CSMC
CSMCCentre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures
Exhibition on the ‘Written Treasures of Hamburg’
5 July 2023
Until 2 October, a joint exhibition of the State and University Library Hamburg and the ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ shows extraordinary manuscripts from the holdings of the SUB and the Cluster’s research on them. A bilingual online catalogue tells the stories behind the artefacts.
On the evening of 4 July, the exhibition ‘Written Treasures of Hamburg: New Questions on Old Manuscripts’ (‘Hamburgs Schriftschätze: Neue Fragen an alte Manuskripte’) was officially opened at the Hamburg State and University Library. After introductory words by the directors – Robert Zepf for SUB and Konrad Hirschler for UWA – the two curators Katrin Janz-Wenig (SUB) and Kaja Harter-Uibopuu (UWA) gave an overview of the manifold artefacts, connecting themes, and research questions that are being addressed in the exhibition.
As of today, ‘Written Treasures of Hamburg’ is also open to visitors. They can see 20 extraordinary written artefacts from the holdings of the SUB that are not normally accessible to the public. The range – both in terms of the places of origin and the age of the artefacts – is remarkable: among them are, for example, cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia that are over 4000 years old; an official receipt book from the Roman army; a fragment of what is presumably the oldest Koran on papyrus; a magnificent Buddhist religious manuscript from Thailand with a noteworthy colophon; a music manuscript that has been falsely attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and is nevertheless a ‘real Mozart’; a promptbook that was at the heart of one of the most infamous theatre scandals in the German-speaking at the end of the 18th century; and much more.
The exhibition is open every day until 2 October 2023 from 9:00 am to midnight (10:00 am to midnight at weekends), and admission is free. For those who want to learn more about the stories behind the artefacts after their visit (or who cannot come to Hamburg to see it), a bilingual catalogue offers much more background on both the objects and the research on them at the Cluster. Digital reproductions of the artefacts on display are also available on the website of SUB.
