A First Description of a Collection of Mongol Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge

Extract

One of the immediate tasks in the field of Mongol studies is to take stock of the prints and manuscripts scattered in many different libraries. As a small contribution to this task there follows a list of the contents of a collection of Mongol manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge. There are thirty-four texts (plus one in Tibetan written in an ornamental Tibetan script), the majority of them ritualistic in content. There is no general title to the collection, and it gives the impression of being a detached fragment from a private library. There are 389 folios of slightly varying dimensions, the approximate measurements being 28 by 6·5 cm. Eleven of the texts, (Nos. 1–11), totalling 213 folios, are written on paper of uniform quality, and some of the remaining texts can also be sorted into groups on the basis of similarity in the quality of the paper. The folios are contained as two pothis between brocade-covered boards. When first inspected the folios were found to be rather muddled, but it was possible to re-sort them into their correct order within the individual texts, and to establish the probable completeness of the latter.