Building a private orientalist library in early 19th ct: J. Klaproth as a collector. By D Magkanari

This paper investigates the relation between acquisition practices, knowledge production, and imperial politics by focusing on the German orientalist Julius Klaproth (1783-1835). Through this key figure, it seeks to understand how the study of a variety of institutional and non-institutional actors, networks, and practices enable an approach of orientalist knowledge production and circulation that challenges the national and Eurocentric frameworks, pointing out complex dynamics and entanglements between the local and the global. Klaproth had worked at the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg and had conducted field research during his missions in Siberia and Central Asia (1805) and the Caucasus (1807-1808), before moving to Paris where he was involved in the creation of the Société Asiatique (Paris, 1822). He was instrumental in relaying information, transferring books and manuscripts, and producing knowledge on the geography, history, ethnography, and languages of Eurasia. Besides his role as intermediary, Klaproth was a well-known bibliophile and collector and his private library, sold in an auction in 1839, four years after his death, contains a significant number of oriental manuscripts. Drawing mainly on the catalogue of Klaproth’s library, his extensive correspondence, his writings, and relevant administrative documents, and by means of a contextualised, multi-scale, and interdisciplinary analysis, this paper aims at exploring the range of his interests, his motivation, all along with the interplay between personal aspirations, institutional logic and objectives, and imperial politics. It also maps his networks, examines their nature and mechanics, and tackles the question of Klaproth’s relations with local collaborators, informants and suppliers. Ultimately, this case study seeks to reconsider our current understanding of Orientalism, opening up a series of questions about a transnational, cross-cultural, and global network of actors, and providing valuable insights into the nature of their involvement in the acquisition process and the construction of oriental collections in Europe.