Prof. İsmail Erünsal's 525-Item Collection Goes Digital
Good news for anyone interested in the history of books: the private collection of 525 works belonging to Prof. Dr. İsmail Erünsal is now available digitally. According to TRT Haber, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced it.
Erünsal donated the collection to the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library on August 6. Ersoy describes him as a well-known figure in the study of Ottoman book and library history, and says the donation has turned a centuries-old scholarly and literary heritage into a treasure everyone can benefit from. Erünsal, who built the collection over the years with his own resources, sees the works as a national value entrusted to the public good, and says he gave them so they would be better protected and easier for researchers to reach.
What stands out is the speed. In about two months, conservation, restoration, digitization and cataloguing were completed and the collection was opened to researchers. It can be accessed at www.yek.gov.tr.
The report highlights some of the contents. In literature, there is a divan (poetry collection) that Şeyh Galib wrote by hand at 18 or 19; it is one of 15 author manuscripts in the collection. The oldest dated copy is the Dîvân-ı Emir Şâhî from 1523. There is also a previously unknown divan by Cezerî Kasım Paşa, a poet of the age of Bayezid II, along with rare texts by Keşfî and Urfalı Mustafa Hattî. In economics and diplomacy, there is a 288-page Narh Defteri (price register), an important source for Ottoman price history, and the embassy account (Sefaretname) of Seyfullah Ağa. The Mirâtü'l-Işk is cited as an important source for the history of 16th-century Melamism.
News like this heartens me: rare manuscripts that sat on one person's shelves for years now appear on everyone's screen with a single click.
Source: TRT Haber
Erünsal donated the collection to the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library on August 6. Ersoy describes him as a well-known figure in the study of Ottoman book and library history, and says the donation has turned a centuries-old scholarly and literary heritage into a treasure everyone can benefit from. Erünsal, who built the collection over the years with his own resources, sees the works as a national value entrusted to the public good, and says he gave them so they would be better protected and easier for researchers to reach.
What stands out is the speed. In about two months, conservation, restoration, digitization and cataloguing were completed and the collection was opened to researchers. It can be accessed at www.yek.gov.tr.
The report highlights some of the contents. In literature, there is a divan (poetry collection) that Şeyh Galib wrote by hand at 18 or 19; it is one of 15 author manuscripts in the collection. The oldest dated copy is the Dîvân-ı Emir Şâhî from 1523. There is also a previously unknown divan by Cezerî Kasım Paşa, a poet of the age of Bayezid II, along with rare texts by Keşfî and Urfalı Mustafa Hattî. In economics and diplomacy, there is a 288-page Narh Defteri (price register), an important source for Ottoman price history, and the embassy account (Sefaretname) of Seyfullah Ağa. The Mirâtü'l-Işk is cited as an important source for the history of 16th-century Melamism.
News like this heartens me: rare manuscripts that sat on one person's shelves for years now appear on everyone's screen with a single click.
Source: TRT Haber
Comments 0
Leave the first comment, in any language.
Log in to comment