Burckhardt in Cambridge Study and dialogue Catherine Ansorge The University Library in Cambridge is home to an intriguing archive of Burckhardt’s personal notebooks, sheaves of notes and some of his letters 1 . The Library also holds the considerable collection of Arabic manuscripts he acquired during his exploits abroad. For an explorer born in Switzerland and later renowned for his travels in the Middle East, this is perhaps an unlikely destination for such a personal bequest. These were deposited in the Library at Cambridge because Burckhardt spent time studying at the University prior to his time as an explorer. The contents of the archive indicate that he profited greatly from his experiences there, and perhaps the knowledge gained and the life-long friends he made, contributed significantly to his travels and to the success of his achievements. As a gesture of gratitude, Burckhardt bequeathed most of his belongings to the Library which arrived in Cambridge in 1819, two years after his death in Cairo 2 . A closer investigation of the contents of Burckhardt’s notebooks, throw a new perspective on his travel preparations and demonstrate the attempts he made to fulfil the requirements demanded by his sponsors, the African Association, in preparation for his expeditions. In the Library’s Burckhardt archive, there are sixteen small notebooks around 18 x 12 cm in size 3 . They are made of folded sheets of paper; the covers are made of marbled, slightly thicker, paper, though several of the notebooks have lost their covers altogether. They are a little worn and dog-eared, otherwise they have survived in good condition (fig. 1). The contents are written in Burckhardt’s small, neat handwriting, most are written in ink, predominantly in English but some contain notes or comments in German, Latin or French. Few of them have any dates to indicate precisely when they were written, but as they seem to be preparatory studies on language and travel, they were very probably written in Cambridge, and are the result of Burckhardt’s studies there. 1 Browne 1900, 342-4. 2 Browne 1896, xxviii. 3 MS Add.282.1-16 Burckhardt papers