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June 21, 2005

Swedenborg Collection Added to UNESCO World Memory Register

From the official UNESCO website:

Twenty-nine documentary collections in 24 countries have been inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. These additions bring to 120 the total number of inscriptions on the Register to date. They include, for the first time, collections from Albania, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Cuba, Italy, Lebanon, Namibia, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States of America. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koiro Matsuura, approved the inscriptions, which were recommended by the 14-member International Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme.

At its most recent meeting in Lijiang (China), from June 13 to 16, the Committee also recommended that the first UNESCO Jijki Memory of the World Prize be awarded to the Czech National Library. The US$30,000 Prize is given biennially to individuals or organizations who have made a significant contribution to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage

UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, and Register, were established to preserve and raise awareness of documentary heritage, the memory of the world, which reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures. The programme was born of the realization that this memory is fragile and that important documentary material is lost every day. The International Advisory Committee is made up of international experts appointed by the Director-General in their personal capacity, and meets every two years to study nominations by UNESCO Member States.

Among the collections added most recently is the Swedenborg Collection in possession of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences:

Sweden – Emmanuel Swedenborg Collection. The collection of approximately 20,000 pages, was given to Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences after the death of Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a scientist-turned religious writer, who had been a member of the Academy. It is one of the biggest existing collections of manuscripts from the 18th century, and besides one of the very few in modern times that has served as the basis for a new Christian church. Swedenborg's message has found many receivers all over the world, and at least some of them look upon his manuscripts as relics. The collection covers Swedenborg’s years as a scientist and a technician as well as his life after the religious crisis he went through in the 1740s. The collection is still kept at the Royal Academy.

For more on the Swedenborg Collection, see the Center for History of Science at the Royal Academy.

Posted by Glenn M. Frazier at June 21, 2005 02:11 PM

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