Symposium: The Diez Albums of the Berlin State Library: Current State of Research and New Perspectives

As has been announced earlier, the Berlin State Library will host a symposium on the so called Diez-albums. The Diez albums are a bequest given to the Royal Library in Berlin by the Prussian ambassador in Constantinople Heinrich Friedrich von Diez already in 1817 but came very late to the awareness of scholars. The majority of the material, about 450 single pieces containing miniatures, sketches, stencils and some calligraphy, is related to the Ilkhanid and Timurid period in 14th and 15th century Iran. Most of the objects have their origin in albums preserved till today in the Topkapı Palace Library in Istanbul.

Preliminary list of contributors and titles:
- Ladan Akbarnia (London): The 'Cathayan' aesthetic in Diez Album drawings
- Zeynep Çelik Atbaş (Istanbul): The Albums of Calligraphy and Painting in Topkapi Palace Library, with Special Focus on H. 2153 and 2160
- Serpil Bağçi (Ankara): The Ottoman Paintings collected by Diez
- Barbara Brend (London): Some observations on the depiction of horses in the Diez Albums
- Massumeh Farhad (Washington D.C.): The Divan of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir and the Diez and Istanbul Albums
- Saghi Gazerani (Teheran): Scenes from the Sistani Cycle of Epics and the Popular Medieval Literature
- Christiane Gruber (Ann Arbor): "God and His Angels Send Prayers Upon the Prophet": Ilkhanid and Timurid Drawings of Religious Themes in the Diez Albums
- Claus-Peter Haase (Berlin): Later Mongol and early Timurid representations of rulers in the Diez Albums reflecting changes of ceremonial and style
- Robert Hillenbrand (Edinburgh): The Great Mongol Shahnama: some proposed repatriations
- Yuka Kadoi (Edinburgh): The Mongols enthroned
- Charles Melville (Cambridge): The illustration of history in the Diez albums
- Gulru Necipoğlu-Kafadar (Cambridge MA): The 'Frankish Manner' in the Topkapı Palace and Diez Albums
- Yves Porter (Aix-en-Provence/Paris): Models, sketches and pounced drawings: first steps to creation
- Julian Raby (Washington D.C.): Contents and Contexts - Re-viewing the Diez Albums (key-lecture)
- Christoph Rauch (Berlin): Collecting and Studying Oriental Manuscripts in the Period of Late Enlightenment
- Simon Rettig (Washington D.C.): The Calligrapher, the Collector, and the Album: Toward a Reassessment of the Calligraphies and Inscriptions in the Diez Albums
- David Roxburgh (Cambridge MA): Reminiscences of Asia: Diez's Albums from Cover to Cover
- Karin Rührdanz (Ontario): Illustrated love letters in the Diez Albums
- Klaas Ruitenbeek (Berlin): Chinese Inspiration: The Chinese Motifs in the Diez Album, Their Sources, Reception and Derivatives
- Eleanor Sims (London): The Problem of the Diez Albums
- Zeren Tanındı (Bursa/Istanbul): Repetitions of Images in the Topkapı Saray Albums: H.2153, H.2160 and H.2152
- Lale Uluç (Ankara): The Perusal of the Topkapi Albums in the 18th Century
- Ching-ling Wang (Berlin/Florenz): Iconographic Turn: On Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Iconography in the Diez Albums
- Friederike Weis (Berlin) and Gerhard Wolf (Florenz): The migration of an antique allegory between East and West: A Persian drawing after the Tazza Farnese with an attribution to Mohammad-e Khayyâm

The symposium is generously supported by the Fritz Thyssen-Stiftung.

The exhibition " Meisterwerke aus dem Serail: Die Klebealben des Heinrich Friedrich von Diez" starts at the same time in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.

If you want to attend to the symposium you are kindly requested to register at the secretary of the Oriental Department, Mrs. Muenchow: orientabtsbb.spk-berlin.de
There is no fee for the participation.