The Schøyen Collection was started around 1920 by Engineer M.O. Schøyen (1896-1962), father of Martin Schøyen, who collected some 1000 volumes of early and later editions of Norwegian and international literature, history, travel, science, as well as antiquities. The Schøyen Collection, holding the largest private collection of manuscripts in the world, deposited the Bibliotheca Manuscripts Schoeyana as well as a nice collection of Buddhist manuscripts, curated by the University of Oslo.
