Shamil Jeppie (Historical Studies, University of Cape Town) "Book Collecting in Timbuktu"

Sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in the History of the Book.

Abstract: This lecture surveys five centuries of collecting in Timbuktu, a town in the interior of West Africa, that has come to symbolize a larger world of learning and book culture in the region. This lecture follows citations in texts written in the town in the 16^th century, book borrowing and copying, through to a major collector of the early 20^th century who both attempted to conserve the manuscript book tradition and imported printed books to Timbuktu.