor did not revoke the ban. Finally, in "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed the 1715 Bull and required all missionaries in the region to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites.

A transcription and translation of the document are available on request.

Lieou, Thomas Jean-Baptiste, Chinese Jesuit (1726-1796). Autograph document signed. Co-signed by the bishop of Macau, Bartholomeu …Macau, 09.12.1754.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Chinese Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence ("in manibus meis"), in this case the Bishop of Macau, Bartholomeu Manuel Mendes dos Reis (1753-72), who would later become Bishop of Mariana, Brazil.

Thomas Jean-Baptiste Lieou, or Liu, was born in the province of Beijing and entered the novitiate in the residence of the French Jesuit mission in Beijing in 1748. From 1750 to 1752 he was active as a missionary in the historical Huguang province. On 16 August 1754, Lieou was ordained a priest. He is buried on the Zhalan Jesuit cemetery in Beijing.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's immediate successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In reaction to the condemnation, the Kiangxi Emperor, who initially had tolerated the Christian missionaries and enjoyed especially good relations with the Jesuits, officially forbade Christian missions in China. In 1721, Carlo Ambrosio Mezzabarba, the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, was sent to Macau and Beijing as a Papal legate. Despite the concession of "eight permissions" regarding the practice of the Chinese rites, officiated in a pastoral letter to the missionaries from 4 November 1721, the Emperor did not revoke the ban. Finally, in "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed the 1715 Bull and required all missionaries in the region to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites.

A transcription and translation of the document are available on request.

Zhao, Simone Paolo, Chinese Propagande Fide missionary in China (1722-1788). Autograph document signed.N. p., 07.04.1750.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742), taken by Simone Paolo Zhao upon his return from Italy to China. The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph copy of the formula had to be produced as evidence. While most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or superior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence, the document at hand was produced in the presence of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (1699-1756) in his capacity as secretary of Propaganda Fide, "prestato nelle mani del Card. Pref.to", which is attested to in a secretary's hand on fol. 2v.

A native of Jingzhou, Hubei province, Simone Paolo Zhao was only the sixth Chinese student of Matteo Ripa's Collegio de' Cinesi in Naples between 1736 and 1750. Following his return to China in 1751, Zhao is known to have been active as a Propaganda Fide missionary in Sichuan.

A former missionary and artist at the Imperial Court in Beijing, Matteo Ripa (1682-1746) started the Chinese College in 1732 with four Chinese converts who had accompanied him back to Italy. While the Chinese students received theological training, they in turn taught Chinese to future European missionaries. Today known as the University of Naples "L'Orientale", the Collegio de' Cinesi is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies on the European continent.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves and Ricci's direct successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed "Ex Illa Die" and required all missionaries in East and South-East Asia to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites and similar accommodations to local beliefs and religious practice.

K'ieou, Pierre, Chinese Jesuit (1686 - after 1744). Autograph document signed in Chinese.Zhujiajiao Qingpu District, Shanghai, 29.05.1744.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Chinese Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence.

Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, Pierre Kieou (or Jiu) entered the Jesuit novitiate in Beijing in 1733. As the document shows, he was active as a missionary in Shanghai until at least 1744. Although very little is known about Pierre Kieou, the document is exceptional for his Chinese signature.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's immediate successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In reaction to the condemnation, the Kiangxi Emperor, who initially had tolerated the Christian missionaries and enjoyed especially good relations with the Jesuits, officially forbade Christian missions in China. In 1721, Carlo Ambrosio Mezzabarba, the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, was sent to Macau and Beijing as a Papal legate. Despite the concession of "eight permissions" regarding the practice of the Chinese rites, officiated in a pastoral letter to the missionaries from 4 November 1721, the Emperor did not revoke the ban. Finally, in "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed the 1715 Bull and required all missionaries in the region to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites.

A transcription and translation of the document is available on request.

Fung de Santa Maria, Juan Bautista, Chinese Dominican and venerable martyr (1719-1755). Autograph document signed.Fouzhou, 18.02.1748.

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the Chinese Dominican as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence.

Born Feng Shiming in a small village near Fu'an, Fujian province, Fung was the first Chinese student admitted to the Dominican Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila in 1736. Fung took his vows on 3 June 1744 and graduated in 1747. On 12 November 1747, Fung arrived in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and started his missionary work. During a severe wave of persecution starting in March 1754, Fung was among the missionaries arrested and eventually sentenced to permanent exile in Jiangxi. The following 14-month journey in chains and shackles contributed to Fung's premature death in a cell in Jiangxi in July 1755, within a month of his arrival.

During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's immediate successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In reaction to the condemnation, the Kiangxi Emperor, who initially tolerated the Christian missionaries and had especially good relations with the Jesuits, officially forbade Christian missions in China. In 1721, Carlo Ambrosio Mezzabarba, the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, was sent to Macau and Beijing as a Papal legate. Despite the concession of "eight permissions" regarding the practice of the Chinese rites, officiated in a pastoral letter to the missionaries from 4 November 1721, the Emperor did not revoke the ban. Finally, in "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed the 1715 Bull and required all missionaries in the region to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites.

A transcription and translation of the document are available on request.

[Ge'ez]. Two Ge'ez healing scrolls.Ethiopia or Eritrea, 20th century.

Ge'ez healing scrolls of a kind often commissioned for both Christian and Muslim women, traditionally written using a combination of words (often invocations of saints) and images, both abstract and of figures, especially figures with staring eyes. In 19th and 20th century examples these scrolls often begin with a prayer for St Susenyos, who offers protection against the malevolent Werzeleya, quote extracts from the Gospels, and may even invoke the aid of Alexander the Great.

Medical scrolls are an ancient tradition in the Horn of Africa and especially associated with Amhara and Tigray communities in Ethiopia, where (along with neighbouring Eritrea) Ge'ez has been a liturgical language among Orthodox Christians for millennia. Though, as this implies, Ge'ez healing scrolls were a Christian practice, Ge'ez healing scrolls have been recorded for the use of Muslim women as well: rather than remaining a staunchly Christian-only practice, they were incorporated by whole communities in which these scrolls long had a role in protecting the welfare of individuals and households.

An entire house could be protected by one very long scroll, but shorter scrolls like these would be used by an individual seeking a cure from an ailment, and carried with the patient. As the recipients were often women, it is not uncommon to find scrolls dedicated to curing illnesses of pregnancy or menstrual cramps, but others may be less specific, and comprise a series of prayers and liturgical texts for the health of the soul.

On one of our two scrolls, the scribe has left a blank space in the midst of the opening lines which introduce each new section or prayer, perhaps leaving room for a practitioner to write in a preferred invocation, name of the recipient, or other custom details.

Birgivi, Muhammed / Ali Sadri Konevi. Serh-i Vasiyyetname-i Birgivi.Ottoman Turkey, ca. 18th century CE.

A fine manuscript of an Ottoman "best-seller", the celebrated commentary on Birgivi's catechism "Vasiyyetname" ("Testament"). "Vasiyyetname" was a highly appreciated and widely read book, considered for centuries one of the works which shaped the principles of being a Muslim in Ottoman minds. It was even re-written in verse so that children might memorize it more easily. This popularity is directly related to Birgivi's desire to make the book accessible to everyone. He chose to write in simple Turkish, which makes the book an important source for 16th century Anatolian Turkish. Many manuscripts, including the present one, record the date of Birgivi's completion of his work as "approximately 970 [1562]". The book's great popularity in the 17th century resulted in the production of commentaries such as the present one. Written by Sheikh Ali Sadrî el-Konevî in 1114 (1702), this commentary proved no less popular than the original work. The present manuscript must have been copied in the 18th century, but as it lacks the last page that contains the end of the colophon, it is not possible to identify the date or the scribe.

Birgivi was born in Balikesir in 1523. He received his primary education in Arabic and logic from his father, then went to Istanbul to continue his education and became a teacher. While teaching, he also started to give sermons, inviting people to live according to Islamic rules. He very soon lost his faith in people and decided to withdraw into seclusion. However, at the insistence of his mentor, he returned to teaching and went to Birgi, Izmir, which gave him his nisba. He became so famous that students from every part of the country began to visit Birgi to attend his classes. Birgivi was also famous for his uncompromising morality and honesty, and he frequently visited high-ranking Islamic leaders and statesmen, criticizing their bribery, injustice and ignorance. A true displeased citizen, he would not dedicate any of his books to statesmen - contrary to the custom of his time.

Beatson, Alexander. [Original watercolor painting of Tipu Sultan, mounted in:] A View of the …London, 1800.

An original watercolour of Tipu Sultan, the last great Indian ruler to stand against the East India Trading Company, painted by the governess of Lady Henrietta Clive, resident of Mysore and wife of the Governor of Madras. The watercolour is found here inscribed to "Mrs. Gent" and pasted into the first edition copy of Lt.-Colonel Beatson's memoirs of the Siege of Seringapatam and the death of Tipu Sultan, published less than a year after Tipu Sultan's death and with the ownership inscription of William Gent, Major General in the Service of the United East India Company.

The provenance of this painting among the powerful military families of the East India Company gives some idea of Tipu Sultan's incredible fame even (or perhaps especially) among his enemies. Tipu's reputation as a warlord and arch-nemesis of the East India Company was so great that upon his death in battle in 1799, Britain declared a national holiday. Among his own people he was known not only for his prowess in war - several times he defeated the otherwise apparently unstoppable East India Company, and he also fought Maratha and Malabar - but also for his economic innovations. He particularly promoted the industry of Mysore silk, and was innovative in his use of Mysorean rockets in warfare.

The volume in which the watercolour is pasted has a mezzotint frontispiece portrait of Tipu Sultan, captioned "Tipoo Sultaun. From an original Drawing in the Possession of the Marquis Wellesley." However, a contemporary hand has crossed out Wellesley's name - Wellesley being one of the commanders in the battle in which Tipu fell - and has replaced it with "Of Major General Gent." Likely this was Gent's own personal addition, as his ownership inscription appears on the front free endpaper, and in the Appendix he adds a handwritten note to say that he also has the late Tipu's pocketbook in his possession. Plates include "Plan of the Attack upon the Northwest Angle of Seringapatam" and "Map of the Dominions of the late Tippoo Sultan".

Manuel, G. S. Rahnuma-yi Dihli [Guide to Delhi].Delhi, 1874.

A scarce traveller's guide to Delhi, written in Urdu by an Englishman, with folding lithograph plates and the original lithograph wrappers bound in. Only one other copy is held in institutions on OCLC (University of Pennsylvania).

This fascinating volume concludes with over one hundred pages of facsimiles of stone carvings, manuscripts, and other documents from Delhi and its surroundings, from ancient monoliths to British colonial gravestones. The work itself is illustrated with 12 folding plates of delicately rendered views, including Delhi's Red Fort (Lal Qila), St James's church (the church of the British Viceroy), Jama Masjid, and various street scenes, ruins, and more, building a picture of Delhi in the second half of the 19th century.

Carlson, Evans, American military observer in China (1896-1947). Archive of an American military observer in China.China and California, 1939-1940.

An archive of photographs and speeches from Evans Carlson, U.S. Marine and unlikely champion of China. Carlson spent nearly eight years in China as a military observer and marched an estimated 2,300 miles across the country with its armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War; in his papers he reflects on personal chats with Mao and Chiang Kai-shek, and describes his impressions, made on the front lines, of Zhu De, Sun Lianzhong, Li Zhongren, and Ma Zhanshan. He was present at the final days of the Battle of Tai'erzhuang, and toured with both the KMT and, extensively, with the 8th Route Army, with whom he spent the end of 1937 and most of 1938. The weight of this experience was lifelong and transformative.

This archive tracks the impact of Carlson's time in China, from his photographs with Chinese troops to one of his official reports, to his decision to resign his commission - having been in the U.S. military since age 16 - to write and speak about the plight of China full-time. In an unpublished draft, Carlson, who had found himself on speaking terms with both Mao and Chiang Kai-shek, relates:

"[I] went first to Yenan, headquarters of the leftist group. There I interviewed Mao Tse-tung, the brillian [sic] leader of that group. [...] I inquired what sort of plan his party had for the future - after the war. He replied that the Party hoped to continue the entente with the Kuomintang, looking to the establishment in China of a real domocracy [sic] with a two party government. That they believed that the government should own the railways, mines and banks; that they favored the development of cooperatives and the encouragement of private enterprize [sic]. […] Five months later I related these points to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and asked him what his attitude towards them was. His reply was a succinct 'Ch'a pu to', meaning, about the same".

About the generals on the front lines Carlson says still more. He describes Zhu De, "a master of the guerrilla type of warfare", and how he accompanied Li Zhongren, "a strong nationalist, and one of China's topside military leaders", to witness Tai'erzhuang from the HQ of Sun Lianzhong: "A curious feature of this battle is that the defensive positions of the Chinese were along the Grand Canal [...] but the Chinese positions were on the side towards the enemy. When I mentioned this fact to General Sun he replied: Over three hundred years before Christ a famous Chinese general name [sic] Wu Tze remarked that troops always fought best when there was an obstacle behind them".

Altogether, a fascinating and colourful sketch of China in '37-'38, through the eyes of an American deeply sympathetic to the cause.

[Croatian prayer book against plague]. Piesni odgovorne s molitvam zarkovniem rasliekiem svezima kod [?] svetoga …Dubrovnik, 18th century?.

A scarce and likely unique Croatian manuscript of collected prayers against the plague. Croatian manuscripts of any kind are incredibly rare on the market, and only eleven individual manuscripts can be traced on the Schoenberg database.

The provenance of this prayer book certainly lies with the famous Mala Braca Franciscan monastery in the heart of Dubrovnik. The name Mala Braca ("Male Brachje") is mentioned explicitly in the scribal preamble and the colophon (which is written before the final set of prayers); the founder of the order, St Francis of Assisi, is invoked in the title and preamble. The obvious association with plague, and the slim and portable - perhaps personal - size of the prayer book perhaps hints to an intended purpose to ward off plague for an individual; it may even have been written for one of the later plague outbreaks in Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik, previously the Republic of Ragusa, has a long history with epidemic disease. As a major Mediterranean port during the medieval and Early Modern periods, Ragusa often experienced the first and most devastating waves of newly introduced epidemics arriving in seaports, from the Black Death to cholera. As a result, Dubrovnik has one of the oldest recorded histories of a formal quarantine, stretching back to the 14th century. Some of the city's Lazarettos - built to house new arrivals in the city for the 30 to 40 days - still stand as evidence of a long and difficult plague history. The saints called upon in the prayer book include St Francis, patron of the monastery, but also St Anthony of Padua, St Sebastian, "Tender of the Sick", Margaret of Cortona, and of course St Rochus, patron saint of plague victims.

[Sri Lanka - palm leaf book]. [Sinhalese palm-leaf manuscript].Sri Lanka, 19th century.

A large palm leaf manuscript penned in the Sri Lankan Sinhalese script. Despite the extra skill required to write on them, palm leaves are more durable than vellum or paper, especially in hot or humid environments; as such they are one of the most ancient writing surfaces in the world, with a manuscript tradition in Southeast Asia and India stretching back millennia. The texts of palm leaf manuscripts are first etched into dried and treated palm frond strips by a trained scribe armed with a small sharp stylus. The scribe then rubs ink into the etched lines of the letter-forms; this labour-intensive process can be seen in the pages of this manuscript.

In Sri Lanka, Sinhalese is both a spoken language of the Sinhalese people and a writing system in which one may also write in Sanskrit and Pali; indeed, Pali is a common language found in Sinhalese manuscripts. While palm leaf manuscripts are used for all sorts of works, from the Pali-Sinhalese medical treatise Yogaratnakara to the Ramayana, Sinhalese palm leaf manuscripts are particularly famous for their importance in preserving texts of Theravada Buddhism, including sutras and histories.

[Ramayana]. Ojha, Krittibas (transl.). The Balmiki-Ramayun, Translated into Bengalee by Kirti-Bas Pundit.Kolkata, 1857.

Exceedingly scarce edition of the first Bengali translation of the Ramayana, completed in the 15th century by Krittibas Ojha (1381-1461) and of utmost importance to the literary history of the Bengali language. Despite its fame and history, no institutions hold a copy issued prior to 1926, and only two editions (1926 and 1977) are held in institutions globally, with no copies listed in auction records.

First printed in 1810, the text is entirely in Bangla, save for a partly English title-page. It tells the story of the Ramayana in Krittibas's loose, creative, and distinctively Bengali translation. The Ramayana, originally written in Sanskrit, cannot have its importance overstated, but it in Bengal it was also a text only available to the extremely literate upper class, who could read Sanskrit. The mass popularity of Krittibas's Bengali Ramayana has long been noted: "The translation of the Ramayana by Krittivasa is by far the most popular book in Bengal [...] It is in fact the Bible of the people of the Gangetic Valley, and it is for the most part the peasants who read it" (Dinesh Chandra Sen, p. 170). In many ways it has come to represent an era, that of "the birth of the native Bengali culture and literature, liberated from the shackles of Sanskritic school so long in vogue, which in turn gave birth to a popular indigenous culture" (Sandipan Sen, p. 52). Indeed, it was so closely related to the concept of non-Sanskritic Bengali literature as a whole that it was banned by Raja Krishnachandra of Krishnanagar, a patron of Sanskritic scholars. Despite this pressure and other, later translations into Bengali, Krittibas's Ramayana remains considered, quite simply, the oldest and the best.

This copy is accompanied by 11 woodcut plates showing scenes from the story, including the deaths of Mahiravan and Kumbhakarna, Ravana's battle with Sri Ramachandra, and the coronations of both Lob Kush and Sri Ramachandra.