Reading Japanese Documents from the Marega Collection: An Introductory Manual with Selected Texts

The volume, authored by Naohiro Ōta, and edited by Silvio Vita, Chiara Ghidini, and Luca Milasi, introduces the Mario Marega (1902-1978) collection of manuscripts at the Vatican Library. The complete collection comprises over 14,000 documents from Kyushu spanning the 17th-20th centuries recently cataloged and digitized and available through NIJL. The manual details a selection of documents specifically selected for the purpose of learning to read, transcribe, and translate komonjo. The book comprises an introduction, followed by, chapter 1, which includes four explanatory essays: “Documents as Material Objects,” “The Texts: Cursive Script and Language,” “The Historical Context of the Marega Documents,” and “Reference Tools and Suggested Readings.” The next two chapters cover “Reading Models” and “Texts for Practice.” Several appendices include information helpful to understanding komonjo, especially the documents related to Christianity in the Marega Collection. The author and editors compiled the volume mainly as a useful resource for students of sōrōbun and komonjo, and with the hope to provide up-to-date information about Japanese paleography and diplomatics of the Pre- and Early Modern period which will prove of interest for more advanced specialists, also.