New Collections come to Enrich the Memory of the World

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova has recently endorsed recommendations by the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Committee to inscribe 45 new documents and documentary collections from all over the world on the Memory of the World Register, which now numbers a total of 238 items.

“By helping safeguard and share such a varied documentary heritage, UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme reinforces the basis for scholarship and enjoyment of the creative wealth and diversity of human cultures and societies,” said the Director-General.

UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme in 1992 to guard against collective amnesia

The inscriptions were recommended by the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme that met in Manchester (UK) from 22 to 25 of May 2011.

The 11th century Enina Apostolos is the most ancient extant Slavonic copy of the Acts and Epistles.

UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme in 1992 to guard against collective amnesia through the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world and ensuring their wide dissemination.

The UNESCO website explains the decision to create such a list:

“Listing of items such as these on the Memory of the World Register is intended to generate interest and help with the conservation of documentary heritage which helps us to understand our society in all its complexities. However war, social upheaval, looting, illegal trading, destruction, inadequate conservation and lack of funding have all had a disastrous effect on the conservation of our documentary heritage. A growing awareness of this, together with UNESCO’s belief that the world’s documentary heritage belongs to all and should be preserved and protected, led to the establishment of its Memory of the World programme in 1992.”

The programme works to identify and facilitate the preservation of valuable archive holdings and library collections worldwide, and assists with their dissemination. Inscription of a collection in the Memory of the World register, created in 1995, is part of the process.

The Memory of the World Register covers all types of material and support, including stone, celluloid, parchment, audio recordings and more.
The earliest document of a printed text featuring multicoloured printed decoration, and the first example of a book produced entirely by means of mechanical methods.

Mainz Psalter - The earliest document of a printed text featuring multicoloured printed decoration, and the first example of a book produced entirely by means of mechanical methods.

New items inscribed:

Austria: Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library; Arnold Schönberg Estate

Barbados, Jamaica, Panama, Saint Lucia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America: Silver Men: West Indian Labourers at the Panama Canal

Bolivia:Documentary Fonds of Royal Audiencia Court of La Plata (RALP)

Brazil: Fonds of the Network of information and counter information of the military regime in Brazil

Bulgaria: Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century

China:Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica); Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon)

Czech Republic Collection of 526 prints of university theses from 1637-1754

Denmark: MS.GKS 4 2°,vol.I-III,Biblia Latina.Commonly called “the Hamburg Bible”, or “the Bible of Bertoldus”

Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago:Documentary Heritage of the Indian Indentured Labourers

France:Bibliothèque de Beatus Rhenanus

Germany: Construction and Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty of 1990; Patent DRP 37435 “Vehicle with gas engine operation” submitted by Carl Benz, Mannheim (29 January 1886)

India:’Laghukalachakratantrarajatlka’ (Vimalprabha);Tarikh-E-Khandan-E-Timuriyah

Indonesia and the Netherlands: La Galigo

Iran:A Collection of Nezami’s Khamseh Al-Tafhim li Awa’il Sana’at al-Tanjim (The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology)

Italy: Lucca’s Historical Diocesan Archives (ASDLU): Early Middle Ages documents

Japan: Sakubei Yamamoto Collection

Korea, Republic of: Human Rights Documentary Heritage 1980 Archives for the May 18th Democratic Uprising against Military Regime, in Gwangju, Republic of Korea Ilseongnok: the Records of Daily Reflections

Mexico: Sixteenth to eighteenth century pictographs from the record group “Maps, drawings and illustrations

Mongolia: Lu.”Altan Tobchi” – Golden History written in 1651; Mongolian Tanjur

: Kitab al-ibar,wa diwan al-mobtadae wa al-khabar

Netherlands: Desmet Collection

Netherlands, Brazil, Ghana, Guyana, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, United Kingdom, United States of America: Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) Archives

Netherlands, Curacao and Suriname: Archive Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (MCC)

Norway:Thor Heyerdahl Archives

Philippines: Presidential Papers of Manuel L. Quezon

Poland: Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office

Russian Federation: Ostromir Gospel (1056-1057); Leo Tolstoy’s Personal Library and Manuscripts, Photo and Film Collection

Saint Kitts and Nevis: Registry of Slaves of Bermuda 1821 -1834 (an addendum to Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817-1834, inscribed in 2009)

Sweden: Stockholm City Planning Committee Archives; Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible

Switzerland: Les Collections Jean-Jacques Rousseau de Genève et de Neuchâtel

Thailand: The Epigraphic Archives of Wat Pho

Trinidad and Tobago: The Constantine Collection

Tunisia: Privateering and the international relations of the Regency of Tunis in the 18th and 19th centuries

United Kingdom: Historic Ethnographic Recordings (1898 – 1951) at the British Library

Viet Nam: Stone Stele Records of Royal Examinations of the Le and Mac Dynasties (1442-1779)

Eleven countries enter the Memory of the World Register for the first time with the new inscriptions: Bulgaria, Fiji, Guyana, Ireland, Japan, Mongolia, Morocco, Panama, Suriname, Switzerland, Tunisia.

Visit the Memory of the World site.
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References:

2011. "New Collections come to Enrich the Memory of the World". Past Horizons. Posted: May 30, 2011. Available online: http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/05/2011/new-collections-come-to-enrich-the-memory-of-the-world