Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscript Collection, 1970-2013

Summary

Creator:

Simpson, Marianna Shreve, 1949-

Abstract:

The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscripts Collection is comprised of Dr. Simpson's notes on Islamic manuscripts from around the world. The collection contains approximately 5,455 digitized pages of her notes pertaining to about 610 Islamic manuscripts from around the world. This manuscript collection spans the history of the Islamic book between 1300 and 1600 CE.

Extent:

4 boxes

Language:

English.

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Erin Platte and VRC staff, April 2014

Background

Scope and Content:

The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscript Collection is comprised of approximately 5,455 digitized pages of Dr. Simpson's notes on about 610 manuscripts. The collection also contains approximately 4,800 unprocessed images, which Dr. Simpson collected during her research. Simpson's collection spans the history of Islamic book art and pays particular attention of illustrated manuscripts from 1300 and 1600 CE. Dr. Shreve Simpson created a documentation template which she used during her research with each manuscript. The template allowed her to create a detailed record of the titles of each manuscript, names of calligraphers, painters, patrons, date and places of production, and dimensions of each folio or text block, as well as additional descriptive details. Her notes span 4 decades of research in libraries, museums, and private collections. The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscript Collection is part of the Islamic Art Archive Collection.

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Biographical / Historical:

Marianna Shreve Simpson was born in 1949 and received her PhD from Harvard in 1978. Dr. Simpson was the Curator of Islamic Near Eastern Art at the Freer/Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian Institutions. She served as the Director of Curatorial Affairs and the Curator of Islamic Art at the Walters Art Museum. Simpson was also a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in 2005. Dr. Simpson's specialization is the arts of the Islamic book and illustrated Persian manuscripts and she has published and lectured widely on the subject. She is the author of numerous article and her books include: Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang: A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century Iran (1997); Arab and Persian Painting in the Fogg Art Museum (1980); and The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts (1979).

Acquisition Information:

2013

Processing information:

This collection was processed due to a generous grant from The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA).

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged by repository name and then the manuscript accession number or shelf mark.

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Alternate Locations

These collections are also part of the Islamic Art Archive Collection:

• The Mehmet Ağa-Oğlu Collection
• The Arthur Upham Pope Collection
• The Donald Newton Wilber Collection
• The Afghanistan Archaeological Remains Photograph Collection
• The Oleg Grabar Collection

Alternative Form Available:

This collection has been partially digitized.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Art, Persia.
Islamic Literature.
Islamic Painting.
Persian Poetry.
Qur'an.

Formats:

Marginalia.
Notes.
Research Notes.

Names:

Firdawsī.