Collect and Preserve

Institutional Contexts of Epistemic Knowledge in Pre-modern Societies

edited by Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Jochem Kahl, Eun-Jung Lee and Michaela Engert

Book cover: Collect and Preserve

Extent: 177 pages

Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag

Subjects: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Near East, Medieval Studies

Series: Episteme in Bewegung

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(August 2018)

ISBN: 9783447108294

Price: $82.00

In stock

The use of writing for the preservation and transmission of administrative, scientific, literary and sacred knowledge has a long history. This publication assembles a number of studies devoted to material aspects of collecting texts in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Qumran, Medieval Japan, and Korea under the Choson-Dynasty (1392-1910).


The use of writing for the preservation and transmission of administrative, scientific, literary and sacred knowledge has a long history. From the third millennium BCE on, many forms of social processes – intellectual, religious, political and others – have been increasingly materialized in the form of a variety of document types (tablets, bones, papyri, scrolls, parchments, books). Some of them were collected in archives or libraries that were dependent on royal palaces, governmental institutions and temples but also in private contexts. The publication Collect and Preserve assembles a number of studies devoted to material aspects of collecting texts in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Qumran, Medieval Japan, and Korea under the Choson-Dynasty (1392-1910).

  • Edited by Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum
  • Edited by Michaela Engert
  • Edited by Jochem Kahl
  • Edited by Eun-Jung Lee