Books on the move: In preparation for the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections renovation, materials on the fifth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center have temporarily moved. See our Service Alerts for details.

Fisher restoration: The Fisher Fine Arts Library will be closed on Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24 for restoration work. Find more details about this project.

  • Workshop

Coffee with a Codex: Purported Buddhist Text in Hebrew

On July 16, curator Dot Porter will be joined by Judaica Special Collections Cataloging Librarian Louis Meiselman, who will show us a manuscript copy of the Hebrew printed edition of "Economy of human life", claimed to be derived from Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Written between 1821 and 1822.

This event has already occurred

calendar_month
July 16, 2026, 12:00pm - 12:30pm
location_on
Online
group
Open to the Public

Hosted by: SIMS and Kislak Center

photo of a page in Hebrew

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend.

On July 16, curator Dot Porter will be joined by Judaica Special Collections Cataloging Librarian Louis Meiselman, who will show us a manuscript copy of the Hebrew printed edition of "Economy of human life", adapted from the work attributed to Robert Dodsley (1703-1764), who claimed to have derived it from Tibetan Buddhist philosophy (from conversations with the Tibetans and from a manuscript in a Tibetan monastery) on the commission of the Chinese emperor. Written between 1821 and 1822.

Note that the Zoom links for Coffee With a Codex are reusable - register once and attend every Thursday at 12pm EST / 5pm GMT.

See the full schedule for Coffee with a Codex.

Join our mailing list for weekly updates.

Maps and More

Campus Libraries Map

Staff Information

Resources for Staff Committees