Manuscripts
Qalamos provides direct access to metadata and digitised copies of manuscripts from Asian and African writing traditions in Germany, as well as from numerous international partners. Book art – figurative or ornamental – is an integral part of these traditions, especially in manuscripts and albums from the Christian Orient, Judaism, India and the Islamicate world. Currently, over 147,000 data sets for mansucripts in more than 170 languages and almost 90 scripts are presented. The aim is to provide as complete a record as possible of the collections held in German institutions and their digitised versions.
Works
In addition to a simple title search, Qalamos provides authority records for over 3,800 Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, South Asian and Tibetan works, partly linked to the authority records of the Integrated Authority File (GND), the Library of Congress Authorities or the Bibliothèque nationale de France . Each work dataset gives an overview of the exemplars of a work listed in Qalamos. It also shows the relations to commentaries, translations and other adaptations of the work, if these are contained in Qalamos.
Persons
The portal contains authority data for persons, such as authors, writers, owners and others involved in a manuscript. These are partly normalised records from the Integrated Authority File , the Library of Congress Authorities and the Bibliothèque nationale de France , which have been enriched with the help of relevant reference works. The personal records enable the unique identification of a person and the works and manuscripts associated with them in the portal.