Datasets of digitised Malay and Indonesian manuscripts in the British Library

The British Library holds around 500 manuscripts in Malay, Javanese, Old Javanese, Balinese, Batak, Bugis and Makasar languages, including a few Arabic manuscripts from Southeast Asia. All these manuscripts were fully digitised between 2012 and 2023, yielding around 100,000 digitised images, through a range of externally-funded projects, detailed below. Presented here are the metadata sets for all the digitised manuscripts. The catalogue entries are based primarily on the published catalogue by M.C. Ricklefs, P. Voorhoeve and Annabel Teh Gallop, Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: a catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections. New Edition with Addenda et Corrigenda (Jakarta: Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, Perpustakaan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2014), with some additional codicological details. The metadata sets are arranged as follows, by language and by project: 1. All Malay and Indonesian manuscripts (482) 2. Arabic Qur’ans from Southeast Asia (9) 3. Batak manuscripts (37) 4. Bugis and Makasar manuscripts (34) 5. Malay manuscripts (124) 6. Javanese paper manuscripts from Yogyakarta (75) 7. Javanese paper manuscripts Bollinger project (117) 8. Javanese, Old Javanese and Balinese palm leaf manuscripts (69) 9. Javanese and Old Javanese manuscripts Ginsburg Legacy (16) 10. All Javanese, Old Javanese and Balinese manuscripts (277) The British Library would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following individuals and institutions who enabled the digitisation of the Malay and Indonesian manuscripts: 2012-2017: Ginsburg Legacy of the late Henry D. Ginsburg, former curator for Thai, Lao and Cambodian at the British Library, digitised 16 of the most important Malay and Indonesian manuscripts in the British Library. 2013-2019: Bollinger Malay Manuscripts project, funded by William and Judith Bollinger, digitised 124 Malay manuscripts in collaboration with the National Library of Singapore, with a small number of Lampung and Maguindanao manuscripts. The project was extended to include 34 Bugis and Makasar manuscripts, and 9 Arabic Qur’ans from Southeast Asia. 2018-2019: Javanese Manuscripts from Yogyakarta project, funded by Mr S.P. Lohia, digitised 75 Javanese paper manuscripts mostly taken from the palace of Yogyakarta during a British attack in 1812. 2021-2022: Batak Manuscripts project, funded in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), Hamburg University, digitised 37 Batak manuscripts. 2021-2023: Bollinger Javanese Manuscripts project, funded by William and Judith Bollinger, digitised 117 Javanese paper manuscripts. 2022-2023: DHARMA Java-Bali Palmleaf project, funded in collaboration with the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), digitised 69 palmleaf manuscripts in Javanese, Old Javanese and Balinese. Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia With thanks to Julian Cook for extracting the metadata from IAMS September 2025