Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Copy of Mughal Map, c. 1650-1730

British Library Shelfmark: Maps 188.i.2

Typewritten notes by Reginald Henry Phillimore attached to the map:

"Copy of a Mughal Map probably made about 1780 from an original that at the time of copying had already been seriously damaged...probable date of the original might therefore be placed between 1650 and 1730."

This map is a schematic of Mughal routes through northern India. It follows the same format at the Chahar Gulshan, with place names captured in rectangles (scaled in relation to importance), and rough mileage indicated with numbers written next to the route.

Phillimore wrote extensive notes on the map, but apparently did not publish them. His typewritten commentary can be accessed at the same Shelfmark number as the map.

Large Scale View (click for better resolution):

Detail View (with some translation):

Cities listed in right-hand column, top to bottom [north to south, Delhi to Agra]: Tonk, Faridabad, Sikri, Palwal, Hodal, (Serai) Kosi, Chatur (Serai Chata), Mathura, Koila (Serai Kolah), (Serai) Farrah, Sikandra, Akbarabad (Agra).

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Archives de la Province de France de la Compagnie de Jésus

A few catalogue listings for Fonds Brotier:

Volume 82 GBro 082
Lettres de l’Inde de Père Gargam: 18 lettres 1726-1741, pour la plupart autographes et adressées (quand le destinataire est indique) au P. Etienne Souciet, du collège Louis le Grand a Paris, avec notations linguistiques, ff. 66-114.

Volume 83 GBro 083
1. Lettre du P. Moriser sj au P. Souciet, 26-1-1731; 3 p. ff. 17-118
2. P. Duchamp: sur le calcul des planètes selon la méthode Graha Chendrika; pour calculer les éclipses; calculs divers; 71 p. ff. 119-115
3. Observations astronomiques diverses, 189; 12 p. ff 156-60 et 162-163
4. Copie d’une lettre du P. Coeurdoux, 17-9-1733, écriture de Brotier; 6 p. ff. 161, 164-165
5. Lettre de P. Duchamp au P. Souciet, reçue en 1733 (copie); 7 p. ff 166-69

Volume 88 Gbro 088
Lettres de missionnaires des Indes au P. Souciet (sauf la première) toutes autographes

Volume 89 Gbro 089
10 lettres de P. Calmette, 1726-1737, au P. Souciet (quand le dentinaire est indique) Autographes, sauf la 1er

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Archives de la Province de France de la Compagnie de Jésus

Sommervogel, t. 7, 1397-1404. G. Duman, Histoire du Journal de Trévoux, 1936, p. 121-22. Etablissements es Jésuites en France, passim. Feller. Michaud. Roefer.

Souciet, Etienne 12

Ne le 12 Octobre 1671 a Bourges

More le 14 janvier 1744 a Paris

Entre le 8 septembre 190

Prêtre en 1701 a Paris

Derniers vœux le 2 février 1706 à Paris

Fils d’un avocat, apes ses études chez les Jésuites de Bourges il entre au noviciat de la Compagnie à Paris (1690). Apres un an de régence a Alençon (Orne) (1692-93), et quatre au collège Louis-le-Grand à Paris (1693-97), il fit dans la même maison un an de philosophie et quatre de théologie, ordonné prêtre en 1701. Dès 1702 il fut scriptor au collège Louis-le-Grand où il passa presque tout le reste de sa vie, sauf pendant son 3e an, qu’il fit à Rouen en 1704-05. Au cours de ses études il avait acquis une masse de connaissances, qu’il ne cessa d’enrichir. Professeur de théologie positive durant 9 ans (1716-1725), il fut chargé de l’importante bibliothèque du collège de 1725 à 1740. De 1708 à 1725 il donna de nombreux articles non signes aux Mémoires de Trévoux. Sa connaissance du latin, du grec, de l’hébreu, des langues orientales lui permit de réunir en 1715 des dissertations critiques sur les passages difficiles de l’Ecriture sainte. Dans ses dissertations de 1727 il critiqua la chronologie de Newton. Ses relations avec les missionnaires jésuites de la Chine et de l’Inde comme Gaubil, Kögler, Slaviesek, Jartoux, etc., lui permirent se publier en 1729-1732 3 volumes d’observations mathématiques, géographiques, chronologiques et physiques tirées des anciens livres chinois ou faites nouvellement. Il collabora souvent aux Act sanctorum des Bollandistes. ON lit sans son éloge par le P. François Oudin dans les Mémoires de Trévoux : « Son esprit veste, solide, ferme, énergique, étendu lui fit embrasser toutes les sciences : érudition, astronomie, chronologies, mythologies, géographie, médailles, inscriptions, etc.… » Sa charge de bibliothécaire le détacha souvent des se travaux personnels pour le mettre au service de ceux qui le consultaient. Il eut quatre frère jésuites : François (1674-1739), qui fut professeur à La Flèche, Jean (1681-1762), un des collaborateurs des Mémoires de Trévoux, Jean-Baptiste (1684-1738), missionnaire au Levant, mort à Salonique, Etienne-Auguste (1685-1744), supérieur du grand séminaire de Nevers, écrivain, collaborateur des Mémoires des Trévoux.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Archives de la Province de France de la Compagnie de Jésus

A history of the Fonds Brotier:

J. Dehergne: les archives des jésuites de Paris et d’histoire des missions aux 17s et 18s

Une part important des correspondances, des rapports et de mémoires venus des pays lointains s’entassait sous forme de liasses dans le bureau du dernier bibliothécaire du Collège Louis-le-Grand, le Père Gabriel Brotier (1723-1789). Ce savant, estime de ses pairs, obtint, lors de la suppression des 80 collèges de l’ordre, par le Parlement de Paris (1er April 1762), de garder a sa disposition ces divers papiers. A sa mort, en 1789, son neveu André-Charles Brotier en hérita (ainsi que de ce qui forme le fonds Rybereyte) ; mais, compromis dans un complot royaliste (1797), emprisonné et ruiné, il n’eut d’autre ressource que de léguer à son avocat, comme gage des honoraires qu’il ne pouvait payer, ces derniers biens qu’il possédait encore. Ainsi, par dons, ou pour achats subséquents, plusieurs séries de papiers ont réintègre nos Archives, ou le fonds Brotier se présente actuellement sous formes de minces volumes relies : on en comptait 200 au milieu du siècle dernier ; mais, par suite des expulsions de 1880 et de 1900, et de prêts inconsidérés, il n’en reste pas que 160. Par la diversité des pièces qu’il rassemble, dont beaucoup sont des autographes ou des copies d’époque, le fonds Brotier, avec lequel on a relie plus tard des écrits du XIX siècle, constitue l’une des sources les plus riches—mais non les plus anciennes—de nos archives.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Royal Society

An archive staffed by friendly and helpful people. My goal here was to view the original of a series of letters published in the late eighteenth-century in the Philosophical Transactions, and to view the original images that had accompanied one of the letters. It took a bit of work by the picture curator, but she eventually tracked down all the images. I appreciated the opportunity to compare the original letters to the published versions, as well as to compare the original (watercolor) images with the published (engraved) images. Editorial and aesthetic changes introduced by publishing processes are fascinating.

Practicalities: You can bring your camera to save yourself all the on-site transcribing/copying.

Archives de la Province de France de la Compagnie de Jésus

If you're doing research on 18th century India, chances are good you've run across the names of one or two Jesuit priests. They appear in the landscape of southern India with especial frequency, but also toward the north/central region (there was a Jesuit church and college at Agra, for instance). An incredibly curious set of religious folk, the Jesuits took notes on just about everything they saw: language, religion, family, geography, science, trade, travel, etc. We know they were curious, because they wrote letters with unbelievable frequency when they were out on mission, describing the world as they encountered it.

Fortunately, many of the letters written back to Europe from India, China, the Americas and Africa were preserved by the recipient (usually a priest in a higher position). In the eighteenth century, 34 volumes worth of letters were edited and published by the Society of Jesuits under the title Lettres édifiantes et curieuses (you can read a brief summary of the series at Wikipedia, of all places). It takes time to sort out the various editions and publication dates for the volumes, especially if you're trying to do it through interlibrary loan, but I think it's worth it. I've been using the 1781 edition (occasionally reading the 1819 edition for newer punctuation and spellings) because that takes me well beyond the end date for my project (1743).

Unfortunately, even with 34 volumes, the collection doesn't include every letter ever written by every Jesuit priest in the world. That's where the Jesuit Archives in Vanves (Paris) come in handy. I've just started working here, and can I say, this is a really great research experience. Aside from my inability to use the doorbell properly, it's been very painless, even with my abominably poor French (I read it much better than I speak it, obviously). Le Père Archiviste, Robert Bonfils, is friendly and helpful. He speaks perfect English and didn't make me feel stupid for lacking the same fluency with his own language.

Today I looked at two volumes of the Fonds Brotiers, reading letters from various Jesuits interested in astronomy in India and China. These letters nicely fill in the gaps left in the Lettres édifiantes. I think I took the right approach--spent quite a bit of time with the published letters, worked out a timeline and familiarized myself with names and personalities, and then went to the archive. The names I'm reading are all familar to me, and I've read published letters by all of them. This has been surprisingly helpful when I'm trying to decipher complex handwriting.

Practicalities: I had a native French speaker translate my letter of introduction into French for me, but I'm not sure that is necessary. At any rate, you can contact the archivist at:

Archives de la Province de France de la Compagnie de Jésus
15 rue Raymond Marcheron
92170 VANVES

Contacting Mr. Bonfils ahead of time helped me discover that a citation reproduced a hundred times over in the secondary literature on my subject was incorrect.

The archive opens at 9 a.m., and is closed for lunch from 12:00-1:30, which will give you plenty of time for a nice lunch.

Unlike the British Library, this archive permits the use of a camera, useful for taking images of fragile documents.

There are two Citéa hotels within a two-minute walk of the archive. I can say that Citéa Vanves Porte de Châtillon is clean and comfortable (it looks exactly as the website promises), and it takes me 45 seconds to walk from the front door of the hotel to gate of the archive, 4-5 minutes to walk to the grocery store, and 9-10 minutes to walk to the metro. So, convenient, and inexpensive at Euro65/night.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Foreign Language Journals at RIBA

If you are studying in a School of Architecture as I am, you probably have access to a decent Architecture Library. Still, it is worth spending some time over at the RIBA British Architectural Library if you are doing research on Central (West) Asia or Northern India. For instance, if you wanted to read an archaeological report from Аркитектцра СССР at home, you would probably need to go through interlibrary loan to acquire it. At RIBA, you can sit and browse through back issues to your heart's content. Ditto for the even more obscure Аркитектура и Строительство Узбекистана. By the end of my first day there, I had articles from Architecture Australia, Parametro, Perspecta, Aujourd'hui Art et Architecture, Architectural Review, Domus, Bauwelt, and Archaeologia. Some of those are easily available in the U.S., but being able to simply sit and browse the others made the trip to that part of town worth the time.

Persian Manuscripts 101

If you are completely new to working with Persian manuscripts at the British Library, here are a few tips for the novice. Hopefully it will save you a few steps when you are trying to find a manuscript from a weak citation. Instead of saying to the reference librarian on duty in the Asia and African Studies Reading Room "Uh...I have a number for a Persian manuscript and I don't know to find it," you can instead say, "Uh...I have a number for a Persian manuscript, and it's not in Ethe or Rieu, and I don't know how to find it." [Truthfully, that statement didn't save me a few steps when I was looking for a manuscript with a D.P. shelfmark, but more on that below.]

First, the new version of the British Library website describes its finding aids for Persian manuscripts clearly but briefly. I will just highlight a few of these and tell you how I have found them useful.

Of the basic finding aids for Persian manuscripts, some are aimed specifically at the mss. held in the British Library, while some attempt to address every Persian manuscript known to humankind. Of the general catalogues, the one you will probably want to start with is C. A. Storey's Persian literature: A Bio-bibliographical Study. Storey's volumes break down as follows (the volume/fascicle numbers change depending on how it is catalogued/which edition you're using):

  • Qur’ānic literature
  • Biography (corrections and additions)
  • General history, the prophets of early Islam
  • Special histories of Persia, central Asia and the remaining parts of the world except India
  • History of India
  • Mathematics, Weights and measures, Astronomy and astrology, Geography
  • Medicine, Encyclopedias and miscellanies, Arts and crafts, Science, Occult arts
  • Lexicography, Grammar, Prosody and poetics

I started using the Storey volume on astronomical manuscripts first, but obviously, for historians of India, the volume that contains the History of India is crucial. Also obviously, the volumes are somewhat out of date, even though you'll find plenty to keep you busy. Ghulām Ḥusayn Tasbīḥī wrote a doctoral thesis at the University of London on the problem of updating the volumes, so if you're wondering what you're missing, and why you're missing it, you can read "The Problems of Bringing Storey’s Persian Literature Up to Date (Persian Lexicography)."

Exclusively tuned to the Mughal Empire is D. N. Marshall's Mughals in India: a Bibliographical Survey of Manuscripts. This is good addition to Storey. One difficulty with this index (for me) is that the manuscripts are listed alphabetically according to author--if you know the name of a manuscript, but not the author, you have to do a bit of work to find the description.

If you're working on a science-related topic like me (astronomy), you might want to sit down with A. Rahman's Science and technology in medieval India : a bibliography of source materials in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian (New Delhi : Indian National Science Academy, 1982). This is a great source, as it lets you sift through Persian, Sanskrit and Arabic science manuscripts simultaneoulsy. I should warn you, the abbreviation "I.O." does not stand for "India Office" in this volume. One strong aspect of this catalogue is the attention given to manuscripts held in collections in India--"I.O." refers to one of these, so if you try to order up a ms. numbered, say, "I.O. 4566," it won't work at the British Library (this I know from personal experience).

In the list provided on the British Library webpage cited above, you will see a few catalogues focused on collections now held in the British Library (previously held in the India Office, the British Museum, or elsewhere).

At the end of the nineteenth century, Carl Hermann Ethe began to catalogue Persian manuscripts in the India Office. The first of two volumes was published in 1903, with the second volume following in 1937. So, if you're trying to find a number and description for a Persian manuscript you think was probably originally held in the India Office (for instance, if your shelfmark/citation begins with "IO"), start with Ethe's Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office.

Similarly, Charles Pierre Henri Rieu catalogued the Persian manuscripts held by the British Museum (along with Arabic and Turkish manuscripts). If you think the manuscript was held by the British Museum (shelfmark will begin with BM in older catalogues), turn to Rieu's 4 volume Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts (1879-95) and his Supplement to the Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (1895) to read the description.

I won't give advice on how to order up I.O. or B.M. manuscripts using the British Library's Integrated Catalogue (online). Generally, you just use the numeric digits, but the process is impossible to describe in text. Ask the reference librarian for help--they can input the citation properly (even they sometimes have to try twice or thrice to get the right string of letters and numbers), then order up the manuscript for you by proxy. They do this all the time, so go ahead and ask for help.

Finally, since I am providing sources for historians of India, I should also mention Elliot and Dowson's The History of India: the Muhammadan Period, as Told by Its Own Historians (31 vols.), even though it is not really a catalogue. This is a very large collection of manuscript descriptions and translations of ms. excerpts into English. You can often read a short extract in The History of India, cross-reference it with Rieu or Ethe shelfmarks, and come up with the original Persian manuscripts 70 minutes later.

Oh, I promised to discuss the trouble-making "D. P." shelfmark. Storey cited a manuscript held in the India Office as "D. P. 627," noting that Ethe had not included it in his catalogue. I asked for assistance from two different reference librarians, but neither one could figure out the shelfmark. Finally, I was able to contact one of the curators of Persian manuscripts, and she told me that it was "Delhi Persian" papers. When I finally managed to get my hands on this manuscript, the staff at the Deliveries desk were mystified--apparently they only infreqently (never?) see the D. P. shelfmark. Storey described these papers in a separate listing, apparently not published. I'll let you know more about it later, as the curator is going to let me read Storey's description of D. P. 627 Thursday.