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Articles, Book Chapters, and Research Notes by Jacopo Gnisci
Manuscript Treasures from Afro-Eurasia: Scribes, Patrons, Collectors, and Readers, 2025
The monastery of Dabra Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos owns a richly illuminated gospel book that was commissione... more The monastery of Dabra Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos owns a richly illuminated gospel book that was commissioned by its founding abbot ʾIyasus Moʾa who appears in a prefatory portrait at the very front of the volume. The image is accompanied by a caption which identifies the figure as a 'saint'. Because it uncharacteristic for the Christian Ethiopian tradition to identify a living individual in such a way, scholars have debated whether this portrait was added to the manuscript after ʾIyasus Moʾa's death. The present contribution revisits this question to show that the image and the caption were part of the abbot's commission. The article then goes onto to demonstrate that the miniature deliberately blurred the distinction between ʾIyasus Moʾa and the other saintly figures in the volume and argues that this was done intentionally to legitimise his position as one of the most powerful individuals of his time.
A Handlist of the Manuscripts in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Volume One: The Gǝ’ǝz and Amharic Materials of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition, 2025
Northeast African Studies,, 2023
A Multidisciplinary Perspective on an Enigmatic Ethiopian Processional Cross at the Bargello Nati... more A Multidisciplinary Perspective on an Enigmatic Ethiopian
Processional Cross at the Bargello National Museum, Florence
Rassegna di Studie Etiopici, 2024
The present issue is the 8 th volume of the "3 a Serie" (the volume 4 th of the "Nuova Serie" was... more The present issue is the 8 th volume of the "3 a Serie" (the volume 4 th of the "Nuova Serie" was published in 2012) and it represents the 55 th volume since the establishment of the journal. -The Università di Napoli L'Orientale participates in the publication of the «Rassegna di Studi Etiopici» by entrusting its care to its Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo.
Karlsson, Jonas, Jacopo Gnisci, and Sophia Dege-Müller. ‘A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in British Public Collections’. Aethiopica 26 (forthcoming)., 2023
Images of manuscripts in the Bodleian Libraries, including the one published as Fig. , were obtai... more Images of manuscripts in the Bodleian Libraries, including the one published as Fig. , were obtained through the support of the ERC project Monumental Art of the Christian and Early Islamic East: Cultural Identities and Classical Heritage.
Gnisci, Jacopo, and Alessandro Bausi. ‘“Medieval” Ethiopia’. In The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, edited by Thomas Spear. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.ORE_AFH-01082.R1., 2024
Ethiopia is located in the northern Horn of Africa. As a choronym or place name in modern scholar... more Ethiopia is located in the northern Horn of Africa. As a choronym or place name in modern scholarship, Ethiopia has been used to designate several past and present entities with different cultural, ethnic, and territorial configurations. Here, the term is used to refer to a predominantly Christian state in the northern Horn of Africa that
was ruled by a Christian sovereign. Terms such as medieval and Middle Ages have been used and continue to appear in historical writing about Ethiopia’s past, but it is important to bear in mind that such terms were used by early modern historiography to establish a time frame for studying European history. Their relevance to non-European contexts is questionable, but they may have value as a means to help situate the study of Ethiopia within the broader field of global history. There are no universally accepted criteria or terms for the periodization of Ethiopian history. However, most works focusing on the centuries between c. 500 and 1500 CE, dates that do not neatly align with major turning points in Ethiopian history, have adopted periodizations that are based on episodes of dynastic succession.
Gnisci, Jacopo. ‘Ethiopia and Byzantium’. In Africa and Byzantium, edited by Andrea Achi, 207–14, 306–7. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023., 2023
T here are many ways to write about Ethiopia and Byzantium, from culling evidence about the mater... more T here are many ways to write about Ethiopia and Byzantium, from culling evidence about the material, religious, and political exchanges between the two empires, to critically comparing the methods and approaches adopted by the scholars working on them. To start, it is worth noting that the very terms "Ethiopia" and "Byzantium" designate two complex, permeable, and ever-evolving political entities that defy overarching narratives. 1 Moreover, while both choronyms are conventionally used in modern historiography to refer to defunct empires, the term "Ethiopia" is also used to refer to a contemporary sovereign state that, together with modern-day Eritrea, controls a large portion of the territories that formed the heartland of the Ethiopian Empire during the "Middle Ages." 2 And while the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in 1453, the last Ethiopian monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie, exerted political power until his deposition in 1974. In other words, the fall of the Ethiopian Empire is a far more recent development than the end of the Byzantine Empire. Accordingly, historical narratives about the former occupy a central place in political discourse in today's Ethiopia and in the independent neighboring state of Eritrea, while the legacy of Byzantium, contested as it too may be, echoes more faintly through the political life of its former territories. 3 The relationship between Ethiopia and Byzantium dates back to late antiquity. Even before the founding of Constantinople, Ethiopia maintained strong commercial ties with the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea port of Adulis and its inland capital, Aksum, which facilitated a flow of foodstuffs, raw materials, and finished artifacts across these regions (see "The Aksumite Empire of East Africa" in this volume). 4 Scholarship has often presented Aksum as a state whose economy relied heavily on the export of natural resources in exchange for manufactured goods from the Roman Empire. This representation is, to an extent, fictionalized, rooted not in hard evidence but in Eurocentric colonial narratives that sought to characterize Africa as a "primitive" continent devoid of the degree of "civilization" necessary for manufacturing and creating great works of art and architecture, such as the Ife heads or the Great Zimbabwe enclosures. 5 Archaeological investigations around Aksum in recent decades have challenged this picture by unveiling evidence that media such as metal, glass, and ivory were worked locally. 6 While it is clear that Aksum also exported unfinished goods, such as gold and incense, these discoveries invite us to review without prejudice long-held assumptions about the sites of production of objects found in circum-Mediterranean contexts, such as those fifth-and sixth-century carved ivories frequently attributed to centers like Alexandria (see "Boxes and Bronzes from Late Antique Nubia" in this volume). 7
Gnisci, Jacopo and qasis Abate Gobena. ‘Ethiopian Crosses: Art in Motion’. In Africa and Byzantium, edited by Andrea Achi, 224–32. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023., 2023
Staging the Ruler’s Body in Medieval Cultures: A Comparative Perspective, 2023
This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens wer... more This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens were involved in the premodern societies of Europe, Asia, and Africa, relying on a methodology that aims to overcoming the traditional boundaries between material studies, art history, political theory, and Repräsentationsgeschichte. More specifically, it investigates the multiple ways in which the ruler’s physical appearance was apprehended and invested with visual, metaphorical, and emotional associations, as well as the dynamics whereby such mise-en-scène devices either were inspired by or worked as sources of inspiration for textual and pictorial representations of royalty. The outcome is a multifaced analysis of the multiple, imaginative, and terribly ambiguous ways in which, in past societies, the notion of a God-driven, eternal, and transpersonal royal power came to be associated with the material bodies of kings and queens, and of the impressive efforts made, in different cultures, to elude the conundrum of the latter’s weakness, transitoriness, and individual distinctiveness.
The Art Bulletin, 2020
Determining what the psalter illustrations of medieval Ethiopia—especially the David and Solomon ... more Determining what the psalter illustrations of medieval Ethiopia—especially the David and Solomon portraits in the Juel-Jensen Psalter—have in common with other traditions helps to single out what makes them unique and shows that they were structured around Ethiopian imperial ideology, which considered the country’s emperors as descendants of these biblical figures. The distinctly Ethiopian character of these images is foregrounded to show that the work of Ethiopian artists can be appreciated only if one considers their communicative intentions and sociocultural backgrounds.
Dege-Müller, Sophia, Jacopo Gnisci, and Vitagrazia Pisani. ‘A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in German Public Collections’. Aethiopica 25 (2022): 60–98, 2022
MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthio... more MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthiopie du XI e au XIII e siècle
Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts, 2021
Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts. Edited by: Joseph Sal... more Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts.
Edited by: Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing.
The presence of gold, silver, and other metals is a hallmark of decorated manuscripts, the very characteristic that makes them “illuminated.” Medieval artists often used metal pigment and leaf to depict metal objects both real and imagined, such as chalices, crosses, tableware, and even idols; the luminosity of these representations contrasted pointedly with the surrounding paints, enriching the page and dazzling the viewer. To elucidate this key artistic tradition, this volume represents the first in-depth scholarly assessment of the depiction of precious-metal objects in manuscripts and the media used to conjure them. From Paris to the Abbasid caliphate, and from Ethiopia to Bruges, the case studies gathered here forge novel approaches to the materiality and pictoriality of illumination. In exploring the semiotic, material, iconographic, and technical dimensions of these manuscripts, the authors reveal the canny ways in which painters generated metallic presence on the page. Illuminating Metalwork is a landmark contribution to the study of the medieval book and its visual and embodied reception, and is poised to be a staple of research in art history and manuscript studies, accessible to undergraduates and specialists alike.
Gods’ Collections, 2023
FigurelExample of 'eq à bet (Northen Ethiopia).Photo Vitagrazia Pisani (2014). The building visib... more FigurelExample of 'eq à bet (Northen Ethiopia).Photo Vitagrazia Pisani (2014). The building visible in this picture (Fig. l) is an eqà bet , that is a storeroom or " treasure house, " of a Tewahedo Orthodox church in northern Ethiopia , which we will not identify for security reasons. Christian Orthodox Churches in thè modern-day States of Ethiopia and Eritrea have functioned for centuries, and in some cases for over a millennium , as some of thè region ' s main repositories of written and material culture. While some sacred artefacts, such as thè aitar tablet (tàbot) are permanently housed in thè church, most are kept in a nearby structure known in Amharic as eqa bet (d ?-. see Tu^a * : ' in Kane 1990, 1183a; thè term eqà bet is also used to indicate a separate hut of a nobleman ' s house where his valuable clothes and utensils were kept; cf. Chernetsov 2005,345a). The 'eqa bet is similar to a sacristy and is generally located in a building that is separate from or annexed to thè church, though in some churches, especially before thè seventeenth century, thè side rooms may also serve as a facility for storing materials (cf. Bausi 2014, 51 ; cf. also Pankhurst 2014 , 252a). When detached from thè church, thè eqà bet may consist of a solid round or rectangular stone tower , or it may be a simple round or rectangular hut , which, being built with more perishable materials than those used for thè church , requires frequent maintenance. Some churches , especially thè largest ones , may have more than one storeroom
Gnisci, Jacopo, and César Merchán-Hamann. ‘Ethiopic Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries’. The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Magazine, 2023, 2023
is a recurring theme in anthropology. Sir James Frazer started it in 'The Golden Bough', where th... more is a recurring theme in anthropology. Sir James Frazer started it in 'The Golden Bough', where the divine king, the rex Nemorensis of the Diana cult recorded in classical sources, who was invariably killed by his successor, was central to his thesis. Following Frazer's lead, anthropologists looked for evidence of contemporary divine kings and found the Shilluk people in what is now South Sudan. Here the king (Reth) is considered divine and was often killed by his successors: a 1911 photograph of the Reth's enclosure by Charles Seligman, who first described the Shilluk kingship, is in the PRM collection. All this came to mind watching the coronation earlier this summer. Of course, we do not consider our kings to be divine (and we very rarely kill them), but the ritual in Westminster Abbey was, nonetheless, a mix of secular and sacred. How did this come about? Sovereigns in their absolute form are god-like in the sense that they can act without constraint or censure. Therefore, in their origins, were kings modelled on Gods, or might it be that Gods were modelled upon kings? The example of the Shilluk hints at the former: the concept of divine kings, then divinely-endorsed kings, along with the elaborate rituals surrounding them, led anthropologist A.M. Hocart to suggest that rituals were the origins of 'government'. He considered the obligations of ritual observance to such kings to be the first instances of individuals being compelled to do things in a kind of polity. Without going into details, the ethnographic record has been interpreted by many as broadly supporting this view. If so, it seems that kingship and perhaps governance itself is something born of the metaphysical world of religious belief and ushered into the physical world for the practical purposes of statehood. No surprise then, the mix of sacred and secular in Westminster Abbey. Once loosed in this way kings (or queens) might be hard to contain, but for constant fear of murderous successors, or endless rituals to observe. Our monarch too is constrained, though more by the legal processes which began at Runnymede in 1215. Some may be sceptical of rituals or the sacred, of kings or government for that matter, but they are tightly intertwined and run deep in all cultures including our own.
CaNaMEI Report 3, 2022
Questo terzo resoconto delle attività di CaNaMEI ha per oggetto un manufatto di notevole valore c... more Questo terzo resoconto delle attività di CaNaMEI ha per oggetto un manufatto di notevole valore codicologico, filologico e storico-artistico, un codice (mäṣḥaf) della cui esistenza si è avuta notizia per la prima volta solo nell'estate del 2019. Agl'inizi di quell'anno l'Archivio Storico della Diocesi di Savona-Noli ha acquisito l'oggetto in questione grazie a una donazione da parte di privati, e su iniziativa della Dr.ssa Massimiliana Bugli, responsabile delle collezioni di quella istituzione, chi scrive fu contattato per un parere conoscitivo. Il primo esame dischiuse agli occhi dello studioso un codice in pessime condizioni di conservazione, ma di straordinario pregio, dalle ragguardevoli dimensioni (480 x 377 x 150 mm; 211 carte) e provvisto di un considerevole apparato illustrativo. Il suo contenuto testuale è costituito dalla raccolta agiografica convenzionalmente denominata Atti dei martiri (ovvero in gǝʿǝz Gädlä sämaʿtat), il più antico corpus di 'vite' di martiri e santi venerati dalle Chiese d'Eritrea e d'Etiopia, la cui esistenza è certamente documentata almeno dalla fine del XIII secolo. Per il suo ampio formato il manoscritto appartiene alla tipologia dei codici 'di lusso', che potrebbe implicare una committenza aristocratica e probabilmente l'attività di un ignoto centro monastico di grande rilievo, mentre la scrittura si colloca approssimativamente nel periodo compreso tra la fine del XV e gl'inizi del XVI secolo. Le pagine coincidenti con l'incipit di alcuni dei testi agiografici sono inquadrate da raffinate cornici policrome (ḥaräg), mentre altre immagini di carattere figurativo si trovano alla fine di singole unità testuali. Di questo, e di molti altri elementi emersi dallo studio scientifico dell'oggetto, diranno le pagine seguenti, firmate da Gioia Bottari, Jacopo Gnisci e Massimo Villa, che compongono il team di CaNaMEI. Per una fortunata coincidenza, il ritorno alla luce del pregiato manoscritto ha coinciso con la prima fase delle attività del nostro progetto, per cui è risultato naturale, e quasi doveroso, proporre all'Archivio Storico della Diocesi di Savona-Noli un complesso di interventi finalizzati allo studio e al recupero del manufatto. Quando per la prima volta si è potuto analizzarlo e sottoporlo a immediata digitalizzazione, in accordo con le linee operative di CaNaMEI, due elementi hanno colpito più degli altri: la tipologia libraria e il precario stato di conservazione. I codici etiopici di così ampio formato, frutto di un'intenzionale operazione celebrativa, più spesso in rapporto con un'autorità civile o ecclesiastica che l'ha promossa, non sono molti, e ogni volta che se ne riscopre un esempio si pone un problema di inquadramento storico. I danni arrecati dalla prolungata esposizione ad agenti esterni, che hanno particolarmente deteriorato tutta la porzione inferiore dell'imponente mole libraria, hanno richiesto una serie di delicati interventi e un progetto complessivo di restauro, con il coinvolgimento di vari soggetti istituzionali, che piace qui preliminarmente menzionare. In primo luogo, il recupero conservativo del manufatto, eseguito nel semestre maggio-novembre 2021 dalla Dr.ssa Gioia Bottari, è stato reso possibile da uno specifico finanziamento nel quadro del progetto MIUR «Studi e Ricerche sulle culture dell'Asia e dell'Africa: tradizione e continuità, rivitalizzazione e divulgazione», diretto dal Prof. Adriano Rossi, e condotto dalla mia Università, dall'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino" (IPOCAN), presieduto dal Prof. Claudio Lo Jacono, e da ISMEO -Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, presieduta dallo stesso Prof. Rossi. Con il loro sostegno concreto all'operazione le tre istituzioni hanno una volta di più manifestato il loro interesse strategico verso il progetto CaNaMEI, che nello scorso triennio 2019-2021 ha compiuto qualche passo in avanti proprio grazie alla cooperazione con IPOCAN e ISMEO. Conseguentemente, questo Report 3 non potrebbe aprirsi senza l'espressione sincera della nostra riconoscenza verso i Proff. Lo Jacono e Rossi, la cui attenzione per le finalità del nostro progetto non è senza rapporto con la loro esperienza accademica presso l'Università di Napoli L'Orientale, in cui entrambi a lungo sono stati punti di riferimento per generazioni di studenti. Un secondo ringraziamento meritano quanti dirigono e coordinano le attività culturali della Diocesi di Savona-Noli, e in particolare il suo Archivio Storico, il Dr. Ugo Folco, la Dr.ssa Enrica Gasco e la Dr.ssa Massimiliana Bugli, che hanno mostrato costante sensibilità ed empatica attenzione verso la proposta di studio e recupero del manoscritto. Né si può tacere della collaborazione assicurata dalla Soprintendenza archivistica e bibliografica della Liguria, nella persona della Dr.ssa Francesca Mambrini, funzionario archivista, cui siamo grati per aver contribuito non poco al perfezionamento delle pratiche necessarie ad autorizzare i vari interventi sul codice savonese. Del recupero materiale, che ha portato anche a significative acquisizioni di conoscenza, e dell'importanza storica del manufatto sarà detto nelle pagine successive, ma giova ricordare che una prima informazione pubblica è già stata data lo scorso 2 dicembre 2021 in occasione di una giornata di studi organizzata in collaborazione con IPOCAN, con ISMEO e con la Società Geografica Italiana, presieduta dal Prof. Claudio Cerreti, che con amabilità ha messo a disposizione la storica sede romana di Palazzetto Mattei in Villa Celimontana. In tale occasione sono state illustrate e commentate da vari punti di vista le caratteristiche peculiari del codice, che per la prima volta è stato anche esposto al pubblico dopo il restauro, permettendo un apprezzamento visivo dei risultati dell'intervento. Graditissimo, quindi, è dare qui espressione alla riconoscenza che proviamo nei confronti della Dr.ssa Patrizia Pampana, responsabile della biblioteca e degli archivi della Società Geografica, per aver profuso competenze ed esperienze, nonché grande energia organizzativa, rendendo possibile la realizzazione di quell'evento. La vicenda relativa al codice savonese del Gädlä sämaʿtat non solo costituisce un passaggio emblematico del modus operandi di CaNaMEI, ma rende anche l'idea di quale sia la caratteristica peculiare dei fondi italiani di manoscritti etiopici, ovvero la loro dispersione all'interno di una quantità di istituzioni culturali, archivi e biblioteche di carattere pubblico e privato. Ne discende che le collezioni sono normalmente di piccola e media consistenza numerica, frutto di donazioni da parte di amministratori e militari rientrati in Italia con cimeli e souvenirs del loro soggiorno in colonia. Il risultato è che essi sono prevalentemente semisconosciuti, e a volte il loro valore intrinseco è ignoto agli stessi responsabili delle istituzioni che li conservano. Alcune di queste collezioni hanno attirato l'attenzione di singoli studiosi, che hanno prodotto cataloghi sempre di alto profilo scientifico, ma ispirati a metodologie di descrizione ogni volta diverse, prive di criteri unificanti. Inoltre, l'attenzione dei catalogatori, di norma filologi, è andata prevalentemente al contenuto testuale del manoscritto, trascurandone aspetti formali e caratteristiche morfologiche, e talora ignorando l'utilità delle nuove frontiere della ricerca nell'ambito delle 'scienze del libro manoscritto'. Ci riferiamo, in particolare, allo studio dell'apparato illustrativo e all'analisi dei costituenti materiali del manufatto, organici e inorganici, in grado di fornire una messe di dati e di conoscenze talora inaspettata. Né va dimenticato un altro aspetto della ricerca, che resta ancora quasi totalmente inesplorato, costituito dalla ricostruzione dei percorsi storici e dei passaggi cruciali che hanno segnato la sorte attuale di questi oggetti di produzione etiopica. Risalendo pazientemente le acque, talora agitate, delle vicende che hanno portato centinaia di manoscritti gǝʿǝz dai luoghi in cui essi sono * Si noti che, coerentemente con l'uso prevalente nelle rispettive discipline, nella descrizione testuale e iconografica è adottato il termine "foglio" (f./ff.), nella sezione relativa agli aspetti materiali e delle operazioni di restauro è utilizzato il termine "carta" (c./cc.).
Ethiopic manuscripts in the Mingana Collection: A digital visit to Birmingham
Navigating a Global Middle Ages With Illuminated Manuscripts, 2022
CaNaMEI Report 2, 2021
stati trasferiti in un laboratorio attrezzato per la loro digitalizzazione e analisi, nonché per ... more stati trasferiti in un laboratorio attrezzato per la loro digitalizzazione e analisi, nonché per un primo intervento conservativo. E a tal proposito occorre ricordare come tutte queste attività siano state rese possibili dal concorso nel progetto di due enti romani, ovvero l'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino" (IPOCAN) e ISMEO-Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, che dal 2019 sostengono finanziariamente il progetto incardinato presso il Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo dell'Università di Napoli "L'Orientale", diretto da Andrea Manzo. L'attuazione dell'indagine scientifica ha perfettamente rispettato e riprodotto il modello elaborato in occasione dell'intervento sul Tetraevangelo di Grosseto e le competenze necessarie sono state messe a disposizione dagli stessi membri del team di CaNaMEI che hanno dato prova di sé nella precedente occasione: le approfondite descrizioni testuali sono state realizzate dal Dr. Massimo Villa, ricercatore dell'Orientale, le indagini codicologiche e lo studio dei materiali sono stati condotti dalla Dr.ssa Gioia Bottari, dottoranda dell'Orientale, e lo studio di decorazioni e apparati visuali è stato assicurato dal Dr. Jacopo Gnisci, Lecturer in the Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South, University College London. Ovviamente, la quantità di elementi che sono emersi dallo studio degli otto manufatti, e che è stato necessario organizzare e presentare in questa sede, è molto maggiore rispetto a quella del Report 1, in cui veniva considerato un solo codice, per quanto antico e pregiato. Dunque, il lettore potrà finalmente apprezzare in maniera completa la griglia dei dati e dei concetti alla quale da qui in avanti CaNaMEI intende attenersi. La mole di conoscenze, relative al trattamento e allo stato dei materiali, alla fattura dei manoscritti e al loro apprezzamento filologico e artistico, e le stesse immagini digitalizzate sono ora parte di una banca dati in via di pubblicazione online. E proprio questo resta un aspetto cruciale del progetto, ovvero la creazione di quella 'biblioteca etiopica virtuale' cui CaNaMEI ha mirato fin dall'inizio. D'intesa con tutti i soggetti istituzionali coinvolti, si tratterà di rendere disponibili a distanza i risultati delle indagini che saranno via via svolte, in modo che studiosi di ogni parte del mondo, in particolare d'Eritrea e d'Etiopia, possano sfruttare a pieno le novità che ne deriveranno. L'agenda dei nostri prossimi impegni è già densa di appuntamenti, che riguardano un buon numero di archivi e biblioteche d'Italia, in cui sono conservati manoscritti etiopici e con cui sono già stati presi i necessari accordi preliminari. Nei prossimi mesi, lo studio si estenderà a fondi diocesani come quelli di Savona e Vicenza, e a raccolte di istituzioni pubbliche romane come la Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale e la Società Geografica Italiana. Ne deriverà un ulteriore arricchimento e perfezionamento delle conoscenze, che confluirà anche in una specifica sede editoriale, ovvero una collana di cataloghi dedicati a CaNaMEI, quale ulteriore espressione del contributo che l'etiopistica partenopea intende fornire alla promozione e alla conservazione del patrimonio filologico-letterario nazionale italiano. Per aver favorito la realizzazione di questa impresa scientifica, occorre ringraziare in primo luogo Giuseppa Zanasi, per molti anni docente di letteratura tedesca presso il nostro Ateneo, che amichevolmente ha posto in essere tutte le condizioni perché si arrivasse a questo logico punto di arrivo. Con lei desidero ringraziare Giorgio Banti, africanista e anch'egli a lungo professore dell'Orientale, che nel 2013 ha suggerito alla prof.ssa Zanasi il mio nome come specialista di filologia etiopica. A Claudio Lo Jacono, Presidente dell'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino", e ad Adriano Rossi, Presidente di ISMEO-Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, responsabile scientifico del progetto MIUR «Studi e Ricerche sulle culture dell'Asia e dell'Africa: tradizione e continuità, rivitalizzazione e divulgazione», va il nostro ringraziamento per aver fin dall'inizio riconosciuto in CaNaMEI un tassello significativo dei programmi scientifici dei rispettivi enti di ricerca.
British Museum Blog, 2020
A. Bausi, B. Reudenbach and H. Wimmer (eds.), Canones: The Art of Harmony The Canon Tables of the Four Gospels, 2020
This study offers the first comprehensive review of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was... more This study offers the first comprehensive review of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was an indispensable feature in illustrated Ethiopic Gospel books, appearing systematically as an explicit to the Eusebianapparatus in manuscripts from the Christian Aksumite tothe early Solomonic Period. While the Ethiopic version of Eusebius’s Letter to Carpianus and the canon tables haveattracted considerable scholarly interest, the Ethiopian iconography of the Tempietto has not yet received theattention it deserves. By analysing the iconography of theTempietto in Ethiopic gospel books this work shows how it is possible to offer a partial reconstruction of the practices of illuminators in Ethiopia in the century following the rise of the Solomonic dynasty, providing importantinsights into the elusive question of the development ofmanuscript illumination in Ethiopia.
Manuscript Treasures from Afro-Eurasia: Scribes, Patrons, Collectors, and Readers, 2025
The monastery of Dabra Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos owns a richly illuminated gospel book that was commissione... more The monastery of Dabra Ḥayq ʾƎsṭifānos owns a richly illuminated gospel book that was commissioned by its founding abbot ʾIyasus Moʾa who appears in a prefatory portrait at the very front of the volume. The image is accompanied by a caption which identifies the figure as a 'saint'. Because it uncharacteristic for the Christian Ethiopian tradition to identify a living individual in such a way, scholars have debated whether this portrait was added to the manuscript after ʾIyasus Moʾa's death. The present contribution revisits this question to show that the image and the caption were part of the abbot's commission. The article then goes onto to demonstrate that the miniature deliberately blurred the distinction between ʾIyasus Moʾa and the other saintly figures in the volume and argues that this was done intentionally to legitimise his position as one of the most powerful individuals of his time.
A Handlist of the Manuscripts in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Volume One: The Gǝ’ǝz and Amharic Materials of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition, 2025
Northeast African Studies,, 2023
A Multidisciplinary Perspective on an Enigmatic Ethiopian Processional Cross at the Bargello Nati... more A Multidisciplinary Perspective on an Enigmatic Ethiopian
Processional Cross at the Bargello National Museum, Florence
Rassegna di Studie Etiopici, 2024
The present issue is the 8 th volume of the "3 a Serie" (the volume 4 th of the "Nuova Serie" was... more The present issue is the 8 th volume of the "3 a Serie" (the volume 4 th of the "Nuova Serie" was published in 2012) and it represents the 55 th volume since the establishment of the journal. -The Università di Napoli L'Orientale participates in the publication of the «Rassegna di Studi Etiopici» by entrusting its care to its Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo.
Karlsson, Jonas, Jacopo Gnisci, and Sophia Dege-Müller. ‘A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in British Public Collections’. Aethiopica 26 (forthcoming)., 2023
Images of manuscripts in the Bodleian Libraries, including the one published as Fig. , were obtai... more Images of manuscripts in the Bodleian Libraries, including the one published as Fig. , were obtained through the support of the ERC project Monumental Art of the Christian and Early Islamic East: Cultural Identities and Classical Heritage.
Gnisci, Jacopo, and Alessandro Bausi. ‘“Medieval” Ethiopia’. In The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, edited by Thomas Spear. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.ORE_AFH-01082.R1., 2024
Ethiopia is located in the northern Horn of Africa. As a choronym or place name in modern scholar... more Ethiopia is located in the northern Horn of Africa. As a choronym or place name in modern scholarship, Ethiopia has been used to designate several past and present entities with different cultural, ethnic, and territorial configurations. Here, the term is used to refer to a predominantly Christian state in the northern Horn of Africa that
was ruled by a Christian sovereign. Terms such as medieval and Middle Ages have been used and continue to appear in historical writing about Ethiopia’s past, but it is important to bear in mind that such terms were used by early modern historiography to establish a time frame for studying European history. Their relevance to non-European contexts is questionable, but they may have value as a means to help situate the study of Ethiopia within the broader field of global history. There are no universally accepted criteria or terms for the periodization of Ethiopian history. However, most works focusing on the centuries between c. 500 and 1500 CE, dates that do not neatly align with major turning points in Ethiopian history, have adopted periodizations that are based on episodes of dynastic succession.
Gnisci, Jacopo. ‘Ethiopia and Byzantium’. In Africa and Byzantium, edited by Andrea Achi, 207–14, 306–7. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023., 2023
T here are many ways to write about Ethiopia and Byzantium, from culling evidence about the mater... more T here are many ways to write about Ethiopia and Byzantium, from culling evidence about the material, religious, and political exchanges between the two empires, to critically comparing the methods and approaches adopted by the scholars working on them. To start, it is worth noting that the very terms "Ethiopia" and "Byzantium" designate two complex, permeable, and ever-evolving political entities that defy overarching narratives. 1 Moreover, while both choronyms are conventionally used in modern historiography to refer to defunct empires, the term "Ethiopia" is also used to refer to a contemporary sovereign state that, together with modern-day Eritrea, controls a large portion of the territories that formed the heartland of the Ethiopian Empire during the "Middle Ages." 2 And while the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died in 1453, the last Ethiopian monarch, Emperor Haile Selassie, exerted political power until his deposition in 1974. In other words, the fall of the Ethiopian Empire is a far more recent development than the end of the Byzantine Empire. Accordingly, historical narratives about the former occupy a central place in political discourse in today's Ethiopia and in the independent neighboring state of Eritrea, while the legacy of Byzantium, contested as it too may be, echoes more faintly through the political life of its former territories. 3 The relationship between Ethiopia and Byzantium dates back to late antiquity. Even before the founding of Constantinople, Ethiopia maintained strong commercial ties with the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea port of Adulis and its inland capital, Aksum, which facilitated a flow of foodstuffs, raw materials, and finished artifacts across these regions (see "The Aksumite Empire of East Africa" in this volume). 4 Scholarship has often presented Aksum as a state whose economy relied heavily on the export of natural resources in exchange for manufactured goods from the Roman Empire. This representation is, to an extent, fictionalized, rooted not in hard evidence but in Eurocentric colonial narratives that sought to characterize Africa as a "primitive" continent devoid of the degree of "civilization" necessary for manufacturing and creating great works of art and architecture, such as the Ife heads or the Great Zimbabwe enclosures. 5 Archaeological investigations around Aksum in recent decades have challenged this picture by unveiling evidence that media such as metal, glass, and ivory were worked locally. 6 While it is clear that Aksum also exported unfinished goods, such as gold and incense, these discoveries invite us to review without prejudice long-held assumptions about the sites of production of objects found in circum-Mediterranean contexts, such as those fifth-and sixth-century carved ivories frequently attributed to centers like Alexandria (see "Boxes and Bronzes from Late Antique Nubia" in this volume). 7
Gnisci, Jacopo and qasis Abate Gobena. ‘Ethiopian Crosses: Art in Motion’. In Africa and Byzantium, edited by Andrea Achi, 224–32. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023., 2023
Staging the Ruler’s Body in Medieval Cultures: A Comparative Perspective, 2023
This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens wer... more This book explores the viewing and sensorial contexts in which the bodies of kings and queens were involved in the premodern societies of Europe, Asia, and Africa, relying on a methodology that aims to overcoming the traditional boundaries between material studies, art history, political theory, and Repräsentationsgeschichte. More specifically, it investigates the multiple ways in which the ruler’s physical appearance was apprehended and invested with visual, metaphorical, and emotional associations, as well as the dynamics whereby such mise-en-scène devices either were inspired by or worked as sources of inspiration for textual and pictorial representations of royalty. The outcome is a multifaced analysis of the multiple, imaginative, and terribly ambiguous ways in which, in past societies, the notion of a God-driven, eternal, and transpersonal royal power came to be associated with the material bodies of kings and queens, and of the impressive efforts made, in different cultures, to elude the conundrum of the latter’s weakness, transitoriness, and individual distinctiveness.
The Art Bulletin, 2020
Determining what the psalter illustrations of medieval Ethiopia—especially the David and Solomon ... more Determining what the psalter illustrations of medieval Ethiopia—especially the David and Solomon portraits in the Juel-Jensen Psalter—have in common with other traditions helps to single out what makes them unique and shows that they were structured around Ethiopian imperial ideology, which considered the country’s emperors as descendants of these biblical figures. The distinctly Ethiopian character of these images is foregrounded to show that the work of Ethiopian artists can be appreciated only if one considers their communicative intentions and sociocultural backgrounds.
Dege-Müller, Sophia, Jacopo Gnisci, and Vitagrazia Pisani. ‘A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in German Public Collections’. Aethiopica 25 (2022): 60–98, 2022
MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthio... more MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthiopie du XI e au XIII e siècle
Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts, 2021
Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts. Edited by: Joseph Sal... more Illuminating Metalwork: Metal, Object, and Image in Medieval Manuscripts.
Edited by: Joseph Salvatore Ackley and Shannon L. Wearing.
The presence of gold, silver, and other metals is a hallmark of decorated manuscripts, the very characteristic that makes them “illuminated.” Medieval artists often used metal pigment and leaf to depict metal objects both real and imagined, such as chalices, crosses, tableware, and even idols; the luminosity of these representations contrasted pointedly with the surrounding paints, enriching the page and dazzling the viewer. To elucidate this key artistic tradition, this volume represents the first in-depth scholarly assessment of the depiction of precious-metal objects in manuscripts and the media used to conjure them. From Paris to the Abbasid caliphate, and from Ethiopia to Bruges, the case studies gathered here forge novel approaches to the materiality and pictoriality of illumination. In exploring the semiotic, material, iconographic, and technical dimensions of these manuscripts, the authors reveal the canny ways in which painters generated metallic presence on the page. Illuminating Metalwork is a landmark contribution to the study of the medieval book and its visual and embodied reception, and is poised to be a staple of research in art history and manuscript studies, accessible to undergraduates and specialists alike.
Gods’ Collections, 2023
FigurelExample of 'eq à bet (Northen Ethiopia).Photo Vitagrazia Pisani (2014). The building visib... more FigurelExample of 'eq à bet (Northen Ethiopia).Photo Vitagrazia Pisani (2014). The building visible in this picture (Fig. l) is an eqà bet , that is a storeroom or " treasure house, " of a Tewahedo Orthodox church in northern Ethiopia , which we will not identify for security reasons. Christian Orthodox Churches in thè modern-day States of Ethiopia and Eritrea have functioned for centuries, and in some cases for over a millennium , as some of thè region ' s main repositories of written and material culture. While some sacred artefacts, such as thè aitar tablet (tàbot) are permanently housed in thè church, most are kept in a nearby structure known in Amharic as eqa bet (d ?-. see Tu^a * : ' in Kane 1990, 1183a; thè term eqà bet is also used to indicate a separate hut of a nobleman ' s house where his valuable clothes and utensils were kept; cf. Chernetsov 2005,345a). The 'eqa bet is similar to a sacristy and is generally located in a building that is separate from or annexed to thè church, though in some churches, especially before thè seventeenth century, thè side rooms may also serve as a facility for storing materials (cf. Bausi 2014, 51 ; cf. also Pankhurst 2014 , 252a). When detached from thè church, thè eqà bet may consist of a solid round or rectangular stone tower , or it may be a simple round or rectangular hut , which, being built with more perishable materials than those used for thè church , requires frequent maintenance. Some churches , especially thè largest ones , may have more than one storeroom
Gnisci, Jacopo, and César Merchán-Hamann. ‘Ethiopic Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries’. The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Magazine, 2023, 2023
is a recurring theme in anthropology. Sir James Frazer started it in 'The Golden Bough', where th... more is a recurring theme in anthropology. Sir James Frazer started it in 'The Golden Bough', where the divine king, the rex Nemorensis of the Diana cult recorded in classical sources, who was invariably killed by his successor, was central to his thesis. Following Frazer's lead, anthropologists looked for evidence of contemporary divine kings and found the Shilluk people in what is now South Sudan. Here the king (Reth) is considered divine and was often killed by his successors: a 1911 photograph of the Reth's enclosure by Charles Seligman, who first described the Shilluk kingship, is in the PRM collection. All this came to mind watching the coronation earlier this summer. Of course, we do not consider our kings to be divine (and we very rarely kill them), but the ritual in Westminster Abbey was, nonetheless, a mix of secular and sacred. How did this come about? Sovereigns in their absolute form are god-like in the sense that they can act without constraint or censure. Therefore, in their origins, were kings modelled on Gods, or might it be that Gods were modelled upon kings? The example of the Shilluk hints at the former: the concept of divine kings, then divinely-endorsed kings, along with the elaborate rituals surrounding them, led anthropologist A.M. Hocart to suggest that rituals were the origins of 'government'. He considered the obligations of ritual observance to such kings to be the first instances of individuals being compelled to do things in a kind of polity. Without going into details, the ethnographic record has been interpreted by many as broadly supporting this view. If so, it seems that kingship and perhaps governance itself is something born of the metaphysical world of religious belief and ushered into the physical world for the practical purposes of statehood. No surprise then, the mix of sacred and secular in Westminster Abbey. Once loosed in this way kings (or queens) might be hard to contain, but for constant fear of murderous successors, or endless rituals to observe. Our monarch too is constrained, though more by the legal processes which began at Runnymede in 1215. Some may be sceptical of rituals or the sacred, of kings or government for that matter, but they are tightly intertwined and run deep in all cultures including our own.
CaNaMEI Report 3, 2022
Questo terzo resoconto delle attività di CaNaMEI ha per oggetto un manufatto di notevole valore c... more Questo terzo resoconto delle attività di CaNaMEI ha per oggetto un manufatto di notevole valore codicologico, filologico e storico-artistico, un codice (mäṣḥaf) della cui esistenza si è avuta notizia per la prima volta solo nell'estate del 2019. Agl'inizi di quell'anno l'Archivio Storico della Diocesi di Savona-Noli ha acquisito l'oggetto in questione grazie a una donazione da parte di privati, e su iniziativa della Dr.ssa Massimiliana Bugli, responsabile delle collezioni di quella istituzione, chi scrive fu contattato per un parere conoscitivo. Il primo esame dischiuse agli occhi dello studioso un codice in pessime condizioni di conservazione, ma di straordinario pregio, dalle ragguardevoli dimensioni (480 x 377 x 150 mm; 211 carte) e provvisto di un considerevole apparato illustrativo. Il suo contenuto testuale è costituito dalla raccolta agiografica convenzionalmente denominata Atti dei martiri (ovvero in gǝʿǝz Gädlä sämaʿtat), il più antico corpus di 'vite' di martiri e santi venerati dalle Chiese d'Eritrea e d'Etiopia, la cui esistenza è certamente documentata almeno dalla fine del XIII secolo. Per il suo ampio formato il manoscritto appartiene alla tipologia dei codici 'di lusso', che potrebbe implicare una committenza aristocratica e probabilmente l'attività di un ignoto centro monastico di grande rilievo, mentre la scrittura si colloca approssimativamente nel periodo compreso tra la fine del XV e gl'inizi del XVI secolo. Le pagine coincidenti con l'incipit di alcuni dei testi agiografici sono inquadrate da raffinate cornici policrome (ḥaräg), mentre altre immagini di carattere figurativo si trovano alla fine di singole unità testuali. Di questo, e di molti altri elementi emersi dallo studio scientifico dell'oggetto, diranno le pagine seguenti, firmate da Gioia Bottari, Jacopo Gnisci e Massimo Villa, che compongono il team di CaNaMEI. Per una fortunata coincidenza, il ritorno alla luce del pregiato manoscritto ha coinciso con la prima fase delle attività del nostro progetto, per cui è risultato naturale, e quasi doveroso, proporre all'Archivio Storico della Diocesi di Savona-Noli un complesso di interventi finalizzati allo studio e al recupero del manufatto. Quando per la prima volta si è potuto analizzarlo e sottoporlo a immediata digitalizzazione, in accordo con le linee operative di CaNaMEI, due elementi hanno colpito più degli altri: la tipologia libraria e il precario stato di conservazione. I codici etiopici di così ampio formato, frutto di un'intenzionale operazione celebrativa, più spesso in rapporto con un'autorità civile o ecclesiastica che l'ha promossa, non sono molti, e ogni volta che se ne riscopre un esempio si pone un problema di inquadramento storico. I danni arrecati dalla prolungata esposizione ad agenti esterni, che hanno particolarmente deteriorato tutta la porzione inferiore dell'imponente mole libraria, hanno richiesto una serie di delicati interventi e un progetto complessivo di restauro, con il coinvolgimento di vari soggetti istituzionali, che piace qui preliminarmente menzionare. In primo luogo, il recupero conservativo del manufatto, eseguito nel semestre maggio-novembre 2021 dalla Dr.ssa Gioia Bottari, è stato reso possibile da uno specifico finanziamento nel quadro del progetto MIUR «Studi e Ricerche sulle culture dell'Asia e dell'Africa: tradizione e continuità, rivitalizzazione e divulgazione», diretto dal Prof. Adriano Rossi, e condotto dalla mia Università, dall'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino" (IPOCAN), presieduto dal Prof. Claudio Lo Jacono, e da ISMEO -Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, presieduta dallo stesso Prof. Rossi. Con il loro sostegno concreto all'operazione le tre istituzioni hanno una volta di più manifestato il loro interesse strategico verso il progetto CaNaMEI, che nello scorso triennio 2019-2021 ha compiuto qualche passo in avanti proprio grazie alla cooperazione con IPOCAN e ISMEO. Conseguentemente, questo Report 3 non potrebbe aprirsi senza l'espressione sincera della nostra riconoscenza verso i Proff. Lo Jacono e Rossi, la cui attenzione per le finalità del nostro progetto non è senza rapporto con la loro esperienza accademica presso l'Università di Napoli L'Orientale, in cui entrambi a lungo sono stati punti di riferimento per generazioni di studenti. Un secondo ringraziamento meritano quanti dirigono e coordinano le attività culturali della Diocesi di Savona-Noli, e in particolare il suo Archivio Storico, il Dr. Ugo Folco, la Dr.ssa Enrica Gasco e la Dr.ssa Massimiliana Bugli, che hanno mostrato costante sensibilità ed empatica attenzione verso la proposta di studio e recupero del manoscritto. Né si può tacere della collaborazione assicurata dalla Soprintendenza archivistica e bibliografica della Liguria, nella persona della Dr.ssa Francesca Mambrini, funzionario archivista, cui siamo grati per aver contribuito non poco al perfezionamento delle pratiche necessarie ad autorizzare i vari interventi sul codice savonese. Del recupero materiale, che ha portato anche a significative acquisizioni di conoscenza, e dell'importanza storica del manufatto sarà detto nelle pagine successive, ma giova ricordare che una prima informazione pubblica è già stata data lo scorso 2 dicembre 2021 in occasione di una giornata di studi organizzata in collaborazione con IPOCAN, con ISMEO e con la Società Geografica Italiana, presieduta dal Prof. Claudio Cerreti, che con amabilità ha messo a disposizione la storica sede romana di Palazzetto Mattei in Villa Celimontana. In tale occasione sono state illustrate e commentate da vari punti di vista le caratteristiche peculiari del codice, che per la prima volta è stato anche esposto al pubblico dopo il restauro, permettendo un apprezzamento visivo dei risultati dell'intervento. Graditissimo, quindi, è dare qui espressione alla riconoscenza che proviamo nei confronti della Dr.ssa Patrizia Pampana, responsabile della biblioteca e degli archivi della Società Geografica, per aver profuso competenze ed esperienze, nonché grande energia organizzativa, rendendo possibile la realizzazione di quell'evento. La vicenda relativa al codice savonese del Gädlä sämaʿtat non solo costituisce un passaggio emblematico del modus operandi di CaNaMEI, ma rende anche l'idea di quale sia la caratteristica peculiare dei fondi italiani di manoscritti etiopici, ovvero la loro dispersione all'interno di una quantità di istituzioni culturali, archivi e biblioteche di carattere pubblico e privato. Ne discende che le collezioni sono normalmente di piccola e media consistenza numerica, frutto di donazioni da parte di amministratori e militari rientrati in Italia con cimeli e souvenirs del loro soggiorno in colonia. Il risultato è che essi sono prevalentemente semisconosciuti, e a volte il loro valore intrinseco è ignoto agli stessi responsabili delle istituzioni che li conservano. Alcune di queste collezioni hanno attirato l'attenzione di singoli studiosi, che hanno prodotto cataloghi sempre di alto profilo scientifico, ma ispirati a metodologie di descrizione ogni volta diverse, prive di criteri unificanti. Inoltre, l'attenzione dei catalogatori, di norma filologi, è andata prevalentemente al contenuto testuale del manoscritto, trascurandone aspetti formali e caratteristiche morfologiche, e talora ignorando l'utilità delle nuove frontiere della ricerca nell'ambito delle 'scienze del libro manoscritto'. Ci riferiamo, in particolare, allo studio dell'apparato illustrativo e all'analisi dei costituenti materiali del manufatto, organici e inorganici, in grado di fornire una messe di dati e di conoscenze talora inaspettata. Né va dimenticato un altro aspetto della ricerca, che resta ancora quasi totalmente inesplorato, costituito dalla ricostruzione dei percorsi storici e dei passaggi cruciali che hanno segnato la sorte attuale di questi oggetti di produzione etiopica. Risalendo pazientemente le acque, talora agitate, delle vicende che hanno portato centinaia di manoscritti gǝʿǝz dai luoghi in cui essi sono * Si noti che, coerentemente con l'uso prevalente nelle rispettive discipline, nella descrizione testuale e iconografica è adottato il termine "foglio" (f./ff.), nella sezione relativa agli aspetti materiali e delle operazioni di restauro è utilizzato il termine "carta" (c./cc.).
Ethiopic manuscripts in the Mingana Collection: A digital visit to Birmingham
Navigating a Global Middle Ages With Illuminated Manuscripts, 2022
CaNaMEI Report 2, 2021
stati trasferiti in un laboratorio attrezzato per la loro digitalizzazione e analisi, nonché per ... more stati trasferiti in un laboratorio attrezzato per la loro digitalizzazione e analisi, nonché per un primo intervento conservativo. E a tal proposito occorre ricordare come tutte queste attività siano state rese possibili dal concorso nel progetto di due enti romani, ovvero l'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino" (IPOCAN) e ISMEO-Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, che dal 2019 sostengono finanziariamente il progetto incardinato presso il Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo dell'Università di Napoli "L'Orientale", diretto da Andrea Manzo. L'attuazione dell'indagine scientifica ha perfettamente rispettato e riprodotto il modello elaborato in occasione dell'intervento sul Tetraevangelo di Grosseto e le competenze necessarie sono state messe a disposizione dagli stessi membri del team di CaNaMEI che hanno dato prova di sé nella precedente occasione: le approfondite descrizioni testuali sono state realizzate dal Dr. Massimo Villa, ricercatore dell'Orientale, le indagini codicologiche e lo studio dei materiali sono stati condotti dalla Dr.ssa Gioia Bottari, dottoranda dell'Orientale, e lo studio di decorazioni e apparati visuali è stato assicurato dal Dr. Jacopo Gnisci, Lecturer in the Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South, University College London. Ovviamente, la quantità di elementi che sono emersi dallo studio degli otto manufatti, e che è stato necessario organizzare e presentare in questa sede, è molto maggiore rispetto a quella del Report 1, in cui veniva considerato un solo codice, per quanto antico e pregiato. Dunque, il lettore potrà finalmente apprezzare in maniera completa la griglia dei dati e dei concetti alla quale da qui in avanti CaNaMEI intende attenersi. La mole di conoscenze, relative al trattamento e allo stato dei materiali, alla fattura dei manoscritti e al loro apprezzamento filologico e artistico, e le stesse immagini digitalizzate sono ora parte di una banca dati in via di pubblicazione online. E proprio questo resta un aspetto cruciale del progetto, ovvero la creazione di quella 'biblioteca etiopica virtuale' cui CaNaMEI ha mirato fin dall'inizio. D'intesa con tutti i soggetti istituzionali coinvolti, si tratterà di rendere disponibili a distanza i risultati delle indagini che saranno via via svolte, in modo che studiosi di ogni parte del mondo, in particolare d'Eritrea e d'Etiopia, possano sfruttare a pieno le novità che ne deriveranno. L'agenda dei nostri prossimi impegni è già densa di appuntamenti, che riguardano un buon numero di archivi e biblioteche d'Italia, in cui sono conservati manoscritti etiopici e con cui sono già stati presi i necessari accordi preliminari. Nei prossimi mesi, lo studio si estenderà a fondi diocesani come quelli di Savona e Vicenza, e a raccolte di istituzioni pubbliche romane come la Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale e la Società Geografica Italiana. Ne deriverà un ulteriore arricchimento e perfezionamento delle conoscenze, che confluirà anche in una specifica sede editoriale, ovvero una collana di cataloghi dedicati a CaNaMEI, quale ulteriore espressione del contributo che l'etiopistica partenopea intende fornire alla promozione e alla conservazione del patrimonio filologico-letterario nazionale italiano. Per aver favorito la realizzazione di questa impresa scientifica, occorre ringraziare in primo luogo Giuseppa Zanasi, per molti anni docente di letteratura tedesca presso il nostro Ateneo, che amichevolmente ha posto in essere tutte le condizioni perché si arrivasse a questo logico punto di arrivo. Con lei desidero ringraziare Giorgio Banti, africanista e anch'egli a lungo professore dell'Orientale, che nel 2013 ha suggerito alla prof.ssa Zanasi il mio nome come specialista di filologia etiopica. A Claudio Lo Jacono, Presidente dell'Istituto per l'Oriente "Carlo Alfonso Nallino", e ad Adriano Rossi, Presidente di ISMEO-Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente, responsabile scientifico del progetto MIUR «Studi e Ricerche sulle culture dell'Asia e dell'Africa: tradizione e continuità, rivitalizzazione e divulgazione», va il nostro ringraziamento per aver fin dall'inizio riconosciuto in CaNaMEI un tassello significativo dei programmi scientifici dei rispettivi enti di ricerca.
British Museum Blog, 2020
A. Bausi, B. Reudenbach and H. Wimmer (eds.), Canones: The Art of Harmony The Canon Tables of the Four Gospels, 2020
This study offers the first comprehensive review of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was... more This study offers the first comprehensive review of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was an indispensable feature in illustrated Ethiopic Gospel books, appearing systematically as an explicit to the Eusebianapparatus in manuscripts from the Christian Aksumite tothe early Solomonic Period. While the Ethiopic version of Eusebius’s Letter to Carpianus and the canon tables haveattracted considerable scholarly interest, the Ethiopian iconography of the Tempietto has not yet received theattention it deserves. By analysing the iconography of theTempietto in Ethiopic gospel books this work shows how it is possible to offer a partial reconstruction of the practices of illuminators in Ethiopia in the century following the rise of the Solomonic dynasty, providing importantinsights into the elusive question of the development ofmanuscript illumination in Ethiopia.
Throughout the Middle Ages manuscripts were routinely commissioned, copied, illustrated, displaye... more Throughout the Middle Ages manuscripts were routinely commissioned, copied, illustrated, displayed, read, and transferred across both sides of the Mediterranean. Their significance as vehicles for the transmission of visual and textual knowledge is well known. Less understood, particularly when it comes to non-Latin manuscripts, is the complex web of spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional interactions that influenced their production and reception. The twelve essays presented here seek to address this gap by exploring the very direct relationships that existed between manuscripts and those individuals or communities that were involved in their making. The volume is broad in scope, covering written artefacts produced between Late Antiquity and the fifteenth century and presenting case studies that range from the British Isles to East Africa and from Spain and the Maghreb to Armenia. The visual and textual evidence preserved in these manuscripts is interpreted by drawing from disciplines such as palaeography, art history, codicology, and textual criticism. The result is a book that details the impact of makers, patrons, collectors, and readers on the making and circulation of manuscripts across Afro-Eurasia.
By Demeke Berhane, qäsis Melaku Terefe, Steve Delamarter, Jeremy Brown, and Jacopo Gnisci. Edite... more By Demeke Berhane, qäsis Melaku Terefe, Steve Delamarter, Jeremy Brown, and Jacopo Gnisci. Edited by Steve Delamarter and Jacopo Gnisci
Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (in preparation)
Illuminated Ethiopic Gospels (book project)
"Art Themes" in Alessandro Bausi, ed., Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft
![Research paper thumbnail of Raymond Silverman and Neal Sobania. Ethiopian Church Art: Painters, Patrons, Purveyors (Los Angeles: TSEHAI Publishers, 2022), [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/122412390/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](African Studies Review, 2024
This book presents an overview of about three decades of research on the visual culture of the Et... more This book presents an overview of about three decades of research on the visual culture of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC). For sake of clarity, I have retained the transcriptions used in the volume, even if this method, as the authors themselves recognize, does not offer an accurate transcription of the Amharic alphabet. Silverman and Sobania have conducted extensive fieldwork in Addis Ababa and around Aksum where, beginning in 1993 and continuing to this day, they had the opportunity to work with three generations of informants, including artists, patrons, and dealers. The authors share their extensive experiences enthusiastically and openly with their readers. Chapter One introduces readers to a "family" of painters and dealers active in Aksum between the 1990s and first decades of the current century who are either related to, or were trained by, the painter Yohannes Teklu . This chapter surveys the work of about two dozen painters, starting from Yohannes Teklu and including his son Zeluel Yohannes and grandson Berhanemeskel Fisseha (b. 1947). At first, one might be left disoriented by the abundant references to names of numerous hitherto little-known artists and shop owners, but the authors are right to provide them; not as a means to fit their work into Eurocentric categories of art which require artists to be named, but because their identification allows for the reconstruction of a hitherto understudied network of interactions between a group of individuals who "shaped the community of creative practice that is the subject of this book" (34). Moreover, if in the past EOTC artists often opted for anonymity for religious reasons, many of those interviewed in this book seem keen to waive it as a means to preserve their legacy and in the hope of strengthening their connections with the international market. Chapter Two looks at the role played by patrons in the production of images. We are introduced to a range of sponsors ranging from a farmer, who commissions a single painting for his deceased son, to a businessman, who commissions an entire church in Aksum with paintings on its exterior that caused some local controversy. The chapter touches briefly on the interesting question of the cost of painting for devotees and we learn that the ability of patrons to influence the content of the images they commission is situational. The authors also discuss a loosening of those tenets that guided the use of the visual within EOTC churches, which they refer to as "laissez-faire patronage," and the transformation of donor portraits in churches, which they note, in contrast to the past, may bear a close
Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 2020
Bosc-Tiessé, Claire, and Marie-Laure Derat, eds. 2019. Lalibela, Site Rupestre Chrétien d’Éthiopie. Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi [Book Review]
Aethiopica, 2023
![Research paper thumbnail of Annegret Marx, When Images Travel to Ethiopia … Impact of the Evangelium Arabicum printed 1590 in Rome on a 17th Century Ethiopi-an Gospel: Documentation and Synoptic Presentation of their Images (Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2019), [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/99436917/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Aethiopica, 2023
MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthio... more MARIE-LAURE DERAT, L'énigme d'une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d'Éthiopie du XI e au XIII e siècle
My Research Project [Fellowship Report]
Getty Magazine, 2021
![Research paper thumbnail of Sacred Ethiopic Texts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford [Project Report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/64076952/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](TORCH, 2020
In Ethiopia and Eritrea manuscripts, often lavishly illustrated, have been for centuries the prin... more In Ethiopia and Eritrea manuscripts, often lavishly illustrated, have been for centuries the principal means of transmitting the Scriptures and recording historical information. Ethiopic manuscripts thus provide us with insights into the life and culture of the society in which they were produced. The Bodleian Library has one of the oldest and most significant collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the world, but a large and very significant portion of this collection -55 manuscripts bequeathed by the Oxford Medical Officer Juel-Jensen in 2006remain uncatalogued. A partnership between the Bodleian Library, the Faculty of Theology and Religion, the Faculty of Classics, and the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies (HLCES) at Hamburg University will now lead to the publication of a catalogue of this important collection of manuscripts. The cataloguingwhich will focus on the textual, codicological, and visual features of the manuscripts -will be carried out by Dorothea Reule (Universität Hamburg) and Jacopo Gnisci (Faculty of Classics). The preliminary results of the research activities will be disseminated at a conference on April 27, 2020.
![Research paper thumbnail of Sacred Scripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, 2019 [Exhibition Report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/64135943/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 2020
![Research paper thumbnail of Maria Evangelatou, A Contextual Reading of Ethiopian Crosses Through Form and Ritual (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018), [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/73718897/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of 80 years since Nordenfalk: The Canon Tables in a comparative perspective (Hamburg, 16–18 May 2018) [Conference Report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/58466501/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of A Life devoted to Ethiopian Art: The Stanislaw Chojnacki Photographic Database [Project Report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/57964072/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Beta maṣāḥǝft, 2018
![Research paper thumbnail of The Hidden Gospels of Abba Garima, Treasures of the Ethiopian Highlands [Conference report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54064512/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Girma Getahun (ed., tr.), The Goğğam Chronicle by Aläqa Täklä Iyäsus WaqGera (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), [Book Review]
“Christian and Islamic Manuscripts of Ethiopia (12th–20th century): A Comparative Approach: Paris 12-13 December 2014” [Conference Report]
![Research paper thumbnail of Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts: The Transmission of Knowledge in the Horn of Africa (Hamburg, 17-19 July 2014) [Conference Report]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/35461204/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](An interesting three-day conference focusing on the manuscript tradition of Ethiopia took place i... more An interesting three-day conference focusing on the manuscript tradition of Ethiopia took place in Hamburg earlier this summer. The conference -which followed the presentation of the last volume of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica -was hosted by the University of
![Research paper thumbnail of Denis Nosnitsin, Churches and Monasteries of Təgray: A Survey of Manuscript Collections, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013), [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/35461732/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Dorothea McEwan, The Story of Däräsge Maryam, (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2013), [Book Review]
The Anglo-Ethiopian Society, Reports of Society Events: The Ark of the Covenant, Dr. Erica Hunter, 8 October 2013, The Warburg Institute [Lecture Report]
![Research paper thumbnail of Claude Lepage and Jacques Mercier, Lalibela: Wonder of Ethiopia: The Monolithic Churches and Their Treasures, (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012), [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31281941/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](With its eleven unique rock-hewn churches, Lalibela, some 645 km north of Addis Ababa, is one of ... more With its eleven unique rock-hewn churches, Lalibela, some 645 km north of Addis Ababa, is one of the most fascinating sites in the world. As such, it has been the subject of a number of studies. Nevertheless, many aspects of the history of Lalibela remain obscure. For instance, there is still disagreement over the date of foundation of its churches. There is also controversy over the hagiographical tradition which attributes the foundation of all the churches to the Ethiopian King Lalibela. In this context, the work by Claude Lepage and Jacques Mercier, who have collaborated on several other studies of Ethiopian churches over the past decades, is an addition to a literature which is still deficient.
![Research paper thumbnail of Osvaldo Raineri, Il Signore delle Chiavi: Scritti Etiopici sull’ Apostolo Pietro, (Roma: Orientalia Christiana, 2012), pp. 348 [Book Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31545517/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](23 festivals and events, and the growing recognition within Ethiopia of the importance of other A... more 23 festivals and events, and the growing recognition within Ethiopia of the importance of other African countries. The book closes with chapters on the death of Sylvia and the abortive coup d'état, both in 1960. The dramatic changes to Richard and Rita's lives in later years will be covered in a second volume.
![Research paper thumbnail of Æthiopia Porta Fidei: I Colori dell’Africa Cristiana. Vicenza, Museo Diocesano, 27 October 2012 - 24 February 2013 [Exhibition Review]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31029633/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Beyond eurocentrism: towards a critical historiography of Ethiopian Icons [Conference Paper, Flesh and Gold, Louvre, Paris, 7-9 April 2025]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/122412430/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](FlEsh and gold: gazing at icons, 15 th-20 th cEntury Colloque international Organisé avec le sout... more FlEsh and gold: gazing at icons, 15 th-20 th cEntury Colloque international Organisé avec le soutien exceptionnel de la Société des Amis du Louvre Organised with the generous support of the Friends of the Louvre International symposium En réunissant des universitaires et des responsables de collections d'icônes aux États-Unis, en Europe (Albanie, Allemagne, Grèce, République tchèque, Roumanie, Royaume-Uni, Suède, Ukraine, France) et au Proche-Orient (Liban et Syrie), le colloque En chair et en or : regards sur l'icône, xv e-xx e siècle souhaite mettre en lumière des approches renouvelées sur l'icône en s'intéressant aux questions transnationales, à l'historiographie, à l'histoire matérielle et à la réception de ces oeuvres. Il explorera également la matérialité singulière de cette peinture. Ce colloque porte ainsi l'ambition d'interroger et de renouveler les perspectives de la recherche dans le domaine des icônes en s'ouvrant à de nouvelles méthodologies, histoires et géographies. L'événement marque l'acquisition faite au début de l'année 2025, par le musée du Louvre, pour son département des Arts de Byzance et des chrétientés en Orient, de l'exceptionnelle collection d'icônes réunie au Liban par Georges Abou Adal et complétée par son fils Freddy Abou Adal. Elle avait été révélée en 1993 au musée Carnavalet, à Paris, puis présentée au musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève, en 1997. Depuis, plusieurs icônes de cette collection, considérées comme des jalons importants de l'histoire de l'art, ont été exposées ou commentées dans des publications scientifiques. La collection Abou Adal comporte 272 icônes balkaniques, crétoises, grecques, levantines, melkites, russes, transylvaines, valaques. Elle illustre ainsi la diversité des centres de production et les échanges culturels, depuis le xv e siècle jusqu'au début du xx e siècle. Elle se distingue aussi par l'abondance des signatures d'artistes qui y sont représentées. Enfin, elle conserve un rare ensemble d'icônes produites dans le contexte du renouveau du patriarcat grec d'Antioche au xvii e siècle, à Alep notamment, et par les chrétiens arabophones de Syrie, du Liban et de Jérusalem. Ce colloque est organisé avec le soutien exceptionnel de la Société des Amis du Louvre, en partenariat avec le Collège de France et l'École du Louvre, et avec l'aide de L'OEuvre d'Orient. FlEsh and gold: gazing at icons, 15 th-20 th cEntury En chair Et En or : rEgards sur l'icônE, xv e-xx e sièclE
![Research paper thumbnail of Saintly Portraits [Lecture: Eastern Christian Seminar, Pembroke College, Oxford, 1 March 2023]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/99674148/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Multi-ethnic Eastern Christian communities are among the most ancient natives in the wider West A... more Multi-ethnic Eastern Christian communities are among the most ancient natives in the wider West Asia region. These lectures highlight the rich historical, literary, theological and artistic heritage of Christian communities in this presently much-troubled part of the world.
![Research paper thumbnail of Ethiopian crosses [Workshop: The Museo Bargello's Ethiopian Processional Cross, I Tatti, Februrary 20, 2023]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/98841350/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Sacred Space in Gannata Maryam [University of Bristol, History of Art Seminar Series, October 4, 2022]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/98841348/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Workshop on manuscript catalogues as datasets for digital humanities [Cambridge, June 2022]
All that glitters is not gold [Tetra Lecture Series, February 17, 2022]
Holy Books and Holy Men [Spineless Wonders, Slade School of Fine Art 2022]
CFP: Rethinking Royal Manuscripts in a Global Middle Ages [ICMA Sponsored Session, AAH, 2022]
Rethinking Royal Manuscripts in a Global Middle Ages Jacopo Gnisci, University College London, j... more Rethinking Royal Manuscripts in a Global Middle Ages
Jacopo Gnisci, University College London, j.gnisci[at]ucl.ac.uk
Umberto Bongianino, University of Oxford, umberto.bongianino[at]orinst.ox.ac.uk
This panel sets out to examine and compare the impact of royal patronage on the visual, material, and textual features of manuscripts produced across Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica and Europe during the ‘Global Middle Ages.’ As polysemic and multi-technological objects, royal manuscripts were produced in different forms and sizes, and from a variety of materials that could vary according to the taste, wealth, ideology, religion, and connections of their patrons and makers. Their visual and textual content could conform or deviate from existing traditions to satisfy the needs and ambitions of those involved in their production and consumption. Finally, pre-existing manuscripts could be appropriated, restored, enhanced, gifted, and even worshipped by ruling elites for reasons connected with legitimacy and self-preservation, becoming powerful instruments of hegemony, or symbols of prestige and piety. Because of this semiotic versatility, written artifacts provide ideal vantage points for understanding the agency of material culture in the creation and perpetuation of political power.
To what extent do the materials, texts, and images of royal manuscripts reflect the integration of pre-modern courts in networks of patronage and exchange? In which ways were these features adapted for different audiences and for female, male, or genderqueer patrons? How did they inform local and transregional notions of power and authority? How did communities that opposed royal authority situate themselves in relation to the political agency of written texts and their illustrations? When and how did such artifacts become imperial relics to be displayed, or symbols of a contentious past to be concealed or destroyed? What can manuscripts tell us about the royal patronage of other artistic media, dynastic rivalries, political alliances, and state-endorsed religious phenomena?
In pursuing similar questions, we are particularly interested in multidisciplinary papers that move beyond a Eurocentric reading of material culture by considering royal manuscripts from pre-modern polities traditionally seen as ‘peripheral.’ We welcome proposals that apply innovative methodologies to the study of handwritten material and its circulation, questioning conventional assumptions about politics, culture, and religion, and privileging comparative approaches and transcultural artistic phenomena.
Call for Papers deadline 1 November 2021. Please submit your paper proposal to the convenors.
Notes on the Iconography of the Entombment of Christ in Ethiopian Illumination of the Late Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries
![Research paper thumbnail of La Tarda Antichità: La metodologia della ricerca II. Fra centro e periferia [2021, La Sapienza, Rome]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/65500734/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](
A few months ago I was contacted by the Dutch art crime investigator Arthur Brand to identify wha... more A few months ago I was contacted by the Dutch art crime investigator Arthur Brand
to identify what appeared to be a stolen Ethiopian crown kept in an apartment in Rotterdam. How did such a precious object end up in Holland? Where did it come from? What was its original function? What kind of meaning did it have for those who used it? To whom should it be returned? These were some of the questions turning in my mind as I travelled to see the crown. Answering them provides a glimpse into a history of exchanges between the Horn of Africa and Europe in the past and present, sheds light on the ritual and devotional activities of Christians in early-modern Ethiopia, and forces us to confront some of the challenges involved in the repatriation of cultural property at a time when museums and governments are increasingly reconsidering questions of ownership of heritage acquired from Africa and other extra-European contexts during the colonial period.
The Art of Politics: Psalter Illustration in Medieval Ethiopia [2020, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main]
https://www.byzanz-mainz.de/en/news/news-details/article/illustrated-manuscripts-from-ethopia/
Heritage Pathway: Authenticity in African Heritage
CFP: Collecting Africa: Before, During and After Colonial Overrule – April 27, 2020, Oxford
![Research paper thumbnail of The Stolen Crown: A Bridge Between Worlds [2020, Centro per la Storia dell'Arte e dell'Architettura delle Città Portuali, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte / La Capraia]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/61715753/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](CFP: SAfA 2020: The Past Through the Past: Constructing Identity, Tradition, and Community in Africa [St Hugh's College, University of Oxford, Panel]
SAfA, 2020
In many modern societies identity and social boundaries are often constructed through binary oppo... more In many modern societies identity and social boundaries are often constructed through binary oppositions between “past” and “present” or “us” and “them.” In our “present,” the past is frequently conceptualized through a flux of shifting ideas, images, and categories that are associated with material culture from different periods and regions. Fields such as archaeology, art history, and classics, for instance, use material culture to make sense of the past and present it in a more tangible and imaginable form to the present. Since the start of the twenty-first century, historians have been paying close attention, on the one hand, to the genealogy and underpinnings of these interpretative approaches and, on the other, to the ways in which societies have actualized the material traces of the past for political and socio-economic reasons.
This symposium sets out to explore the ways in which African societies approached their own past, with a focus on the relationship between identity and material culture. Topics of interest include: how did societies forge new connections with ruins and monuments that were present in the territories they inhabited? In which ways was material culture used to support competing interpretations of the past? Is it possible to identify traces of iconoclasm in the historical and archaeological record of Africa? How were human activities shaped by different concepts of time?
![Research paper thumbnail of Conti Rossini and the Study of Ethiopian Art [2019, Giornate di studi eritrei ed etiopici in memoria di Carlo Conti Rossini, l'Orientale, Napoli]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/60671754/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Manuscript Art of Late Antique Ethiopia [2019, Italian Cultural Institute, Addis Ababa, Talk]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/60671821/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Symbolism in Ethiopian art: Gold, Text & Images [2019, Eastern Christianity Lecture Seminar Series - University of Oxford, Presentation]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/59003706/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Small in numbers relative to global Christianity, multi-ethnic Eastern Christian communities are ... more Small in numbers relative to global Christianity, multi-ethnic Eastern Christian communities are among the most ancient natives in the wider West Asia region. These lectures highlight the rich historical, theological, literary and cultural heritage of Christian communities in presently much-troubled regions.
![Research paper thumbnail of Old Testament Themes in Ethiopic Manuscripts [2019, Jewish-Christian Relation, Ruhr-Universität, Presentation]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/58727171/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Christian Art and Faith in the Ethiopian Empire [Co-curator, UCL, The Cloisters, September – October 2022]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/90487328/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](
Evening Standard, 2023
<-amaWilliam * vio. \ K x ii\ ivi\ unirl I JIXHII 1l (Jvclliiiu » 11 grmadc * Man i haii < « l ni... more <-amaWilliam * vio. \ K x ii\ ivi\ unirl I JIXHII 1l (Jvclliiiu » 11 grmadc * Man i haii < « l niih lit * | >a%\ after '1 limhimi MB
Studying and preserving Ethiopian treasures
Africa Oxford Initiative, 2020
HoA welcomes Dr Jacopo Gnisci as a lecturer in the Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South
Masterclass "The Museo Bargello's Ethiopian Processional Cross"
i Tatti Florence, 2023
Documentary: De Kunstdetective