The book under review, published in memory of the Tibetan scholar Yonten Gyatso (mDo smad pa Yon tan rgya mtsho, 1932–2002), commences with a preface (pp. 9–11) and brief report on his life and works (pp. 13–17). The body of the book contains twenty contributions devoted to various aspects of textual traditions within the Tibetan cultural sphere over different periods, mainly focusing on (a) traditional textual scholarship—including translation practices, textual criticism, editorial practices, literary criticism, and issues relating to transmission—and (b) the culture of the book—including the practicalities of compilation, the production of both manuscripts and xylographs, and in general anything that has to do with codicology—while also touching upon related areas, such as epigraphy (from a paleographical point of view) and political and economic aspects of the culture of the book. The volume contains papers presented during a conference of the same title that took place in Paris in 2008; the contributions, most of which are written in English with some in French and a couple of others in Tibetan, are arranged in alphabetical order by author rather than thematically.

Edition, éditions is one of several publications and projects in recent years that reflect the increasing interest among scholars of Tibetan studies in a wide range of issues related to Tibetan textual scholarship, namely ones that, rather than being restricted to philology, simultaneously address a variety of issues encompassing both texts and the material on which they are written, and their interaction with one another. First, therefore, I shall attempt to place this volume within the overall context of these activities. It is impossible to mention here all of them; instead, I shall confine myself to mentioning only selected publications that may be considered as landmarks, along with several concluded or still ongoing related projects.

Trail-blazing work has no doubt been done by Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, one of the co-editors of this volume, with her several articles on various codicological and palaeographical aspects of early Tibetan manuscripts and on various issues relating to traditional practices of translating and editing. The book titled Culture of the Book in Tibet (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009) by Kurtis Schaeffer, one of the contributors of the volume under review, is certainly another milestone.

As for research projects focusing on different aspects of the culture of the book in Tibet, we have witnessed a considerable growth in their number, including, to mention only a few: “The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya” (2001–6, 2007–present) at the University of Vienna; two Tibetological subprojects within the framework of the researcher group “Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” (2008–11) and at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (2011–present), both at the University of Hamburg; the collaborative ongoing international project “Old Tibetan Documents Online” along with its monograph series; and “Transforming Technologies and Buddhist Book Culture” (2010–15) at the University of Cambridge in cooperation with the British Library.

The increasing accessibility to Tibetan written material has undoubtedly given great impetus to the growing interest in the diverse aspects of the culture of the book in Tibet. One testimony to this development was the recent conference on “Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions in the Tibetan Cultural Sphere: Regional and Periodical Characteristics” (University of Hamburg), which in both its scope and diversity provided a clear window on the current state of research relating to the culture of the book and textual scholarship within the Tibetan cultural sphere.

It is thus evident that the culture of the book and textual scholarship stand currently in the focus of numerous Tibetological studies—a tendency that will surely increase in the years to come. The book under review can be thus considered one of the first attempts to address various facets of these topics in one publication. Particularly in its endeavor to deal with a variety of related aspects and issues over different periods, it represents a unique and pioneering contribution: Three contributions are devoted to general concerns of traditional textual scholarship: Cristina Scherrer-Schaub (translating and editing), Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp (impact of xylography on textual criticism), and Peter Verhagen (editing), while four others focus on individual works or literary genres: Henk Blezer (Bon po textual material), Cathy Cantwell and Robert Mayer (emergence and compilation of gTer ma corpuses), Kurtis R. Schaeffer (emergence and textual criticism of biographical literature), and Shen Weirong (Central Asian Tibetan texts in broader historical and multicultural contexts). Several of the articles deal with various aspects of the production of manuscripts or xylographs: Rémi Chaix (production of xylographs), Christoph Cüppers (production of the bKa' 'gyur), Franz-Karl Ehrhard (editing and publishing a Buddhist master's writings), Peter Schwieger (collecting and compiling gTer ma literature), and Vladimir Uspensky (printing Tibetan books in Russia), while one contribution deals with social aspects of such undertakings: Fabienne Jagou (on the printers' guild), and another on matters relating to storage and to some extent also performative acts: Dan Martin (collecting, storing, and venerating books). Two contributions touch upon codicological and paleographical issues: Heather Stoddard (stitched Tibetan books) and Helga Uebach (paleography in the context of epigraphy), and two others are concerned with modern Tibetan literature and language: lCe nag tshang rDo rje tshe ring (language reform) and Pad ma 'bum (Tibetan periodicals). Finally, the volume also contains one article concerning what one may refer to as digital humanities: Antonio Terrone (Tibetan textual material on the Internet).

The range of issues relating to the culture of the book in Tibet that come under scrutiny in the volume under review—stretching from early times until the present day—is very impressive, and the individual contributions are exemplary. The volume is unquestionably of immense value and indeed a must for anyone wishing to study Tibetan textual scholarship and the culture of the book in Tibet.