A total of 78 manuscripts were digitized into the archives this week. This was the fourth week of the year, which marks the fifth anniversary of my work on this project. During the fourth week of 2018 I did the initial bulk load in of existing manuscripts as a baseline for future additions. At that point there were 15,118 objects in the repository and since then 11,415 manuscripts have been digitized.

This week's additions follow the same basic pattern as the year to date, with the largest number of manuscripts coming from Vat.turc, with 27. Also contributing large numbers this week were Vat.lat at 23 and Barb.lat with 18. The later one is an interesting collection to watch, as most of the manuscripts are in shelfmarks <700, except a small number of 17th C musical books in the 4xxx range. Completing the week were Vat.ar with five and Vat.et with three, and single volumes from Ross and Borg.ar. Several items of note include a Montecassino Pontificale, Barb.lat.631, and an Ethiopic Psalter,Vat.et.20, which provided the source text for the first printed Ethiopic text.

To the right is f.1r from Vat.turc.269, a 17th C (dated to 1065 AH) copy of Yazigi-Oglu Ahmed Bigan's 'Aga'ib ul-mahluqat, which is a compendium of knowledge about the world. On this page is a diagram called a Qibla chart, a sort of diagrammatic representation of the direction to Mecca from various parts of the world. At the center is a black square, representing the Ka'ba in Mecca, and around it are 72 regions of the world. These are not quite accurate, since in the reality they are less evenly distributed than the more aesthetically-pleasing graphical representation here. For more information, please find a brief introduction to Qibla Charts and Maps

Below is a decoration from a Missale made for Cardinal Bessarion, f.1r of Barb.lat.562.