7 May 2026, by FDM Webmaster

Photo: UHH/SUB

With the ‘Collection of Old and Rare Korean Works from the Department of Korean Studies (at the Asia Africa Institute – AAI), we are able to present yet another very special collection on the FUNDus! portal. Thanks to the support of experts from the Hamburg State and University Library (SUB), we have succeeded in digitising the first items in the collection and making them available both on the SUB’s Hamburger Kulturgut Digital portal and on FUNDus!

Some of the works in this collection are over 100 years old. For a long time, they received little attention, as many of the works are fragile and some had been damaged (presumably by water). They were discovered in 2019  by a visiting scholar of the Korean Studies Department—an expert in Korean language and literature. He examined the works and determined that the collection included items of particular interest to researchers due to their rarity but in very bad condition. At his initiative, a collaboration was established between the AAI Library and the National Library of Korea; consequently, the works were included in the Korea Old and Rare Collection Information System catalog, which serves as a global registry for Korea’s old and rare written works.

In cooperation with the SUB, we are currently working to make as many of these fascinating items as possible available in digital format. Looking ahead, we hope to secure funding to support the restoration of this material, as the scope of this undertaking exceeds the capacity of our regular budgetary resources.

Our sincere thanks go to our colleagues at the SUB for their excellent collaboration.