Group 5a:
Survey Conducted in Turkey:
Research on the Saray Albums

 

Location of Survey: Topkapi Palace Museum

 

Survey Period: September 1-14, 1999

 

Purpose of Survey: Creation of a data base in preparation for the publishing of the Saray Albums numbered H.2153 and H.2160 in the Topkapi Palace Museum

 

Content of Survey: Photography and input and of images and text included in album H.2153 by digital camera .

 

Surveyors: YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako (University of East Asia), SUGIMURA To (Ryukoku University ), MURANO Hiroshi (Tokai University), SEKI Yoshifusa (Tokai University), KOBAYASHI Kazue (Waseda University), ABE Katsuhiko (Sophia University), KOSHIBA Harumi (Tokai University), AOKI Miyuki (Istanbul Institute of Technology), MATSUMOTO Naoko (Ochanomizu University)

 

Results of Survey: Our first dispatch for this research survey at the Topkapi Palace Museum took place from February 23 to March 19, 1999. Our purpose was to continue the work we had begun in the first research survey, where we completed the photographic input and measurement of folios 1 to 77 of album H.2153. This time, we began with folio 78 and finished up to folio 112. The total number of folios in H.2153 is 199.

 

Due to the Kocaeli Earthquake on August 17 and a theft from the Topkapi Palace Museum on September 2, we were not able to proceed according to plan. The earthquake caused new cracks to appear in the library where we intended to conduct our survey. In addition, a Koran which was part of the library's collection was stolen from the exhibit room and the library was frequently closed due to investigations of the theft. We had originally planned to spend 17 days conducting the survey, but this was reduced to 12 days; thus we were not able to input as much data as we did in our previous survey. However, we would like to express our deep appreciation to the Topkapi Palace Museum for allowing us to proceed with our survey even during the commotion caused by these two unfortunate incidents.

 

The results of our 12 day survey are as follows:

 

Number of folios: 35

Work completed:

1. Creation of data base fields ... 337 pages

2. Photography and input of digital camera images ... 2,829 images

3. Measurement ... All works in 35 folios

 

We have yet to enter the remaining 87 folios of H.2153 and all 99 folios of H.2160 into the database. We now plan to organize the data we have collected so far before our next scheduled survey in March of 2000 and to formulate a concrete plan for the creation of a catalog.

 

Report by YAMANLAR-MIZUNO Minako