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

This volume contains three different psalms/psalters, 15 biblical canticles, and Praises of Mary. This was the first Ethiopic manuscript purchased in 1964 for Duke Libraries Special Collections under the leadership of Dr. John L. Sharpe III (Curator of Rare Books, 1967-1989) and was owned at one time by Malke’a Krestos, son of Sarza Maryam and his wife Zamada Maryam. It is important to question how this manuscript moved from a personal religious object in Ethiopia to a French social reformer, to a local book dealer and finally to Duke University.  

The bookplate from Ethiopic MS 001, refers to   “Le Duc de Liancourt” indicating that this manuscript was owned at one point by François Alexandre Frédéric, generally known as duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (1747-1827), a French social reformer.

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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.