Jean-Pierre Drège (born 11 March 1946) is a French sinologist, specialising in the study of ancient books and the

history of libraries The history of libraries began with the first efforts to organize collections of documents. Topics of interest include accessibility of the collection, acquisition of materials, arrangement and finding tools, the book trade, the influence of th ...

, in particular Chinese manuscripts and . He has been working for years in the study of the

Dunhuang manuscripts The Dunhuang manuscripts are a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, including Hemp paper, hemp, silk, paper and Woodblock printing, woodblock-printed texts) in Old Tibetan, Tibetan, Chinese, and other languages tha ...

Career

In his early years, Jean-Pierre Drège studied philosophy at the

University of Dijon A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and then transferred to the

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europ ...

to study Chinese. He has a keen interest in the

history of books The history of books begins with the invention of writing, as well as other inventions such as paper and printing; this history continues all the way to the modern-day business of book printing. The earliest knowledge society has on the history o ...

, which has also become his research theme. In 1976, he completed an essay on China's publishing industry in the first half of the 20th century, and immediately began to study history of libraries and

library classification A library classification is a system used within a library to organize materials, including books, sound and video recordings, electronic materials, etc., both on shelves and in catalogs and indexes. Each item is typically assigned a call number ...

. He joined the

French School of the Far East The French School of the Far East (, ; also translated as The French School of Asian StudiesPreferred translation by EFEO staff. SeEFEO official website), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of ...

in 1980 and served as the Director of the School from 1998 to 2004. He was in charge of the management of the research team on the Dunhuang manuscripts in 1993, under the supervision of Michel Soymié, with the purpose of cataloguing the manuscripts that

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...

took to Paris. He has also been the director of the collection "". He is currently an emeritus Director of Studies of the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

Publications

* ''La « Commercial Press » de Shanghai (1897-1949)'', Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, Paris, 283 pp., 1978. * ', collection «

Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an Collection (publishing), editorial collection of Book illustration, illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in Pocket edition, ...

» (nº 53), série Histoire. Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 192 pp., 1989. * ''La Révolution du livre dans la Chine moderne'', Wang Yunwu éditeur (in collaboration with Hua Chang-ming), Publications orientalistes de France, Paris, 144 pp., 1989. * ''Les Bibliothèques en Chine au temps des manuscrits'', École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 322 pp., 1991. * ''Qu'est-ce que la Dunhuangologie ? Paul Pelliot et les manuscrits de Dunhuang'', 1999 (conference paper) ; In collaboration * (with various authors) ''De Dunhuang au Japon : Études chinoises et bouddhiques offertes à Michel Soymié'', Droz, Genève, 1996. * (with Michel Soymié, Sarah E. Fraser, Stephen F. Teiser and Danielle Eliasberg) ''Images de Dunhuang : Dessins et peintures sur papier des fonds Pelliot et Stein'', collection « Mémoires archéologiques » (nº 24). École française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drege, Jean-Pierre 1946 births Living people French sinologists French philologists Historians of libraries University of Burgundy alumni Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales alumni

Career

Publications

See also

References