Culture Min. Acquires 19th Century Books, Manuscripts

The Ministry of Culture succeeded in collecting the rare unique collection of manuscripts that were part of the library of the late artist Hassan Kamy after six months of negotiations with the new owner to agree on their monetary value.

The committee was formed by Dr. Enas Abdel Dayem, Minister of Culture, headed by Dr. Hesham Azmi- head of Books and National Documents Organization, seven professionals and jurists in order to return one of the treasures of national heritage to the ownership of the Books and National Documents Organization, according to the law of manuscripts.

Abdel-Dayem said that Egypt has a rich cultural heritage as the oldest civilization in history, stressing that the state is making great efforts to preserve the nation's memory and to protect country's national identity.

She illustrated that the iniquities- that were attached to the records of national Egyptian heritage- represent symbols of humanity movement, noting the state will continue its serious steps to preserve the value of knowledge representing the links between the past, present and future.

On the other hand, Dr. Hisham Azmi, head of Books And National Documents Organization, said that immediately after the announcement of the death of the artist Hassan Kami, whose library "orientalist" had a great media attention and located in downtown Cairo, the Minister of Culture issued a decision to form a committee, headed by Books And National Documents Organization as the concerned organization according to the provisions of the Protection of Manuscripts Law No. 8 of 2009, to inspect the library of the artist, to preserve what may be historically valuable.

The committee, that included seven professionals and jurists, was responsible for making a report about the heritage valuable antiquities to be submitted to the permanent Committee of Manuscript Law.

This coincided with the decision of the Public Prosecutor to close the library until identifying its ownership.

He added that the committee unanimously agreed to acquire all publications related to:

-Egypt and the Arab world، whether printed، handwritten، or manuscripts regardless of their language.

-The first publications for the East (1823-1923) and for the West until 1700, any historical maps of Egypt.

- The priority should be in Arabic، English and French, with the exception of the holdings already in the Library.

The Commission used a group of translators of English, French and of some eastern languages to evaluate accurately and objectively, the subjects and then they gave the Committee the final list of the titles of precious books.

After approval, the titles were given to the Ministry of Culture and consequently the books were delivered to the Book and National Documents Organization.

Azmi pointed to the list of titles, which included 86 titles of books, manuscripts, paintings and collections of rare stamps, including:

- The Trips In the Provinces of Northern and Southern France for the famous French poet Vivant Denon, dating back to 1803.

- The history of Jerusalem for the French historian Poujoulat, dating back to 1848 .

- Travel in Upper and Lower Egypt and Describing All Types by the French scientist Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt dating back to 1799.

-The History of Muhammad Ali published in 1855 by Paul Mouriez.

- The history of Suez Canal "by M. Riou, which includes paintings and hand drawings.

- A book entitled "History of the Egyptian State" by the French politician and historian Gabriel Hanotaux, published in 1936.

-A book entitled "Egypt and Ismail Pasha" by the French historian Sacre Amedee.

- Maritime Campaigns of Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha” published in 1935.

- A book entitled "The Ancient Geography" of the famous geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville.

-A unique collection of natural history books including "Natural History of Birds in the United States"- 1825.

- A book entitled "The History of Birds in Europe" published in 1849.

- A manuscript entitled "Report of the sign of Shams al-Din al-Anbari for abstraction in the meanings and statements".

- A collection of rare stamps Philatelia.

- An album of descriptive paintings about the Vatican.

- A collection of medium-sized maps of Egypt.

- An Ottoman Decision Manuscript .