Johannes Beltz read Theology, Indian Studies, and Religious Studies at the Universities of Halle, Strasbourg, Paris, and Lausanne. On numerous occasions throughout the 1990s, he undertook research in India for his PhD thesis. From 1999 to 2002, he worked at the renowned South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg before taking up a post at the Museum Rietberg where he is now curator of the collection of Indian bronzes, sculptures and textiles, and of the South East Asian collection. He has chaired the Museum’s Curatorial Board since 2009, and was appointed assistant director in 2016. In addition, Johannes Beltz has lectured regularly at the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of Teacher Education since 2005.

Jérôme Petit is Curator in charge of the South and Southeast Asia collections at the National Library of France (BnF), and professor for Indian manuscript cultures at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris, his fields of research are the history of written heritage in India, and the Jaina studies, with a special focus on the Adhyātma movement and the Digambara philosophical tradition.

Adrian Plau is Manuscript Collections Information Analyst at Wellcome Collection. As a 22/23 Headley Fellowship recipient with the Art Fund, he has focused on the provenance, cataloguing, and restitution Wellcome’s collection of Jain manuscripts. He holds a PhD in South Asia Studies from SOAS.