Accordion-style books (also called concertina books, or leporellos) are another form common to different traditions: they make it easier to find one’s place in what started as a scroll. They were used early in East Asia for religious texts, they exist as Ethiopian sǝnsul “chained” manuscripts within a codex context, and were likely formed in the pothī tradition when loose paper leaves were glued together, but without changing the usual way of flipping pages, hence keeping the horizontally oblong form. In the last section on other forms and materials, look for a bark Batak pustaha book in an accordion-style form.

This visually striking obituary is an example of a rarely preserved piece of ephemera. Its preservation is due to links between I.V. Gillis, buyer for the Gest Chinese Collection, and Chen Baochen, tutor of the last Emperor of China, from whom Gillis acquired the collection’s first books. When Chen Baochen’s younger clan relation Chen Bi passed away in 1928, this obituary was sent to Gillis. The two Chens were important to education in China: together they founded schools that taught using a modern curriculum.

Gest Collection, DS764.23.C442 1928

For further reading

Baidu baike 百度百科. “Chen Bi 陈璧.” Accessed May 20, 2025. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%99%B3%E7%92%A7/17310

Spectacularly illustrated parabaik, as the word purapuikʻ is commonly written in English, with scenes of royal life were painted by artists for the court of the last Burmese kings. Similar works continued to be painted even after the British had destroyed the palace in the 1885 Anglo-Burmese War and exiled the last king; the painters began selling similar scrolls to the conquerors. The scene on the wall is part of a Buddhist marriage procession in Mandalay; the one displayed in the case shows the training of elephants. Attacking English steamboats can be seen elsewhere on the scroll.

Princeton Special Collections, 2024-0001E

For further reading

Herbert, Patricia. “Burmese court manuscripts.” In The art of Burma: new studies, edited by Donald M. Stadtner, 89-102. Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1999.

Pruitt, William (ed.) Illustrations of Myanmar: manuscript treasures of the Musée Guimet. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2019.

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