The aim of this talk is to observe the mechanisms linked to the production of specific textual and formal alterations which provide information of codicological interest in Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang (敦煌), in particular on the characteristics of a manuscript archetype, on its production techniques, and its formal evolution. Besides, the importance of surveying the alterations in the arrangement of textual and para-textual elements will be discussed by means of a structural analysis revealing manuscript filiation based on formal characteristics.
Costantino Moretti is the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor in Chinese Medieval Buddhism at the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). He received his MA and PhD in East Asian Studies (Chinese Buddhism) from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). His main fields of interest are Chinese Buddhist apocryphal scriptures, Dunhuang manuscripts and codicology. He is currently sub-editing entries concerning Medieval Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang for the "Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa" (EMCAA, Hamburg University). His recent publications include "Genèse d’un apocryphe bouddhique" (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2016), which focuses on a 5th-century apocryphon that constitutes an important source for the study of popular Buddhism in Medieval China. He also collaborated on the edition of Jean-Pierre Drège, "La fabrique du lisible: La mise en texte des manuscrits de la Chine ancienne et médiévale" (Paris: Collège de France, 2014).
