Jake Benson

@thejohnrylands.bsky.social

Rylands BlogCelebrating Janmashtami the Persian Way: Sānval Singh and the Bhāgavat Purāṇa in Persian MS 961 A guest blog by Pranav Prakash, specialist in the comparative study of book arts, literary cultures and religions in South Asian and Persian societies

Guest blog post by Pranav Prakash
on Rylands Persian MS 961: rylandscollections.com/2025/08/16/c...

Unfolding History: Conserving Papyrus | Guardians of Memory Papyrus is a unique material among the vast holdings of the Library of Congress, but these early fragmentary texts give us remarkable glimpses into history. Specialized training was undertaken and giv...

#Fustat #papyri #conservation blogs.loc.gov/preservation...

Papuan Tribes Refuse Return of Ritual Skulls, Citing Curses and Loss of Relevance Efforts to return ritual skulls collected by colonial missionaries to their place of origin have faced an unexpected obstacle: the modern-day Papuan communities have firmly refused to take them back. ...

#Papuan tribes refuse return of ritual skulls from a Netherlands museum. culturalpropertynews.org/papuan-tribe...

#Pareidolia! Topic of the concluding chapter entitled “Gazing at Marbling” of my recent thesis. Thanks so much for sharing!

A red banner advertising the Tirzah Garwood exhibition

The entrance to rhe exhibition

Our art trip this weekend was to Dulwich Picture Gallery for the “Beyond Ravillious” exhibition of the work of Tirzah Garwood. It is excellent and rightly popular. Garwood was a painter, did wood engraving, embroidery, marbled paper and wallpaper design, and collage before and after WW2.

He really deserves a comprehensive, fresh study.

iranicaonline.org/articles/san...

میرزا محمد علی سنگلاخ خرسانی.

Designed and carved by Mirza Sangilakh Khurasani.

A venn diagram. The three circles are labelled: The Archaeologist The Pirate The Dog The area where all threel overlap is labelled: Loves digging things up Dog/Archaeologist overlap is labelled: Gets excited by bones Pirate/Archaeologist overlap is labelled: Good with maps Dog/Pirate overlap is labelled: Buries things for later

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.bsky.social

End of an era: Art legend Jagdish Mittal’s legacy lives on Hyderabad art gallery owners mourn the loss of Jagdish Mittal, a legendary figure in Indian art.

RIP Jagdish Mittal (1925–2025). Thank you for all that you shared.

www.thehindu.com/entertainmen...

Second this. Dependin go on your itinerary, the SF Bay area has many transport options. You shouldn’t need to drive.

Eighteenth-Century Indian <i>Muraqqaʿs</i> "Eighteenth-Century Indian <i>Muraqqaʿs</i>" published on 23 Dec 2024 by Brill.

#OpenAcess #NewRelease Eighteenth-Century Indian Muraqqaʿs: Audiences – Artists – Patrons and Collectors

Edited by Friederike Weis. With a contribution by yours truly on #Rylands Persian MS 10, an album commissioned by Swiss mercenary Antoine Polier for Sir William Jones.

brill.com/display/titl...

#Rylands Persian MS 797, four books of ‘Attar in five volumes bound together. Unsigned and undated, but it bears seal impressions of Sultan Muhammad #Qutbshah with his tughra emblems.

Aw, thanks, Robyn!

The Advent of Abrī: The First Wave of Paper Marbling in the Long 16th Century (ca. 1496–1616) Prof.dr. P.M. Sijpesteijn Prof.dr. G.R. Van den Berg Summary This dissertation examines the appearance of paper marbling in the Islamic world and its spread to Europe during the long sixteenth century...

This Thursday (with apologies to those of you in North America): www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...