- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Collection Overview
- Creator:
- Princeton University. Library. Special Collections
- Collector:
- Princeton University. Library. Special Collections
- Title:
- Princeton Ethiopic Manuscripts
- Repository:
- Manuscripts Division
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/xd07gs74n
- Dates:
- 1600s-1900s
- Size:
- 95 items
- Language:
- Geez Amharic
Abstract
An open collection of bound Ethiopic manuscripts with texts in Ge'ez and occasionally in Amharic.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Description:
This is an open collection of Ethiopic codices (bound manuscripts), which are chiefly written in Ge'ez (sometimes called Ethiopic), the scholarly and liturgical Afroasiatic language of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, as well as five related items. Many of the Ge'ez manuscripts have varia or marginalia in Amharic; two texts are mostly Amharic. Included among the Ethiopic manuscripts are 16 Psalters, 7 Miracles of Mary , 6 Images , 4 prayer books, 3 Homilies of Michael , 3 Synaxariums , 2 Anaphoras of Mary , 2 antiphonaries, 2 Missals , 1 Gospel of John , and 1 collection of divination texts. Worthy of special note are the variant Miracles of Mary and a rare Cycle of the Kings .
Most of the manuscripts in this collection date from the nineteenth and twentieth century. But at least ten are probably from the eighteenth century, and at least one (Miracles of Mary) is probably from the seventeenth. Precise dating of Ethiopic manuscripts remains difficult. Texts are written in black and red ink on parchment; one manuscript is paper. The manuscripts are bound in a traditional style reminiscent of early Coptic Christian codices in Roman and Byzantine Egypt, for which reason they are sometimes characterized as "Coptic." The quires of the manuscripts are sewn with unsupported link-stitch and then laced into rough-hewn wooden boards, sometimes covered in leather, often blind-tooled. A number of manuscripts are in leather carrying cases, which allowed them to be worn over the shoulder or hung up on pegs in walls.
- Arrangement
Arranged in manuscript number order, by accession. Numbers 29 and 67-71 are unassigned.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
These manuscripts were acquired individually by gift or purchase. Since the 1990s, Bruce C. Willsie (Princeton Class of 1986) has donated the following manuscripts: nos. 37, 40-53, 58-64, and 72-85. Manuscripts nos. 86-103 were donated by Lowell Heskin in 2016 (MASC 2016-54).
- Sponsorship:
This cataloging project was made possible through generous support from the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project, Princeton University.
- Processing Information
The present finding aid was prepared in June-July 2009 by Kesis Melaku Terefe , Virgin Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in Los Angeles, with assistance of Prof. Wendy Laura Belcher , Department of Comparative Literature and Center for African American Studies, Princeton University. This cataloging project was made possible through generous support from the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project, Princeton University.
In 2022, restrictions on manuscripts No. 54, 57, and 65 were lifted as part of a restrictions review project.
In 2022, manuscripts nos. 86-95 were added to the collection.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
- Credit this material:
Princeton Ethiopic Manuscripts; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/xd07gs74n
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
Find More
- Bibliography
Ephraim Isaac, "Princeton Collection of Ethiopic Manuscripts," Princeton University Library Chronicle 42:1 (Autumn 1980), pp. 33-52. Richard Pankhurst, "Secular Themes in Ethiopian Ecclesiastical Manuscripts: V.: A Catalogue of Illustrations of Historical and Ethnographic Interest in Princeton University Library and Art Gallery," Journal of Ethiopian Studies 22 (November 1989), pp. 31-64. Don C. Skemer, "Princeton's Ethiopic Manuscript Collections at 100," Princeton University Library Chronicle 71:3 (Spring 2010), pp. 461-466.
- Subject Terms:
- Manuscripts, Ethiopic.
Psalters - -Ethiopia.