Ethiopian Scribal Practice 7: (14 Ethiopic Manuscripts, Texts, and Studies)

There are many stories to tell about the Ethiopic manuscripts in the collection of the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa. The stories about the content of the manuscripts are told in the catalogue (EMTS volume 13). But this volume recounts stories about the book culture that produced the manuscripts. One study provides a general introduction to Ethiopian Christian codicology and the scribal practices in evidence in the collection. Another focuses on the particular story of scribal errors and corrections. And a final study provides an art-historical account of all of the illuminations contained in the collection--even down to the crude drawings in pencil that adorn some pages. Books contain texts. But they are witnesses, first and foremost, to a particular people, at a particular place, at a particular moment in time, who had a particular way of making and using their books. The content of their books tells us about the community's past, about the authoritative texts from antiquity which they valued. But their book culture tells us about their present, about the history of the reception of those works among these people in order to articulate in the present their identity and ethos.

About the Author :
Steve Delamarter is Professor of Hebrew Bible at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, director of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project, and founding chair of the section on Ethiopic Bible and Literature at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Marilyn Heldman is a freelance scholar and art historian who has edited several works on Ethiopic manuscripts, spoken at numerous conferences related to Ethiopian art, and served as curator for several exhibits of Ethiopic manuscripts. Jeremy Brown has served as director of digital imaging at the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project and is currently in the PhD program in Semitics at Catholic University of America. Sara Vulgan completed a master's degree in theological studies at George Fox Evangelical Seminary and currently works as an instructional technologist at a law firm in Portland, OR.

Review :
""The series is to be welcomed, and the descriptions are thorough and informative, providing an excellent resource for researchers."" --David L. Appleyard, Professor of the Languages of the Horn of Africa emeritus, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK ""The catalogue and the companion volume mark an important step towards the establishment of a better standard in Ethiopic codicology, where quantitative evaluation comes to play a more central role."" --Alessandro Bausi, Professor of Ethiopian Studies and Director of the Hiob Ludolf Center for Ethiopian Studies, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany