Manuscript Migration: The Multiple Lives of the Rubenstein Library's Collections

This small book of chants was made for use in a liturgical setting in Ethiopia. It offers greetings to saints (such as St. Tekla Haymanot and St. George) and exemplifies how one object can contain many lives and multiple stories of origin. The book’s “binding” or cover is a reused piece of parchment from an earlier chant manuscript, possibly eighteenth century. The sacred original context has much to teach us.

The book was acquired by Duke along with Persian Manuscript 002 from Moris Sultanik (More’s Books) in Buffalo, New York, January 17, 1971.

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Gay Byron, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Howard University, studied the Ethiopian Manuscript Collection as a Duke Humanities Unbounded Visiting Faculty Fellow in 2021-2022 and continues her research and publications in Ethiopic Manuscripts.

Brogan Hannon, Doctoral Student in the Religion Department, Duke University, assisted Gay Byron in researching the Ethiopic Manuscripts during the 2021-2023 Manuscript Migration Lab.