Paper Analysis and Database of Papers of the Pelliot Collection, Dunhuang Manuscripts

This paper introduces paper analysis and a database of papers of the Dunhuang manuscripts. We investigated old papers of the Pelliot collection, which is the Dunhuang manuscript collection, scientifically at the Bibliotheèque nationale de France (BnF). As Dunhuang documents are rare books, it is difficult to access them usually. However, we developed a nondestructive analysis method for rare books. The paper analysis produced thousands of microscopic images by high-resolution digital microscope, and the image data constitutes very important preliminary data for researchers of Dunhuang study and paper history study. Consequently, we have developed the database of papers to provide the data to researchers and conservators.