The troubled story of the Tucci Tibetan collection and its new life. A preliminary codicological overview of the Bon Corpus

This essay has the twofold aim of recounting the story of the Tucci Tibetan Collection, as well as showing its renewed life. This collection should be considered as one of Giuseppe Tucci’s most important legacies to the Oriental School of Rome and his living tradition. The first part of this article is dedicated to the story of thousands of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, whichmwere gathered by Tucci during his expeditions in Tibet in the first half of the twentieth century and travelled with him from the Himalayas to Italy. After going through some ordeals, these books are currently preserved at the National Central Library of Rome in a dedicated room called “IsIAO Library” – African and Oriental Collections Room. The second part of this essay focuses on the Bon corpus included in the Tucci Tibetan Collection to which an ongoing project is dedicated and provides a preliminary codicological overview of its 77 volumes.