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Reposted by Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

Universität Hamburg @uni-hamburg.de · 2h

📜 Briefe lesen, ohne die Umschläge zu beschädigen: Das ermöglicht ein Team des Exzellenzclusters „Understanding Written Artefacts“ (@csmc-hamburg.bsky.social) mit dem weltweit ersten mobilen CT-Scanner für Kulturgüter. In Ankara werden damit nun die Keilschrifttafeln Mesopotamiens untersucht.

Röntgenblicke in antike Briefe

www.uni-hamburg.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 7h

‘Second Hands’ and ‘Second Thoughts’ are the theme of our workshop on multilayered written artefacts of 19th- and 20th-century Austrian and German music this week – including live performances on a grand piano!

Registration is still open, also for online participation:

uhh.de/csmc-second-...

Register for a CSMC workshop

uhh.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 2d

New open-access publication: Discover how a multidisciplinary approach helped identify and contextualise three Qurʾānic parchment fragments from the University of Münster collection, revealing their shared origins in an Umayyad Qur’an:
www.nature.com/articles/s40...

From fragments to text and ink: a scientific and historical study of an Umayyad Qur’ān - npj Heritage Science

npj Heritage Science - From fragments to text and ink: a scientific and historical study of an Umayyad Qur’ān

www.nature.com

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 9d

Congratulations to Thomas Asselborn, Magnus Bender, Ralf Möller, and Sylvia Melzer from our ‘Data Linking’ team on winning the Best Young Research Paper Award at the FedCSIS conference in Kraków! 🥳🍾
uhh.de/csmc-fedcsis

Data Linking Team Wins Best Young Research Paper Award

uhh.de

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Reposted by Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

Universität Hamburg @uni-hamburg.de · 13d

Warum interdisziplinäre Forschung so wichtig (und erfolgreich) ist:
Die großen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit erfordern die Zusammenarbeit verschiedener Disziplinen. Wie das in den Exzellenzclustern CLICCS und UWA an der Uni Hamburg gelingt, berichtet die @zeit.de Zum Beitrag (€):

Forschung und Wissenschaft: Gemeinsam hüpfen Hirne höher

Die Herausforderungen der Gegenwart lassen sich nur lösen, wenn ganz verschiedene Wissensdisziplinen zusammenarbeiten. Das gelingt nicht überall – in Hamburg aber schon

www.zeit.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 14d

Developed by an interdisciplinary team comprising Ancient Historians and Computer Scientists, EDAK is an innovative digital resource for the study of Greek and Latin inscriptions. The newly updated beta version now available:
uhh.de/csmc-edak

Casting a New Light on Ancient Inscriptions

uhh.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 15d

One more week to apply!

Join our Grad School with a full scholarship in the Scholarship Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service:

uhh.de/csmc-scholar...

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 16d

How did Christianity spark the rise of written Georgian culture? In our PhD Research Series, Sandro Tskhvedadze explores the evolution of Georgian Gospel lectionaries and the pivotal legacy of George the Athonite in shaping liturgical traditions:
uhh.de/csmc-tskhved...

Fresco of the Athonites Euthymius, John and George, Akhtala Monastery, Armenia. © Giorgi Gagoshidze

Studying the Khanmeti Lectionary fragments during the material analysis of the Georgian manuscript collection of Graz University Library within the DeLiCaTe project at the CSMC. © Eka Kvirkvelia

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 22d

We're excited to share that the Tag Conference 2023 proceedings are out now! Featuring new research on contemporary graffiti from scholars across 14 countries, this milestone event in Hamburg built bridges between subculture and academia
einestadtwirdbunt.shop/products/tag...

TAG: name writing in public space

TAG: name writing in public space - Conference proceedings, Hamburg 2023 Dieser Band enthält die Beiträge der „Tag Conference Hamburg 2023“ und dokumentiert neue Forschungsergebnisse, die von Vortrage...

einestadtwirdbunt.shop

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 23d

„3000 Jahre Aufgeschriebenes“: Heute ist dieser schöne Beitrag über uns in der Serie „orte des wissens“ auf @taz.de erschienen:
taz.de/orte-des-wis...

3.000 Jahre Aufgeschriebenes

Von Tontafeln bis zu fragwürdiger Tinte: zu Besuch im Hamburger „Centre for the Study of Manuscript“

taz.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · 29d

Centuries before modern linguists, Andalusi scholar Isaac ibn Barūn laid the groundwork for comparative Semitic linguistics with his pioneering 12th-century Judaeo-Arabic grammar.

Carlos Jacobo Puga Medina introduces his work in our PhD Research Series:

uhh.de/csmc-medina

From Medieval Biblical Exegesis to Modern Linguistics

uhh.de

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Sep 8

‘I hereby let you know that I am doing well so far’:
A soldier in WWI writes a postcard to his family; the handwriting fades over the decades. In 2025, his grandson wishes to read the message. The story of an encounter in the Artefact Lab of the CSMC:
uhh.de/csmc-ww1-pos...

Rainer Krumsiek in the Artefact Lab at the CSMC, August 2025

Friedrich Adolf Krumsiek (marked with a blue cross) in a military hospital, July 1918

Postcard from Friedrich Adolf Krumsiek with faded writing, February 1916

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Sep 5

We are currently looking for a doctoral researcher in the field of Computer Science to join our Visual Manuscript Analysis Lab! More info here:
www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenan...

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Sep 2

Using digital tools to bring order to the creative chaos in Rilke's notebooks: Our Visual Manuscript Analysis Lab collaborated with @dlamarbach.bsky.social to investigate 56 notebooks of one of the greatest German-language poets:
uhh.de/csmc-rilke

Page from a notebook of Rainer Maria Rilke, DLA, A:Rilke-Archiv Gernsbach.

Another page from a notebook with writing in different colours and directions, and a drawing.

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 29

Join us this afternoon for a talk by our current Petra Kappert Fellow Joseba Estevez (University of Hong Kong): ‘Paper Thrones, Inked Crowns: Daoist Deities and Celestial Officers of the Lanten Yao Living Manuscripts in Laos’
Hybrid event, all welcome!
www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/register/lec...

Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 25

‘We like lists because we don’t want to die’, said Umberto Eco. What drives our deep fascination with lists? PhD researcher Michael Hensley explores the meaning of Ethiopian and Eritrean book lists, offering glimpses into communities that would otherwise be lost:
uhh.de/csmc-hensley

Ethiopian and Eritrean manuscript evidence from the medieval period survives until today in varying states of preservation, ranging from whole codices, small fragments, or somewhere in-between. Some exemplars, for example, were later palimpsested to accommodate new texts. One such case is shown in the image above. Now housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this manuscript was acquired by Antoine d’Abbadie (1810–1897) during his travels in Ethiopia in the nineteenth century. While the overtext dates to the seventeenth century, the pages on which it was written were taken from at least four earlier manuscripts, ranging from the fourteenth (or possibly earlier) to the early sixteenth centuries. This written artefact, and other palimpsests like it in the Ethiopian and Eritrean context, was treated recently in Erho 2025.
Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, ms. Ethiopien d’Abbadie 191, f. 96v. Gallica. Accessed 20 August 2025.

Donation List of ʾIyasus Moʾa from the gospel book of ʾIyasus Moʾa = EMML 1832 (1280/1281), recording the manuscripts that he donated to the monastery of Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos on his death in 1292. This important document is treated in my dissertation. Image courtesy of Meseret Oldjira.

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 21

Lightly written and thoroughly researched: For over a decade, Cécile Michel’s ‘Mesopotamian Bulletins’ have offered fresh insights into ancient Mesopotamian high culture — and into its ongoing academic study. 11 new episodes are now available in English:
uhh.de/csmc-mesopot...

The queen drinks a cup of wine, Banquet under the vine arbour of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (7th century BCE). Photo: The Trustees of the British Museum

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 14

Do your PhD in Manuscript Cultures with us!

Our Grad School invites applications for full PhD scholarships (3 years, 1300 EUR/month + allowances) in the Scholarship Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service @daadworldwide.bsky.social

Apply by 30 Sep!
More info here👉 uhh.de/csmc-scholar...

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 12

From Handwriting to Woodblock Engraving: Next week, our fellow Tô Lan NGUYỄN (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) shares her latest research on ‘The Buddhist Printing Culture in Early 20th-Century Northern Vietnam’

Monday, 18 August, 4:15 pm. Hybrid lecture, all welcome!

uhh.de/csmc-nguyen

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 11

In 19th-century Damascus, the library of Khālid al-Naqshabandī is a centre for scholarly exchange. Preserving it requires legal ingenuity from his heirs, until it is finally scattered worldwide. In our PhD research series, Joud Nassan Agha tells its story:
uhh.de/csmc-agha

Khālid and his close followers discussing the preservation of his library. Created by Naser Nassan Agha, 2025.

CBL Ar 3036 lower cover. © Chester Beatty, CBL Ar 3036, CC BY – 4.0.

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 6

Once a hub of Ottoman culture, Süleyman Efendi’s library was scattered by conquest. In our PhD Research Series, Rawda El-Hajji traces these manuscripts, showing how they help reconstruct lost intellectual communities and reveal the fate of cultural heritage in times of conflict:
uhh.de/csmc-el-hajji

Ms. 3406, Süleyman Efendi’s endowment deed on folio 1r. Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, ms. 3406 © 2023 by AMS Historica is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rawda El-Hajji visiting the Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle, Budapest. © Ashraf Sarip

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Aug 5

Early Tamil poetry, rich with tales about journeys, patrons, and cultural exchange, reveals a vibrant blending of languages. In our PhD Research Series, Maanasa Visweswaran explores how Sanskrit influences and the use of Grantha script shaped these classical Tamil manuscripts:
uhh.de/csmc-viswesw...

Chennai, UV Swaminatha Iyer Library, Palm-leaf manuscript UVSL 5, p. 50, Grantha in l. 3, mid-nineteenth century CE.

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Reposted by Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg @stabihh.bsky.social · Aug 5

Heute um 18 h eröffnen wir die Ausstellung "Papyri – Ostraka – Wachstafeln. Schriftkultur im griechisch-römischen Ägypten" mit einer Führung. Die Originale eröffnen einzigartige Einblicke in das Leben der Menschen am Nil zwischen griech.-röm. Verwaltung & lok. Kultur. blog.sub.uni-hamburg.de?p=40573

Banner der Ausstellung "Papyri – Ostraka – Wachstafeln. Schriftkultur im griechisch-römischen Ägypten"

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Reposted by Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC)

Malena Ratzke @malenaratzke.bsky.social · Jul 11

In pleasant news: Our book 'Graffiti Scratched, Scrawled, Sprayed' is now available in paperback.

Have a look, it's even got pictures!

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

#graffiti📁 #art #anthropology #archaeology #epigraphy #medievalsky

A green and beige bookcover, reading 'Graffiti Scratched, Scrawled, Sprayed. Towards a Cross-Cultural Understanding. Edited by Ondřej Škrabal , Leah Mascia , Ann Lauren Osthof and Malena Ratzke'

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Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) @csmc-hamburg.bsky.social · Jul 11

We are delighted to have gained the renowned Korean Studies Institute as a partner in researching and preserving the heritage of manuscripts and printing woodblocks. We officially established our collaboration at an international conference in Andong:

uhh.de/csmc-ksi

Chong Jong-sup and Michael Friedrich signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the KSI and the CSMC.

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