This large-format two-volume set offers a bountiful harvest of insight into the character and historical development of an understudied but vital cultural instrument for the transmission of knowledge. The first volume provides tools to unpack the material makeup and development of the manuscript and book medium in Tibet, the Himalaya, and associated regions. The second volume explores the parameters and instances of its critical impact. The set is divided into the “Elements” of manuscripts and early printing, and “Elaborations” on particular classes of written works, many with practical and technical as well as liturgical functions. Volume 1 includes a substantial introduction followed by nine chapters on codicology, paleography, illuminations, xylography, and digitalization, and so forth. Volume 2 consists of a short introduction followed by thirteen chapters on Buddhist manuscript canons, official documents, “technical subjects” such as medicine, Bönpo liturgical manuscripts, and divination manuals, surveys of specialized topics such as the Tibetan book in China and Mongolia, and two case studies of individual manuscripts.It is not possible to summarize each of the twenty-two chapters of the two volumes. It needs to be underscored that all the contributors are prominent scholars who are leaders in their respective fields. Most are experienced European scholars of the most rigorous training and productivity. Here I concentrate on chapters likely to be of greatest interest to art historians, who will find extensive value here, and that too, not only Tibetan, Himalayan, or Buddhist art specialists. Historians of Chinese art will also find much of relevance in these volumes—Dunhuang alone takes up half a column in the index of Volume 1—as will those focusing on comparative codicology and printing. I would go so far as to recommend them widely for those engaged with the material turn in art history theory and methodology, regardless of regional or temporal specialties. The transcription method privileges both accuracy and accessibility, and should satisfy Tibetan language specialists as well as non-specialists. The books overall are so well-illustrated (nearly five hundred illustrations in the first volume alone, most in color) and artfully laid out that the text callouts are often on the same page as the illustrations, or just a page-turn away.The introduction to volume 1 by Matthew Kapstein is much more than a commonplace prologue or chapter outline. It offers critical insight into the intertwined relationship between printing and manuscripts. Unlike the case in Europe, where the invention of moveable type precipitated the radical decline of the circulation of manuscripts, in the greater Tibetan-language regions handwritten texts continued to thrive alongside printed books in complicated ways into the twentieth century. In fact, the two media seemed to nourish each other, with elaborated manuscripts created from printed texts, not just the opposite. Other revelations in the introduction include a well-illustrated narration of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century printing of examples of Tibetan writing in Europe. These were accurately reproduced if not understood. Kapstein notes that “the growing discipline on Tibetology was now for the most part focused on textual content, losing sight of the physical book as the medium whereby the content was preserved and transmitted” (12). In other words, privileging texts not books, a tendency that these two volumes counteract. He also signals the importance to the study of books and texts of the finds at Dunhuang of early and unknown texts, and the gradual recovery of recorded but proscribed texts banned in the seventeenth century by the Fifth Dalai Lama. Kapstein is modest about his introduction and the critical intervention of the volumes’ essays, and he is generous about the contributions of others, although his efforts to make these invaluable volumes come into existence went much beyond “editing” or writing introductions. Not only is he the sole author of the two introductions and four of the chapters, he is also the coauthor of five additional chapters and provided innumerable photographs.The first chapter, “The Material Basis” authored by Agnieszka Helman-Ważny, is essential. Clear, well-chosen, and illuminating illustrations are plentiful throughout, many contextual ones depicting people writing and carving, harvesting plants, or engaged in other processes for paper-, ink-, brush-, and pigment-making. The chapter is a pleasure to read, combining the historical with the contemporary and demonstrating expertise in both, along with linguistic proficiency in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and scientific nomenclature of plants, palm leaves, wood, birchbark, textiles, stone, and other constituents of book production. Paper was crafted in Tibetan regions from the ninth century using plants widely grown in the Himalaya. A variety of plants (such as fibrous root bast) were utilized in graded mixtures to enhance absorbency, smoothness, and resistance to parasites. Extensive descriptions of paper-making processes—covering “floating molds” and “dipping molds,” and producing woven and laid paper—are explained and illustrated. Helman-Ważny's chapter is not about technical processes alone, however. Readers are reminded that the accumulation of spiritual merit is a major incentive to copy scriptures, especially using costly and precious materials. Dark-colored paper for special texts written in gold and silver used “a paste of yak, sheep or goat brains” mixed with fine black powdered soot mixed by kneading with small amounts of yak-hide glue. The preparation of gold and the application of miniatures, the complexity of frontispieces and covers are all conveyed with clarity.A final section on dating manuscripts on the basis of technological and material evidence, still in its infancy, is laid out. Paper analysis can often determine the fibers involved and the use of sieves or molds. Unfortunately, paper cannot at present be used for dating as it was not standardized over time nor always distinctive to a particular region. Radiocarbon dating is possible but can only give ranges for 50 to 300 years of the paper fibers, which can actually be mixtures so dates are disputable. In addition, unused paper sheets, especially of the finest quality, were known to have been transported across regions and borders and could be saved for some time before being used for special projects. The earliest known datable printed Tibetan work is an 1149 text found in Kharakhoto. The preferred paper for printing is not the same as for writing. Stability, softness, absorbency, and smoothness are all factors in paper selection, a consequence of fibers and the production process. Again, unlike in Europe, in Tibet “print remained a supplement, but never a simple replacement for handwriting or calligraphy as a means to preserve and disseminate knowledge and literary traditions” (48).The second chapter, “Format and Layout” by Brandon Dotson and Agnieszka Helman-Ważny, is equally productive in laying down the fundamentals of Tibetan manuscripts and early printed books. Along with the first chapter, it too provides a shared ground, orientation, and vocabulary for later chapters. The format of official documents are for the most part examined over three chapters in volume 2, but otherwise the second chapter elucidates most of the formats of paper documents in scroll, concertina, codex, and the most common poti or pustaka format adapted from Indian palm-leaf manuscripts texts. Known as pecha in Tibetan, that format was predominant even for printing until the 1980s. It also was used for samta, erasable writing boards for drafts, notes, computation, and learning and practicing scripts. Although the most enduring and widespread format, the unbound pecha format (loose leaves clasped by wooden covers) was not necessarily dominant at the time of the introduction of writing in the seventh century. The scroll format was among the earliest, adapted from Chinese writing, and obviously encountered in bulk during the Tibetan control of Dunhuang in the eighth and ninth centuries (until ca. 848), with continued presence into the tenth. During that period, some Chinese scrolls there were utilized for Tibetan manuscripts by writing on the backs, rotated ninety degrees to have a top-to-bottom orientation with left-to-right writing, instead of their original right-to-left unrolling with writing aligned vertically. The adapted mise-en-page (arrangement of the text) continued with official documents, monastic regulations, thangkas, and mantra scrolls inserted into prayer wheels, illustrating a larger point the authors make, that format was correlated to function and genre, with corresponding terminology.Other formats included stitched books that were sewn at the top instead of the side, while large single sheets were utilized for letters and proclamations. The concertina format was a marriage of the scroll format and the pecha, roughly documenting the transition from a Chinese orientation toward a greater focus on India as Buddha's homeland. The lexicon of specialized terms is mined for their literal and connotative meanings, as well as distinctive methods of foliation (the numbering of folios). The glossary of selected terms provides helpful reference in later chapters.Left aside here because of lack of space are three fascinating chapters on scripts, scribal hands, punctuation, inserted corrections, commentaries, seals and other marks of ownership, and colophons, the latter critically important for text scholars, Tibetologists and art historians alike. Probably of paramount interest to art historians is chapter 6, “Manuscript Illuminations,” which was coauthored by Amy Heller and Matthew Kapstein, neither of whom are formally trained art historians but both of whom have contributed a great deal to Tibetan art history. Heller in fact has been working in the field for decades, and Kapstein, besides being master of several subdisciplines of philosophy and Tibetology, has exhibited a consistent interest and insight into material culture. They write that since is not a method of in to study of to over and their of and so This to the the of art history and would be a The for the analysis of Tibetan texts, is instead paper codicology, paleography, and the of format and of manuscripts over and of and in the chapters in the are should only a or with the others, while is as the illustrations in fact, (the of from the of text) a in much of the while is too, that is much at in the the of the is on a the for of in Tibet and the Himalaya, with in of and “The of India and in of The section of the takes to the of and find reference to the of Chinese and the of Chinese The and several of the illustrations are and their are in fact about to the of the of the in the Tibetan of descriptions of include focusing on such as a as if to in a while and with the of the of and Tibetan among the Dunhuang manuscripts of from where of application of scientific analysis and of the on such as on the by from which have been as been by or with is to with art he in are that that the were by Indian the were by “a Tibetan in an or a or two In fact a of is to the the or the there were both but on are not helpful so much as if were not of a of as beyond the chapter an of some but more in and even two A illustrations in are here and there in other chapters, but the fact that more are in chapter is a that as and in consequence have all too often been from the of their “The is authored by the scientific of the Tibetan at the in among other nine of the more than illustrations are from the Tibetan The has been an of Tibetan and book since the and early The is still much in with and as of the Buddha's out that important in and book printing, and some even the wooden and in the printing process. was to a variety of and was not a or In Tibetan printing handwritten manuscripts, in and in three the to century of the to century in Tibet and and the seventeenth to century with a in Tibetan and regions. study the history of the of with and history. In the first period, and the were in printing Tibetan-language Buddhist texts. The into in Tibet, and among in in In the second period, the of text as the of the and and also monastic the was its first printed in In and Tibet, into using printing to It to the monastic of many of that been by of printing the Fifth Dalai first at It also at with a and in the century also by the the of by there the and of texts, those of the and some texts, as in The the of some to Tibet, the of the printing at in as well as other printing in among them the and both the Dalai the technological the illustrations illustrations, those with are not in chapter and manuscripts on It is an chapter, the original of the the for wood, and for writing. is a of the processes some with manuscript both and These include the of the original text or to be and the (such as the wood, and all of which specialized and their tools and and the preparation of the master copy of the to be used as the that is be before the are actually in on both for printing, and of black and are as is which from that used for manuscripts, Helman-Ważny's are and or replacement of or those out from printing. The mise-en-page of printed books to that of manuscripts, on the and of the paper there is a relationship between the manuscripts on just as were on the manuscript The format and of printed illustrations those on manuscripts, often on the and with the paper provided the was by a and an The is to the by the paper down on an it and it a of the letters and to the for special were to to the the of the the many the specialized of on and their were in the and by and Kapstein of and of Tibetan handwritten and printed books in and contemporary in the final chapter of the first and the of Tibetan is by the of the by the of the of the Buddhist with the other specialized chapters, is an and with and of the of and in which both and are of are and the recovery and of that were to have been are 2 includes surveys of classes of written works, those to and and official and and the of Buddhist and Kapstein out in his were not only of but also practical to the of Tibetan the can also to larger cultural such as “the and of technical the and the of Tibetan and in all its and both especially prominent in the development and the of Tibetan chapters to the Tibetan book of those regions in part “The Tibetan book beyond these are in In the case of by Kapstein consists of especially of the and printing of the Buddhist in the and In and analysis of Tibetan books in Mongolia, several of the and in volume to those the final of essays, are each on a single in the and the other in the They are to a of and with volume it is not possible to summarize or each of volume thirteen chapters. Here I focus only on the ones that have the to art historians of the greater Himalaya, Tibet, and of as well as those in the book as an or cultural chapter provides an of the development of manuscript In the later part of the of the of in Tibet ca. eighth and ninth and the first centuries texts to have or in was of an and to an the across in the ca. century were there and on many with illuminations, extensive Although a examples from are examples from the Himalaya, from and in using his from and in and in with to with in and The manuscripts from he from the and and were at some point there from now in its more than common to such to the of the of that across chapters in both volumes are in of the scroll format in to early that been examined in some in Dotson and Helman-Ważny's volume 1 chapter, “Format and of his examples the illuminations, and in chapters. the same a of the of the textual is conveyed by the to the of since other terms were in use with to be the The volume of texts and books is even in these regions from The in has volumes and with It dates to the seventeenth century at the but are or by and chapters authored by and deal with official documents from Tibet and and by and manuscript and manuscripts to and of These which is out by chapter and by and chapter and by Matthew Kapstein, an of and many with Kapstein also the chapter “The Tibetan in which has It contributions in China that Tibetan book both and He with on of Tibetan books, as is in several chapters in the two volumes. extensive in the eighth century and was at into the tenth. control of it was a of of Chinese texts from and and for into Tibetan, from A of as a Tibetan printed in with Chinese at the it was into Tibetan from a Chinese to the earliest printed Tibetan texts just known were short texts the The earliest major texts printed in Tibetan were in the in texts. The first of a printed text on includes illustrations of and the Tibetan author Although the text is in Tibetan can the foliation is in as Kapstein the of the is that of includes on its of production and a of and the the and the of the was also an important of Tibetan as is well He the Tibetan Buddhist at in in volumes with a in the in Kapstein out that the format, if not the was followed by in China and also in The was in both Chinese and Tibetan on the same The early also the production of of printed and in in and Tibetan include the manuscripts in the of the written in gold with illustrations, its use of precious all of in Tibetan were printed in and not all with during the century. The of such texts, even texts, the of Tibetan and who were in the the as to be printed and liturgical texts. A of is a printed text of a text with as a work by the who to It is in both Tibetan and of handwritten and manuscripts were actually printed of Tibetan texts, a unlike the case in Europe, the development of printing in handwritten books, as These among and and the in part as up in the of European and in China in the and twentieth centuries and now in The present of the by Kapstein are from an of among them the in the in the of the in the in the in and the in The knowledge of the is by a widespread with on Tibetan books among the into the many of the in volume such as scripts, scribal and illuminations, of printing, and so forth. The only of the is that of the more than examples are from the but at are as by a manuscript by the who a of in in and The by in is of the by in of or it is “the first known of the earliest on the text all of the Indian Buddhist transmission in Tibet, both the and mantra are two of and the other of his 1 and was a of A of tools is by in to the dating of the analysis of the and paleography, and with the the of a by in the text corresponding to is that the manuscript is datable to between and It he a copy to the This the two to years on the of the two Although not the of its to other, more roughly of to the of the those in the at in and those in from is to come to a of the and his chapter is with A of Tibetan and the final chapter by Matthew Although much more than manuscript and with so much more it would be an In fact, the manuscript was in a which not only the of cultural and their and in cultural but particular to its and Kapstein is to is divided into two are a of illustrations of for and are across two or even four leaves of the but format, which for texts is In the case of some of these such as are with in a are about hundred of written texts, a of short texts, and in a of these texts included a that was in Dotson and chapter of volume the was to the but it was as been from a printed of an individual The case was used as an in the section of chapter a the and of their helpful even as he and the in part with comparative of a with such manuscripts to a manuscript in the with some and that the in the manuscripts here to a technical and to that of the important of not and by the Fifth Dalai and a the of rigorous to and the use of common for The is “a more or to technical Kapstein is not to or to or instead a but still these manuscripts not from the of the Fifth Dalai or the of his were by and created in of its Kapstein here provides a of to a manuscript of unknown and He that the or to the two be as of the of the field in Tibetan manuscript the most important contributions for art history of these two volumes is the as in so from the in chapter out in as Kapstein until have still remained about the of the in Tibet, which not to the and in the art of the and Here I to the many of and illustrations that have come down to in the of historians the in a than the two as more or even as or can two found Most thangkas, and many manuscripts are in or such as 1 and Most manuscripts (such as and some are in a known as In the is more a more In fact it is in terms of and the use of the as a has its and be the is more with manuscripts, the two are often but not always to both function and The of and especially of texts and the of the are and the of the Buddha's the most with costly in the other manuscripts the are the focus of than tools utilized during This is not to were not also but were by and were and for particular in the chapter They were for to and the were to also has to be if Kapstein is about the manuscript to a degrees at most of the of the Fifth Dalai I have to was and not out of lack of historians among other scholars should be to these and specialized for producing the on a of to manuscripts, books, printing, and material culture. The volumes are and and should be both and for
Rob Linrothe (Wed,) studied this question.