Imagining the World: Unexplored Global Collections at Columbia

Aleph-bet chart
Pisa, 1816
Italian Jewish Community Broadside Collection
DS135.I85 F384 1628g F-Flat
Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Print shops produced a range of printed material beyond the standard codex. This broadside, printed in Pisa in 1816 “for the merit of the many”, by Samu’el Molkho and his sons, was meant to be hung on the wall in a Jewish school. It features the Hebrew alphabet, with a row of letters for each nekudah, or vowel, to allow students to practice reading. Along the sides are pre- and post-meal prayers as well as the Shema (the Jewish declaration of faith), the blessing on the tsitsit (a four-cornered garment with strings on each corner) and other tenets of the Jewish faith.

Vigevano, Giuseppe
Saggio di caratteri ebraici ad uso della studiosa gioventù
Reggio, 1824.
PLIMPTON 095 1824 V68 13V Folio c.2
Rare Book & Manuscript Library

This unique printing manual includes twelve calligraphic plates with various Hebrew scripts, to be used as a guide for the Hebrew scribe. The book also includes step-by-step instructions for writing Hebrew letters, beautifully laid out and described. This copy of the edition includes information about the book’s production. A notice from the printer preserved in this copy indicates that the calligraphic plates were printed and distributed first, with the instruction section printed about two weeks later. The printer’s notice also includes the cost of the plates and the binding.

Dard, J. (Jean), 1789-1833
Grammaire wolofe, ou Méthode pour étudier la langue des noires qui habitent les royaumes de Bourba-Yolof, de Walo, de Damel, de Bour-sine, de Saloume, de Baole, en Sénégambie par Jean Dard (1826)
897W83 D24
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University

One of the earliest works in French on Wolof language and culture, containing 21 pages of proverbs in Wolof, with French translation.  Wolof is a major language of Senegal and The Gambia in West Africa and among the most popular African languages studied today in the United States.

Arabic Amulet
Block Print
Papyrus Collection 705b
Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Arabic Amulets – Tarsh are long strips of paper with quotations from the Quran or other religious texts. They were often written in Kufic script. They were rolled and enclosed in a metal cylinder and were worn to protect the owner from specific perils. Often produced by members of vagabond underworld with an intention to deceive illiterate purchasers that the amulets were hand-written by a holy man.

Displayed here is a complete amulet in a fairly good condition. It an example of early (10th-14th Century ) use of block printing, a technique that may have arrived from China but may have been independently invented in the Middle East.