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Exhibiting the Maqdala Manuscripts: African Scribes: Manuscript Culture of Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Eyob Derillo
Eyob Derillo*
Affiliation:
Asian and African Studies Department, The British Library, UK
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Extract

The major purpose of this article is to document the exhibition “African Scribes: Manuscript Culture of Ethiopia” (hereafter “African Scribes”), which opened on 6 February 2018 in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures of the British Library Gallery in London.

Items in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures of the British Library Gallery range from the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus to John Lennon's letters. The display tells the I literary history of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Out of the 240 items on permanent display, there are only two items from Ethiopia representing Africa.

The main objectives of the “African Scribes” exhibition were to pay tribute to unknown Ethiopian scribes and artists and also, to a certain extent, to direct attention to some diverse and significant items in the British Library collection that had never been on display before. The display explored the art, binding and calligraphy of manuscripts of Ethiopia.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 135: Special Issue: Archives and Collections for/in Ethiopian Studies , 2019 , pp. 102 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2019

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References

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