Although all of the libraries below have been sold, many of the catalogues
are available here as html documents. Please e-mail any questions to us at
orders@arslibri.com.
The Prunner Library was sold as a complete collection. Requests for word
documents catalogues may be made by e-mail to us at orders@arslibri.com. |
The Library of Gernot Prunner
Ars Libri, Ltd has sold the Library of Gernot Prunner, an immense and important library devoted to comparative cultural studies of the civilizations of Asia and the Islamic World.
Prunner, a scholar of Asian ethnography, and former Director of the Museum für Völkerkunde und Vorgeschichte (Hamburg), formed this vast collection over the past several decades. The library covers in a comprehensive manner and in great detail all aspects of these cultures, with an emphasis on religion, art and architecture, archaeology and language. Of particular interest to Dr. Prunner was the study of ethnic minorities throughout Asia, and that interest is strongly reflected in his library.
The collection consisted of roughly 16,000 individual titles in well over 17,000 volumes.
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Iran & Central Asia: Three Scholarly
Libraries
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The
Library of Professor Dr. Karl Heinrich Menges (1908-1999):
Central Asia. Languages, Literature, History &
Culture
including 2601 monographs in ca.
3,080 volumes, and 50 serial titles in ca. 1,150
volumes |
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The
Library of Professor Dr. Karl Jettmar: Cultures of the
Karakorum Highway & Eurasia, and Their Relationship with
Adjacent Civilizations
including 5632
monographs in ca. 6,500 volumes, and 118 serial titles in ca.
2,500 volumes |
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The
Library of Professor Richard N. Frye: Iran & Central
Asia
including 5,050 monographs in ca. 6,500
volumes, and 108 serial titles in ca. 3,600
volumes |
Although each of these libraries is significant and
important on its own, the three together--due to their complementary
character and the very small amount of internal duplication--form
the most significant resource for the scholarly study of Central
Asia and Iran in private hands. This amalgamated library of over
17,000 monographic volumes, and more than 200 complete periodical
runs in over 8,500 volumes, as well as some 13,000 offprints, 2,500
slides and correspondence and manuscripts by the three scholars,
rivals the holdings of virtually all major research
institutions.
The Menges Library constitutes a
comprehensive research collection devoted primarily to the languages
of the geographical region in question. It is particularly strong in
publications in Central Asian languages published in the countries
of Central Asia in the first half of the 20th century, in addition
to publications in Western and Slavic languages (as well as Chinese,
Japanese and Korean). Professor Jettmar’s library/H3> is
devoted to the cultures of the Karakorum Highway and Eurasia and
their contacts with adjacent cultures. Focused primarily on the
archaeology and ethnography of the peoples of that region, the
library is comprehensive in those subjects. It contains significant
concentrations of publications on the archaeology of Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and the peoples of Northern India. The focal point of
the library of Professor Frye is the countries of the Persian
Empire from the Achaemenids to modern times. It is exceptionally
strong in rare publications of the 19th and early 20th centuries
covering the history, literature, religion, philosophy, and art and
archaeology of Iran, Azerbaidjan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and
Afghanistan from Achaemenid times to the 20th century, and also has
important groups of publications on Armenia and Georgia. Within the
library is contained an important collection of publications related
to Zoroastrianism, mostly published in India in the last quarter of
the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th
century.
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ltd.