CrossAsia Talks: Thies Staack 20.02.2025

(See English below)

Den ersten CrossAsia Talk des Jahres 2025 wird Herr Thies Staack (Universität Hamburg) am 20. Februar 2025 ab 18 Uhr halten. Der Titel seines Online-Vortrags lautet: „The Provenance of the Chinese Medical Manuscripts in the Unschuld Collection: New Evidence from an Unpublished Acquisition Notebook“. Wir können uns somit auf einen weiteren CrossAsia Talk freuen, der die umfangreiche Sammlung Unschuld mit chinesischen medizinischen Handschriften in den Blick nimmt, sich aber erstmals und mittels einer bisher unveröffentlichten Quelle aus dem Besitz von Herrn Prof. Paul U. Unschuld der Provenienz der Handschriften widmen wird.

The provenance of the Chinese medical manuscripts collected by Paul Ulrich Unschuld has long remained an open question. Even the catalogue of the collection, published in 2012, offers very little information in this respect. The present lecture introduces a new source of provenance information: an unpublished acquisition notebook in which Unschuld recorded the date and place of purchase for nearly 800 manuscripts he acquired between 1996 and 2006. By synthesising the data contained in the notebook and in the documents kept in the archives of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Berlin State Library, it has been possible to obtain provenance information on 490 manuscript volumes, which are now listed under 471 separate shelf marks in the “Unschuld collection” of the Berlin State Library. In addition to the year and month of acquisition, the city of origin could be determined for 371 of these manuscripts, and for a total of 67 even the specific location within that city. The lecture will present the results of this provenance research and describe how it was possible to match notebook entries with actual manuscripts in the Berlin State Library collection. In addition, it will further probe into the provenance of a sub-group of manuscripts that all went through the hands of the same book collector from Shanghai. Finally, the presentation will demonstrate the benefits of provenance data for research into regional peculiarities of medical knowledge and healing practices.

Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.

Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account an.

—

The first CrossAsia Talk of the year 2025 will be held by Mr Thies Staack (University of Hamburg) on February 20, 2025 from 6 pm. The title of his online lecture is: ‘The Provenance of the Chinese Medical Manuscripts in the Unschuld Collection: New Evidence from an Unpublished Acquisition Notebook’. We can therefore look forward to another CrossAsia Talk, which will focus on the extensive Unschuld Collection of Chinese medical manuscripts, but for the first time and by means of a previously unpublished source from the possession of Prof. Paul U. Unschuld will be dedicated to the provenance of the manuscripts.

The provenance of the Chinese medical manuscripts collected by Paul Ulrich Unschuld has long remained an open question. Even the catalogue of the collection, published in 2012, offers very little information in this respect. The present lecture introduces a new source of provenance information: an unpublished acquisition notebook in which Unschuld recorded the date and place of purchase for nearly 800 manuscripts he acquired between 1996 and 2006. By synthesising the data contained in the notebook and in the documents kept in the archives of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Berlin State Library, it has been possible to obtain provenance information on 490 manuscript volumes, which are now listed under 471 separate shelf marks in the “Unschuld collection” of the Berlin State Library. In addition to the year and month of acquisition, the city of origin could be determined for 371 of these manuscripts, and for a total of 67 even the specific location within that city. The lecture will present the results of this provenance research and describe how it was possible to match notebook entries with actual manuscripts in the Berlin State Library collection. In addition, it will further probe into the provenance of a sub-group of manuscripts that all went through the hands of the same book collector from Shanghai. Finally, the presentation will demonstrate the benefits of provenance data for research into regional peculiarities of medical knowledge and healing practices.

The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.

The lecture will be streamed via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.

You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X.

 

*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.