Local 3
5000 Ethiopian
Manuscripts outside of
Ethiopia
A Serious Question of Ethiopian Studies
Five Thousand Ethiopian Manuscripts
Abroad, and the International
Community
by Dr Richard Panhurst
Introduction
Ethiopic, or Ge’ez, manuscripts [hereafter MSS]
are of fundamental importance for scholarship.
Ethiopic literature formed a major part of ancient
and medieval Christian literature. Many important
Ethiopic works were, and still are, unknown to the
outside world: Foreign scholars learnt for example
of the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees
Above, Ras Tagassa King with examples of the Rain Water
Harvesting Systems.
only because they were preserved in Ethiopia.
Though most Ethiopic literature is religious, numerous
texts also cover subjects, including history,
philosophy, law, mathematics, and medicine.
For the study of Ethiopic, as other texts, scholars
need to consult more than one copy. This is because
MSS were written by hand, and scholars
have to compare different versions to control the
scribe? S accuracy or lack thereof and thus establish
a definitive text. Ethiopian MSS often also include
“marginalia”, i.e. end papers, etc., containing
notable secular material: data on land sales and
grants, marriage settlements, church and monastic
inventories, etc. See for example Tax Records of
Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia, published by the
School of Oriental and African Studies in London ,
which I wrote with Girma Sellasie Asfaw, in 1978.
Ethiopian MSS are no less important for the history
of Ethiopian art. Illustrations, painted by hand,
are by definition unique, for which reason too it is
necessary to study several works, not merely one,
on any theme. For all these reasons it is essential
to collect as comprehensive a photographic collection
of Ethiopian MSS as possible.
EMML, UNESCO, and Professor Hammerscmidt
It was for the above reasons, as well as in the interests
of preservation, that the Ethiopian Manuscript
Microfilm Library, EMML, was established in
1973. It was based on co-operation between the
Ethiopian Patriarchate, the Ethiopian Ministry of
Culture, and St. John ?s University in Collegeville ,
Minnesota , USA .
It was for the above reasons too that Ethiopia facilitated
the microfilming of MSS by UNESCO, and by
the late Professor Ernst Hammerscmidt, of Hamburg
University. The EMML went to immense pains
microfilming thousands of MSS in remote parts of
Ethiopia . By making such film available to scholars
it gave an immense fillip to international, as well as
Ethiopian scholarship.
The Time Has Surely Come
The time has surely come to focus not only on
Ethiopian MSS in Ethiopia, but also on an estimated
5,000 Ethiopian MSS in Europe, North America,
Asia, and Oceania: so as to make them more readily
available for scholarship. The microfilming, or
preferably digital photographing, of such MSS
abroad is scarcely less important than the copying
of MSS in Ethiopia itself. Photography in technically
advanced countries would be less demanding,
and hence less costly, than in the Ethiopian countryside.
It is only fair to add that whereas microfilming
in Ethiopia has been of major assistance to
international scholarship, the failure to copy Ethiopian
MSS in the rest of the world remains an obstacle
to scholarship within Ethiopia itself. It is good
that the odd Ethiopian manuscript is preserved in
Spain or New Zealand , but this scarcely helps research
in Ethiopia .
The Five Thousand Manuscripts Abroad
Let us look at the worldwide diffusion of Ethiopian
MSS. The figures below are conservative, for they
do not include privately owned MSS, or recent library
acquisitions.
Great Britain
The largest number of Ethiopian MSS abroad, over
850, are in the United Kingdom . A little less than
half were looted by the Maqdala expedition of
1867-8: their return is currently demanded by the
Ethiopian organisation AFROMET.
The principal depositories of Ethiopian MSS are in
the British Library, which, at my last count, had
598 MSS; the Bodleaen Library, in Oxford, had 101;
Cambridge University Library, 67; John Rylands Library,
in Manchester, 42; the British and Foreign Bible
Society, 35; the School of Oriental and African
Studies, 9; and the Royal Library, Windsor castle, 6
particularly fine manuscripts (from Maqdala).
There are also over 40 other MSS in other collections:
17 in the Wellcome Institute Library, in London;
six in the India Office Collection of the British
Library, also in London; five in the Selly Oaks
College Library, in Birmingham; five in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, in London; three in the National
Library of Scotland, and three in the University
of Edinburgh Library, both in Edinburgh; one
in the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge; one in
the Jews? College, in London ; and one in St. Andrews
University Library, in Scotland. Nine scrolls,
formerly in the possession of the London Library,
all or mainly from Maqdala, were sold by Sotheby?s
in July 1970.
A substantial number of British Library MSS (but
not all) have been generously microfilmed by the
British Council, for the Institute of Ethiopian Studies
, in Addis Ababa . MSS in other UK collections
remain, however, uncopied.
France possesses almost as many Ethiopian MSS:
at least 700. Most are in the Biblotheque Nationale
in Paris . The latest information available to me,
in our old friend Professor Stefan Strelcyn?s catalogue,
indicates that the collection, by 1954, had
reached a total of 688 MSS.
The United States
The United States heads the list of countries with
smaller Ethiopica collections, probably slightly
over 400 MSS. No less than 325 are in the Princeton
University Libraries. Smaller collections are in
four libraries in New York , with a total of 17 MSS;
and at the Free Library in Philadelphia , with 13.
Yale Univeristy has nine.
A further 39 MSS are in smaller collections: at the
Walters Art Gallery, in Baltimore; the Public Library
and Endowment for Biblical Research, both in Boston;
the Newbury Library, in Chicago; the Public
Library, in Cleveland; the Seminary Library, in Hartford;
Haverford College, in Haverford; the University
of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia; Vasser College,
in Poughkeepsie; the Peabody Museum, in Salem;
and the Catholic University Library and the Smithsonian
Institution, both in Washington.
Other countries with Ethiopian MSS include the
following:
Germany 734
The Vatican over 600
The Netherland 180
Italy approximately 100
Russia approximately 100 plus over 600 magical
scrolls
Sweden almost 100
Ireland over 60
Israel over 50
Austria just under 50
Armenia 30
Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Portugal, Poland,
Spain, New Zealand and Greece each have small
collections.
Systematic action is urged to develop a comprehensive
microfilm and/or digital photograph
project aimed at the creation, in Addis Ababa , of
a world-wide Ethiopian photographic manuscript
archive.
For further information contact
Ras Seymour Mclean, Local No. 3, London
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