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Book Collecting in Timbuktu: A Lecture by Shamil Jeppie

Wed, October 5th, 2022
4:15 pm
- 5:45 pm

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“Book Collecting in Timbuktu.” A lecture by Prof. Shamil Jeppie (University of Cape Town)

This lecture surveys five centuries of collecting in Timbuktu, a town in the interior of West Africa that has come to symbolize a larger world of learning and book culture in the region. This lecture follows citations in texts written in the town in the sixteenth century, book borrowing and copying, through to a major collector of the early twentieth century who both attempted to conserve the manuscript book tradition and imported printed books to Timbuktu.

A reception in honor of the speaker is to follow in the Chapin Gallery, Sawyer Library 406, from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The reception is free and open to all.

Professor Jeppie’s lecture is part of “Diversifying Collections,” a series of events in the Greater Albany area supported by the Lang Fellowship from Rare Book School.

Shamil Jeppie (PhD Princeton) is associate professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the founder of The Tombouctou Manuscripts Project, which explores the formation of a culture of collecting in Timbuktu. 

This lecture is sponsored by the History Department, the Dean of Faculty Office, the History Department Class of 1960s Scholars, and the Oakley Center.

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