The aim of this symposium is to understand what happens to manuscripts as they travel from distant shores to the rich collections of the cities. It is equally interested in the manuscripts of non-European languages as in the many items of information sent by travellers describing the worlds they were travelling.

Masses of documents of all kinds filled Europe's warehouses and libraries. Some came from the maritime activity itself (newspapers, nautical charts, correspondence), while the fate of others was linked to travellers seeking to gain knowledge or simply prestige from the manuscripts they encountered. They gathered the information they needed or had beautiful illuminated objects created to prove their journey.

The aim here is to take a fresh look at the bodies of documentation that are often reduced to their content, although they are also the result of a complex transaction between travellers, local intermediaries, patrons and powerful collectors.