Demarginalizing Medieval Africa News

An Introduction to the Earliest Ethiopic Antiphonary Manuscripts

Jonas Karlsson to give paper at听2023 SBL Annual Meeting.

Jonas Karlsson and Sophia Dege-M眉ller present some of their current research to the HLCES seminar series.

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Sophia Dege-M眉ller will present the paper "Tracing the Beta Israel 鈥� investigating the earliest known sources鈥� (in German) at the annual meeting of听Orbis Aethiopicus, Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Ethiopian Culture in Weimar.听

On 4 October 2022, Jacopo Gnisci presents a paper at the History of Art Resarch Seminar at the University of Bristol

On 23 September 2022, Jacopo Gnisci gives a lecture at the NYU Medieval and Renaissance Center.

On 9 August 2022, Sophia Dege-M眉ller speaks on "The Beta Israel Manuscript Corpus: Classification and Textual Analysis" at the 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

Stephen Rickerby and Lisa Shekede to talk about their work with the Ethiopian Heritage Fund.

Illuminating the Eastern Christian World: Manuscripts, Illuminators and Scribes (June 30 - July 1, 2022)

The ITIESE team have organised a听workshop in partnership with the CSMC in Hamburg that will focus听on book making, inscribing, and illustrating in the Mediterranean world. Participants to the workshop will present their ongoing work on Coptic, Byzantine, Islamic, Latin, Ethiopic, Armenian, Nubian and听Syriac manuscripts that will be lated collected in a volume published by听de Gruyter.

Jonas Karlsonn to give paper at conference on music in Africa on "Reorganisation and Recodification: The Developments of Ethiopian Orthodox Antiphonaries during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries."

The Manar al-Athar digital archive, based at the University of Oxford, provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. Student assistants working for ITIESE will be adding images of Ethiopian sites to the database.

He joins the project after defending his thesis on the D蓹gg史膩,听the main antiphonary of the听Ethiopian听Orthodox Church.

Three听BA HoA 果冻影院 Students join ITIESE as assistants

Mathilde Mioche, Flavia Dal Brollo and听Katrina Khvesenya will help out with the daily running of the project and improve their understanding of what is involved in academic research.

Marco Pozzi is awarded a Laidlaw Scholarship to work with ITIESE

Marco (BA in history) gained his places on the programme against fierce competition: 270 applications were made for 24 Laidlaw scholarships.

Papers are welcome on all aspects of the archaeology, material culture and heritage of the Indian Ocean (defined as from East Africa to Japan, including Australasia) from the first millennium BC to the contemporary era, and may include reports on research in progress. P

Many congratulations to Vitagrazia Pisani, who will be leaving the ITIESE project in March to work on her own project entitled: The G菨士菨z Version of the Passio of St Cyricus (Gadla Qirqos): A Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary.听We thank Vita for her time with us and look forward to our听continued collaboration!

Bringing together scholars from around the world, the conference will explore the decorative frontispieces and so-called carpet pages that are a remarkable feature of manuscripts from diverse cultures, including Islam, Judaism and Christianity. A paper by Jacopo Gnisci will be devoted to Ethiopic manuscripts.

All that glitters is not gold: Metalwork in Early Solomonic Manuscripts

The Text and Transmission Joint Research Seminar听is hosted by听Giorgia Nicosia听(UGent),听Valentina Duca听(KU Leuven),听Andy Hilkens听(UGent) and听Dan Batovici听(果冻影院ouvain and KU Leuven) in an effort to put together in the same room on-going projects鈥攊n Belgium and beyond鈥攐n various traditions and historical contexts. Paper by Jacopo Gnisci.

A talk by听on preservation of the rock-cut and constructed churches in Ethiopia by Lisa Shekede and Stephen Rickerby on听Thu, 17 February 2022. All proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the Desta Ethiopia [UK charity number 1194896].

Holy Men and Holy books

A talk by Jacopo Gnisci within the framework of the听Spineless Wonders research initiatives organized by the Slade School of Art for celebrating听150 years of fine art teaching and research.

Lecture by Mikael Muehlbauer (Columbia University) for the webinar听series 鈥�Yale Lectures in Late Antique and Byzantine Art and Architecture,鈥� cosponsored with Yale Department of the History of Art and Yale Department of Classics.听Respondent: Jacopo Gnisci, 果冻影院.

ITIESE S eeking 2x Research Assistants

The Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270-1527) project is seeking to recruit two students who will work as Research Assistants with the project members starting on or before May 1 2022.

ITIESE Project Seeking a Laidlaw Scholar

The prestigious Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme is for full time first year undergraduates at 果冻影院. It aims to create the Leaders of the Future through leadership training and two funded summer projects. Opens for applications on Wednesday 1 December 2021 until Tuesday 1 February 2022.

The online talk on 鈥淐hristian Ethiopian and Eritrean manuscript culture鈥� will be hosted by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures at The Queen鈥檚 College in the University of Oxford. The centre promotes inter-disciplinary discussion among scholars and students interested in manuscripts and material culture in the premodern world. Participation is most welcome regardless of your field of specialty.听

As of 1 October 2021, for two years, the two Principal Investigators, Prof.听Alessandro Bausi听(Universit盲t听Hamburg) and Assoc.听Prof.听Mersha Alehegne Mengistie听(Addis Ababa University), supported by PhD students Addisie Yalew (based in Hamburg) and Senkoris Ayalew and Tsehay Ademe (based in Addis Ababa) will work on the project听the project "Documenting an Ancient Education System in Africa: 示Ab蓹nn盲t T蓹mh蓹rt in Ethiopia."

This panel at the AAH 2022 conference in London听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 鈥楪lobal Middle Ages.鈥� Deadline for submission: 1 November.听Presenters in International Centre of Medieval Art-sponsored sessions will be eligible for conference fee reimbursement (if virtual) OR travel reimbursement (if in person) via the ICMA-Kress Travel Grant.

Sophia听Dege-M眉ller听and Jacopo Gnisci to give lecture on Ethiopic Psalters

14 December 2021,听5:30PM - 7:00PM. London Society for Medieval Studies, Institute of Historical Research. Founded in 1970/1, the London Society for Medieval Studies seeks to foster knowledge of, and dialogue about, the Middle Ages (c.500鈥揷.1500 CE).

Yasmin Faghihi awarded grant to investigate the origins of Islamicate manuscripts

Together with Cambridge Digital Humanities colleagues听she has secured a grant from CHRG to use computational methods on the dataset to investigate questions around the provenance of Islamicate manuscripts in FIHRIST.

Short mention of the project to be followed up by a more detailed report in next newsletter.

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project has听received two National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants.

ITIESE Launches new blog on Global Middle Ages!

The blog will feature contributions by scholars and students at various stages of their careers with an interest in the history of book making and decorating. The first article, written by project-member听Sophia Dege-M眉ller, is now available at this link.

Sophia Dege-M眉ller with Bar Kribus gives paper on "The Veneration of St. Yared: A Multireligious Landscape Shared by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and the Bet盲茙sra示el (Ethiopian Jews)" at the听18th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions.

The 5th Summer School will feature lectures by several colleagues from Ethiopian, American and European universities, including ITIESE members Prof. Alessandro Bausi, Sophia Dege-M眉ller, MA, Dr Jacopo Gnisci, and Dr Vitagrazia Pisani and will take place on 21-25 September 2020.

Professor听Theo M. van Lint and Dr Emilio Bonfiglio,听together with听 Prof. Dr. Claudia Rapp (University of Vienna / Austrian Academy of Sciences), and Dr. David Zakarian (University of Oxford), have organized a workshop on Armenia & Byzantium on 10-11 September 2021.

Professor听Verena Krebs has released a Call for Contributions for a special听issue of The Medieval Globe to be published 2023 that will be听edited with Dr Andrea Achi听and Dr Vera-Simone Schulz.

Professor Timothy Insoll and听Awet Teklehimanot Araya launch a series on听the "Medieval Archaeology in the Horn of Africa."听The seminars aim to bring recent research on the medieval archaeology of the Horn of Africa to a wide audience. All are welcome. A second series focusing on different regions of the Horn of Africa will run in Spring 2022. All lectures will be online via Zoom. Please have a look at the poster for details on speakers and seminar titles.

The project Beta ma峁Ｄ佱弗菨ft is represented in the Digital Medievalist conference听听- the panel "Africa & Europe: Diving Into Sources" on 21 June 2021.

Project member Jacopo Gnisci to give paper at the听2021 the Open University鈥檚 interdisciplinary Spaces and Places conference that will address the theme of 鈥楥ourtly Encounters鈥� by exploring instances of cultural exchange that shaped the day-to-day and extraordinary sensory experiences of court life.

Workshop organized by the听The Book and the Silk Roads听seeks to map connections between parts of the premodern world by describing the technology of the book also focusing on the Ethiopian tradition.

The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities听(TORCH), which contributed to kickstarting听ITIESE with a Seed Fund, has published a short note on the project.

"Tied and Bound鈥�: How to Keep Things Together (or Not?).' Thu, 20.05.2021 3:30 PM until Sat, 22.05.2021 11:30 AM at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), Hamburg.

The session entitled "Connectivity, Transcultural Entanglements and the Power of Aesthetic Choices in Africa" with the Association of Art History Conference" and organized by Dr Abidemi Babatunde Babalola & Dr听Vera-Simone Schulz will take place on April 15 and will include papers by听Shadreck Chirikure (Oxford University);听Valentine Nyamndon (De Montfort University);听Clare Patrick and Stephani M眉ller (University of Cape Town);听Jeffrey Fleisher (Rice University);听Emma Wingfield (Goldsmiths University);听Emmanuel Bola Akinpelu (Federal College of Education, Oyo, Nigeria);听Jonathan Adeyemi (Queen鈥檚 University Belfast).

Jacopo Gnisci awarded AHRC-DFG grant for new research project

The project sets out to look at the history of illustrated Ethiopic manuscripts. Further information at this link.

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