Turkish Manuscripts in France Discussed at the National Library

Yunus Emre Enstitüsü and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism held a conference on "Turkish Manuscripts in French National Library" at the National Library Yunus Emre Hall.

Sara Yontan, in charge of Turkish printed works and manuscripts at The National Library of France attended the conference as a speaker.

Yontan and French National Library (BNF) Head of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts Laurent Hericher noted that they were visiting Turkey for the purpose of establishing a collaboration between Yunus Emre Enstitüsü and BNF, and developing various projects.

Sara Yontan emphasized that the Freemasonry certificates for Turkish Freemasons are preserved the library, and said, "We have the archive of the French Masonic lodge. There is a file on Turkey as well.”

Yontan said, "The first letter written by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to François I was in the French section and we included it in the Turkish section. There is an Arabic-Turkish dictionary written Istanbul in Hebrew alphabet in our library."

Stating that there are works in various genres such as history, Islam, biography, story and poetry among Turkish manuscripts at BNF, Yontan marked that in 2015 the number of printed and periodical volumes exceeded 13 million.

After speaking of the history of BNF, Yontan noted that some of the works in the library have been digitalized and copies of the rest can be accessed by applying to the library.

Sara Yontan added that only 244 of Turkish manuscripts are on digital medium.