Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library
Tabula Hungariae *
The Atlas Blaeu–Van der Hem
The Vienna City Library Schubert collection
Final document of the Congress of Vienna
Brahms collection
Arnold Schönberg estate
The historical collections (1899–1950) of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv
Azerbaijan
Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy
Bahamas
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Farquharson’s Journal
Barbados
Documentary heritage of enslaved peoples of the Caribbean
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
Federal Archives fonds
Nita Barrow collection
Belarus
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
Belgium
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Archives Insolvente Boedelskamer Antwerpen
Business archives of the Officina Plantiniana
Belize
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Benin
Colonial archives, Benin
Bermuda
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Bolivia
American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness *
Documentary fonds of Royal Audiencia Court of La Plata (RALP)
Brazil
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
The Emperor’s collection
Network of information and counter information on the military regime in Brazil (1964–1985)
Bulgaria
Enina Apostolos, Old Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscript (fragment) of the 11th century
Cambodia
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum archives
Canada
Quebec Seminary collection, 1623–1800 (17th–19th centuries)
Hudson’s Bay Company archival records
Neighbours, animated, directed and produced by Norman McLaren in 1952
Chile
Jesuits of America
Human Rights Archive of Chile
China
Huang Di Nei Jing
Ancient Naxi Dongba literature manuscripts
Ben Cao Gang Mu
Records of the Qing’s Grand Secretariat
Golden Lists of the Qing dynasty imperial examination
Qing dynasty Yangshi Lei archives
Traditional music sound archives
Colombia
Negros y Esclavos archives
American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness *
Croatia
Tabula Hungariae *
Cuba
‘José Martí Pérez’ fonds
Original negative of the Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano
Curaçao
Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie *
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Catecismo corticu pa uso di catolicanan di Curaçao (first catechism written in Papiamentu language)
Czech Republic
Collection of medieval manuscripts of the Czech Reformation
Collection of 526 prints of university theses from 1637 to 1754
Collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian émigré periodicals 1918–1945
Denmark
The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection *
MS. GKS 4 2°, vol. I–III, Biblia Latina. Commonly called ‘The Hamburg Bible’
Sound Toll Registers
El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno
Archives of the Danish overseas trading companies
Linné collection
The Søren Kierkegaard archives
Manuscripts and correspondence of Hans Christian Andersen
Dominica
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Dominican Republic
Book for the Baptism of Slaves (1636-1670)
Documentary heritage on the resistance and struggle for human rights in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1961
Egypt
Deeds of sultans and princes
Persian illustrated and illuminated manuscripts
Memory of the Suez Canal
Estonia
The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom *
Ethiopia
Treasures from National Archives and Library organizations
Finland
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
The A.E. Nordenskiöld Collection
Fiji
Records of the Indian indentured labourers *
France
Bayeux Tapestry
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux at the time of Pierre de Virey (1472)
Beatus Rhenanus Library
Châtelet de Paris banner register from the reign of Francis I (National Archives Y9, France)
Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789–1791)
Introduction of the decimal metric system, 1790–1837
Lumière films
The Appeal of 18 June 1940 *
Georgia
Georgian Byzantine manuscripts
Germany
Illuminated manuscripts from the Ottonian period produced in the monastery of Reichenau (Lake Constance)
Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from medieval Europe
The 42-line Gutenberg Bible, printed on vellum
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes *
Letters from and to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives
Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 9, D minor, op. 125
Benz patent of 1886
Early cylinder recordings of the world’s musical traditions (1893–1952)
Metropolis – Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version (2001)
Construction and fall of the Berlin Wall and the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty of 1990
Ghana
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Guyana
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Records of the Indian indentured labourers *
Hungary
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Tabula Hungariae *
Csoma archive of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
János Bolyai: Appendix, Scientiam Spatii absolute veram exhibens
Kalman Tihanyi’s 1926 patent application ‘Radioskop’
Iceland
The Arnamagnæan manuscript collection *
India
Rigveda
Saiva manuscripts in Pondicherry
Laghukālacakratantrarājatikā (Vimalaprabhā)
Tarikh-e-Khandan-e-Timuriyah
Archives of the Dutch East India Company *
The IAS Tamil medical manuscript collection
Indonesia
La Galigo *
Archives of the Dutch East India Company *
Iran
Al-Tafhim li Awa’il Sana’at al-Tanjim
The Deed For Endowment: Rab’ i-Rashidi (Rab i-Rashidi Endowment)
Collection of Nezami’s Panj Ganj
‘Bayasanghori Shâhnâmeh’ (Prince Bayasanghor’s ‘Book of the Kings’)
Administrative documents of Astan-e Quds Razavi in the Safavid era
Ireland
The Book of Kells
Italy
Lucca’s historical diocesan archives.
The Malatesta Novello Library
Bibliotheca Corviniana *
Jamaica
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
Japan
Sakubei Yamamoto collection
Kazakhstan
Collection of the manuscripts of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
Audiovisual documents of the international antinuclear movement ‘Nevada-Semipalatinsk’
Aral Sea archival fonds
Korea (Republic of )
Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana
Baegun hwasang chorok buljo jikji simche yojeol (vol. II)
The Annals of the Joseon dynasty
The Hunminjeongum manuscript
Uigwe: The royal protocols of the court of Joseon dynasty
Donguibogam: ‘Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine’
Seungjeongwon Ilgi, the diaries of the royal secretariat
Ilseongnok: Records of Daily Reflections
Human rights documentary heritage, 1980
Latvia
Dainu Skapis – Cabinet of folksongs
The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom *
Lebanon
Commemorative stelae of Nahr el-Kalb, Mount Lebanon
The Phoenician alphabet
Lithuania
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
The Baltic Way – Human chain linking three states in their drive for freedom *
Luxembourg
The Family of Man
Madagascar
Royal archives (1824–1897)
Malaysia
Batu Bersurat, Terengganu (Inscribed Stone of Terengganu)
Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals)
Hikayat Hang Tuah
Correspondence of the late Sultan of Kedah (1882–1943)
Mauritius
Records of the French occupation of Mauritius
Mexico
Sixteenth to eighteenth century pictographs from ‘Maps, drawings and illustrations’ Archives of Mexico
Collection of Mexican codices
Colección de lenguas indígenas
Collection of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi community in Mexico
Codices from the Oaxaca Valley
American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness *
Codex Techaloyan de Cuajimalpaz
Peru
Biblioteca Palafoxiana
Los Olvidados
Mongolia
Lu. ‘Altan Tobchi’: Golden History written in 1651
Mongolian Tanjur
Morocco
Kitab al-ibar, wa diwan al-mobtadae wa al-khabar
Namibia
Letter journals of Hendrik Witbooi
Netherlands
Library Ets Haim–Livraria Montezinos
La Galigo *
Archives of the Dutch East India Company *
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie *
Desmet collection
Diaries of Anne Frank
New Zealand
The Treaty of Waitangi
The 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition
Nicaragua
National Literacy Crusade
Norway
The Leprosy Archives of Bergen
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House
Roald Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition (1910–1912)
Thor Heyerdahl archives
Pakistan
Jinnah papers (Quaid-i-Azam)
Panama
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
Paraguay
The Archives of Terror
American colonial music: a sample of its documentary richness *
Philippines
Philippine Paleographs (Hanunoo, Buid, Tagbanua and Pala’wan)
Presidential papers of Manuel L. Quezon
José Maceda collection
Radio broadcast of the Philippine People Power Revolution
Poland
Codex Suprasliensis *
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
Nicolaus Copernicus’ masterpiece ‘De revolutionibus libri sex’
The Confederation of Warsaw of 28th of January 1573
National Education Commission archives
The masterpieces of Fryderyk Chopin
Warsaw Ghetto archives (Emanuel Ringelblum archives)
Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office
Archives of the Literary Institute in Paris (1946–2000)
Twenty-One demands, Gdańsk, August 1980
Portugal
Corpo Cronológico (collection of manuscripts on the Portuguese discoveries)
Treaty of Tordesillas *
Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha
Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu archives *
First flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922
Russian Federation
Codex Suprasliensis *
Ostromir Gospel (1056–1057)
Archangel Gospel of 1092
Khitrovo Gospel
Slavonic publications in Cyrillic script of the 15th century
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
Tolstoy’s personal library and manuscripts, photo and film collection
Collection of 18th-century maps of the Russian empire
Newspaper collections, Russian Federation
The Historical Collections (1889–1955) of St Petersburg Phonogram Archives
Russian posters of the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Saint Lucia
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
Sir William Arthur Lewis papers
Saudi Arabia
Earliest Islamic (Kufic) inscription
Senegal
Fonds of the Afrique occidentale française (AOF)
Serbia
Miroslav Gospel – manuscript from 1180
Nikola Tesla’s Archive
Slovakia
Illuminated codices from the library of the Bratislava Chapter House
Bašagic collection of Islamic manuscripts
Mining maps and plans of the Main Chamber – Count Office in Banská Štiavnica
Slovenia
Codex Suprasliensis *
South Africa
Archives of the Dutch East India Company *
The Bleek collection
Criminal Court Case No. 253/1963 (The State versus N. Mandela and Others)
Liberation Struggle Living Archive Collection
Spain
Santa Fe Capitulations
Treaty of Tordesillas *
Sri Lanka
Archives of the Dutch East India Company *
Suriname
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Archives of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie *
Records of the Indian indentured labourers *
Sweden
Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’
Stockholm City Planning Committee archives
Emanuel Swedenborg collection
Alfred Nobel family archives
Ingmar Bergman archives
Astrid Lindgren archives
Switzerland
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Geneva and Neuchâtel collections
Tajikistan
The manuscript of Ubayd Zakoni’s Kulliyat and Hafez Sherozi’s Gazalliyt
Tanzania
Collection of Arabic manuscripts and books
German records of the National Archives
Thailand
The King Ram Khamhaeng inscription
Epigraphic archives of Wat Pho
Archival documents of King Chulalongkorn’s transformation of Siam (1868–1910)
Trinidad and Tobago
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Records of the Indian indentured labourers *
Constantine collection
C.L.R. James collection
Derek Walcott collection
Eric Williams collection
Tunisia
Privateering and the international relations of the Regency of Tunis in the 18th and 19th centuries
Turkey
The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy
Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute manuscripts
The works of Ibn Sina in the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library
Ukraine
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh (Nieśwież) Library collection *
Collection of Jewish musical folklore (1912–1947)
United Kingdom
Magna Carta, issued in 1215
Hereford Mappa Mundi
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Registry of Slaves of the British Caribbean 1817–1834 *
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
Historic ethnographic recordings (1898–1951) at the British Library
The Battle of the Somme
The Appeal of 18 June 1940 *
United States of America
Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes *
Dutch West India Company (Westindische Compagnie) archives *
Silver men: West Indian labourers at the Panama Canal *
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
John Marshall Ju/’hoan bushman film and video collection, 1950–2000
Landsat Program records: Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensors
Uruguay
Original records of Carlos Gardel – Horacio Loriente collection (1913–1935)
Uzbekistan
Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman
The collection of the Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies
Venezuela
Colombeia: Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda’s archives
General Archive of the Nation: Writings of The Liberator Simón Bolívar
Collection of Latin American photographs of the 19th century
Vietnam
Stone stele records of royal examinations of the Le and Mac dynasties (1442–1779)
Woodblocks of the Nguyễn dynasty
Other
Christopher Okigbo Foundation (Africa) Christopher Okigbo collection
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Archives of the International Prisoners of War Agency, 1914–1923
United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) League of Nations archives 1919–1946
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) UNRWA photo and film archives of Palestinian refugees
* Joint Inscriptions between 2 or more countries.
MEMORY OF WORLD DOCUMENTS
ORDERED BY THE DATE THEY WERE RECORDED
The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy
Inscribed 2001
What is it
Ancient Hittite texts preserved in cuneiform on 25,000 clay tablets.
Why was it inscribed
The Bogazköy archive of cuneiform tablets is the only source of information on the Hittites as well as on the social, political and commercial activities of the area. The archive sheds light not only on that area and period, but also on the history and the civilization of human kind as a whole.
Where is it
Archaeological Museums of Istanbul and Anatolian Civilizations Museum of Ankara, Turkey
Anatolia forms a bridge between Europe and Asia, and the area has been the cradle of many civilizations. The Hittites ruled here for nearly 600 years in the 2nd millennium BC, after moving from the Caucasus. They established a powerful state within a bend of the Kızılırmak river (the ancient Halys) with its capital at Bogazköy. The civilization of the Hittites was advanced in its military achievements, political organization, legislation and the administration of justice. Their military, political, social and commercial relations with neighbouring countries were all recorded and kept in archives meticulously.
Ancient Hittite cuneiform script
The state had a federal structure, and the central government was headed by the king who was also the commander of the army, the supreme judicial authority and the chief priest, though he was never actually deified. In fact, the Hittite king, for the first time in the history of the ancient east, possessed no divine attributes.
Excavations from 1906 to 1970 at Bogazköy (ancient Hattusas) uncovered thousands of cuneiform clay tablets in the Great Palace and in the Great Temple. The Bogazköy archive consists of nearly 25,000 cuneiform clay tablets and is the only extant material about the civilization of the Hittites. The tablets are mostly on political, military, social, commercial, religious and artistic topics relating to the Hittites and the neighbouring nations. The archive also includes sets of tablets on law codes, national and international treaties and correspondence.
The archive includes tablets of the Treaty of Quadesh signed between Hittites and Egypt. This well-known treaty of ‘eternal peace’ guaranteed harmony and security throughout the area for a considerable length of time. Now a symbol of the movement for peace, the Treaty of Quadesh adorns the walls of the United Nations Building in New York.
The archive includes tablets of many literary works, chiefly of an epic and mythological character; some of the most important of these tell the story of the exploits and quarrels of the gods. The tablets show the existence of eight different languages, illustrating the polyglot nature of the Hittite Empire.
The correspondence and other documents in the archive have a universal importance since they contain important information not only on the Hittite Empire, but also on the political and civil life of other neighbouring states and cities. Most of our knowledge relating to that period of history in Asia Minor and partially in the Arab region comes from the cuneiform tablets found at Bogazköy.