January 30, 2025 Dataset Open Access

Provenance Data for the Chinese Medical Manuscripts in the Unschuld Collection

Staack, Thies

The dataset Provenance Data for the Chinese Medical Manuscripts in the Unschuld Collection contains data retrieved from an acquisition notebook in the possession of Paul U. Unschuld that was synthesized with data retrieved from the manuscripts themselves and documents kept in the archives of the Berlin State Library (SBB). The data retrieval took place in 2024. By combining these two strands of data, it was possible to match records on manuscript acquisitions in the notebook with actual manuscripts now part of the Unschuld collection (“Sammlung Unschuld”) of the SBB, thereby gaining new provenance data (time and/or place of acquisition) for a substantial number of manuscripts.

For details on the acquisition notebook, the data contained in it, how manuscripts now in the SBB’s Unschuld collection were identified, and a summary of the findings on provenance, see:

Thies Staack (2025), “The Provenance of the Chinese Medical Manuscripts in the Unschuld Collection: New Evidence from an Unpublished Acquisition Notebook”, in José Maksimczuk and Luigi Orlandi (eds), Mesótēs. At the Intersection of Textuality and Materiality, Berlin: De Gruyter, 305–326, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111591025-013.