Monash University researcher’s hunt for old manuscripts

Researchers from Monash University have put out a call for old manuscripts in the hopes of locating them in people’s private collections. Researchers believe that hundreds of documents of significant cultural value are scattered all across Victoria. The primary focus is on Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts which date before 1600. These can be of any nature, whether they be whole texts, or fragments, dealing with anything; from the literary to the administrative, from the religious to the educational.

In the words of Medieval scholar Guy Geltner, the aim of the project is to

“reach out to diverse communities, organisations and individuals who may be in  possession of liturgical, literary, personal or other rare texts, and learn more about the stories of their legacy and heritage, how they got here from East Asia to Europe and the Americas, and, of course, how they can illuminate the past and present of such cultures.”

These texts would then be placed in an inventory to be used for both academic research and cultural enrichment. The ultimate aim of the project would be to digitise any interesting items and make them available via a public database with their location, the date, the words on it. The researchers are calling on anyone, whether they be private collectors, schools, or cultural institutions to get in contact with them here sophis-manuscripts@monash.edu.