manuscripts, printed copies of classics used for centuries but in handwritten form

Evidence

"The issues of paper and calligraphy are foundational to any discussion of Timbuktu’s written heritage; chapters by art historians Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair look, respectively, at the history of paper and its introduction into the region"

Remarks

The volume explores the vast corpus of materials extending across West Africa and identifies Timbuktu as a repository of history and a living archive (p. 3, vi). It emphasizes that paper and calligraphy are fundamental components of the region's scholarly tradition, with research unravelling the deeper archaeological past of the Azawad and Timbuktu (p. viii). The text also references a 'book economy' in the nineteenth-century Sokoto Caliphate and the circulation of written materials in West Africa (p. viii).