This exhibition highlights the diversity of global book making traditions using examples from the Princeton University Library, focusing on the continuous transmission and exchange of formal aspects in the world’s three major lineages of the book form: the codex, the East Asian, and the pothī traditions. Representative works, ranging from the humble to the spectacular, are supplemented by some items less easily defined as “books,” but commonly collected by libraries. A possible fourth global tradition, the Mesoamerican, can only be touched upon in this exhibition as only few examples remain due to colonial destruction.
This exhibition includes many items rarely seen, reflecting Princeton University Library’s work to make its collections in historically understudied languages, scripts, and forms more accessible. In addition to Princeton’s large collections of Islamic manuscripts, East Asian printed books, and Meso-American manuscripts, the Library also has accumulated many less well-known items from all over the world. The Princeton University Library is committed to share that material with the original communities it came from through its digitization projects, some of which are showcased in our online companion to this exhibition at Digital PUL.
To truly appreciate the global and chronological dimensions of this exhibition, please look at the interactive map and timeline linked below; you can click on a specific title to go to a page with further details.
To see even more interconnections and communalities between items dispersed throughout the exhibition, look at the icons found next to each item number (and which are described in the symbol key linked below). The icons highlight some common forms, materials, technologies, or script cultures. Look also for works by modern artists that reference the global traditions.
The exhibition is curated by Martin Heijdra *95, Director of the East Asian Library
To best experience the online exhibition in the intended order, start with the Map, timeline, and symbol key. Please note also the Downloadable guide, which contains descriptions, further reading, and selected images for all exhibit items in a single PDF.