Cambridge Digital Library—June update

The June release of the Cambridge Digital Library sees the launch of our new Chinese collection. Our initial selection shows the temporal range, diversity of media and variety of subject-matter contained within the collection, from the three-thousand year old Oracle Bones (the oldest documents owned by the Library), to unique manuscripts and printed books, historical documents and epigraphical rubbings. A particular highlight is a unique copy of a study of calligraphy and painting described as ‘perhaps the most beautiful set of prints ever made’ (see above image, which can be viewed in full here).

Also included is a very attractive collection of nineteenth century Indian mica paintings, comprising thirty-six miniature portraits from Trichinopoly, dated 1869. Incredibly for objects of such an ephemeral nature, the micas reached the Library still brilliantly coloured and fairly intact, but they had become too fragile to handle. A project to conserve and rehouse them is described elsewhere on the Special Collections blog.