ISSN 1993-8616
2007 - number 5
Memory of the World
© Alida Boye
Timbuktu manuscripts
Manuscripts, illuminations, archives, early films – the documentary heritage of humanity is fragile and threatened. For the last 15 years, UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme participates in its preservation. More documents of exceptional value are being inscribed in the Memory of the World Register from 11 to 15 June in Pretoria (South Africa).
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Documentary heritage in the digital age: interview with Abdelaziz Abid
For the last fifteen years, the programme Memory of the World has focused on conservation and digitization of humanity’s documentary heritage. With UNESCO’s support, measures have been taken to preserve dozens of archive collections, thousands of meters of film, millions of pages of manuscripts, books and periodicals. More
Timbuktu manuscripts: Africa’s written history unveiled
Some two hundred thousand ancient manuscripts that were disintegrating slowly but surely in libraries, cellars and attics in Timbuktu (Mali), today are systematically inventoried, preserved and digitized. These priceless treasures, the oldest dating back to the 13th century, are contributing to the rehabilitation of Africa’s written history. More
The Matenadaran, from copyist monks to the digital age
In the heart of Erevan, capital of Armenia, the Matenadaran houses seventeen thousand manuscripts and 30,000 documents, some dating back to antiquity. Texts on very varied subjects, written in Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Amharic, Japanese and certain Indian languages, are stored together in this museum-library, created at the same time as the Armenian alphabet in 405. Today the Matenadaran is entering the digital age thanks to UNESCO. More
A bridge between cultures
Four centuries of colonization are recounted and illustrated in the “Colección de Lenguas Indígenas” kept in Guadalajara (Mexico). These 166 books, printed starting in 1539, also preserve the memory of 17 indigenous languages, some of which have virtually disappeared. The collection was inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2007. More
Return of the Kelly Gang
Detective work, technical progress and luck lie at the core of the restoration of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the world's first feature length film. With it, Australia recovers the earliest record of a myth dear to its heart and part of its collective memory. More
Slave trade archives: ports of call
Registers and log books, memoirs and travel stories, slave census reports – the archives of the Atlantic slave trade provide signposts to the itineraries taken by the old slave ships between Europe, the Americas and Africa. Where are those precious documents now? More
