Cultural-historical research on Saami book collections

Main funder

Kalevi Kuitunen Foundation

Funds granted by main funder (€)

6 000,00

Project timetable

Project start date: 01/12/2020

Project end date: 30/05/2021

Summary

The main target of the research is to collect provenance information on various Saami book collections preserved in different institutions (libraries, churches or museums) in Finland. We shall then have a better overview of works that has been done at the time of the translations and the publications of those books. Owners of books occasionally left notes in the margins of their books, adding information that might be interesting regarding Saami school history. They might have also written documents relating to their collection. Therefore, we will also try to study archived documents, material which can provide a better overview of the use of the first Saami translations in Finland.
The purpose of provenance research is to shed light on the books by cross-analysing the different owners’ handwritten marks on books and other information founded in archival documents. This advanced methodology provides a better understanding of the Saami book history, which allows to prove their use by different owners or other readers. This approach shows how the analysis of archives can help us refine our estimation of the situation of the book history in the Saami-speaking areas of Finland.

The information obtained shall be inserted in a database to allow other researchers to have access to it.