✖Here you can explore some general information about the project. See also Beta maṣāḥəft institutional web page. Select About to meet the project team and our partners. Visit the
Guidelines section to learn about our encoding principles. The section Data contains the Linked Open Data information, and API the Application Programming Interface documentation for those who want to exchange data with the Beta maṣāḥǝft project. The Permalinks section documents the versioning and referencing earlier versions of each record.
Click to get back to the home page.
Here you can find out more about the project team,
the cooperating projects,
and the contact information. You can also visit
our institutional page.
Find out more about our Encoding Guidelines.
In this section our Linked Open Data principles are explained.
Developers can find our Application Programming Interface documentation here.
The page documents the use of permalinks by the project.
✖Descriptions of (predominantly) Christian
manuscripts from Ethiopia and Eritrea are the core of the Beta maṣāḥǝft project.
We (1) gradually encode descriptions from printed catalogues, beginning
from the historical ones,
(2) incorporate digital descriptions produced by other projects, adjusting
them wherever possible,
and (3) produce descriptions of previously unknown and/or uncatalogued
manuscripts.
The encoding follows the TEI XML standards (check our
guidelines).
Here you can browse a full list of manuscripts available on the platform,
arranged by repositories and shelf marks (clicking on the "show list" button will expand the list for each location).
This menu takes you to the search form listing all manuscripts encoded
by the project. On the left side you get filters based on the indexes for
that type of resources in the database, on the right side you will see your search results in a multi-page table (20 per page). You can refine the results by applying the filters.
Here you can view a list of manuscripts that have digitized images available online elsewhere.
The list of manuscript catalogues that were used as sources for our records.
Clicking on one of the titles will open a list view with all the
manuscripts in that catalogue
that have been encoded.
Inscriptions
are an inseparable part of the manuscript tradition and its direct precursors,
therefore we also offer the encoding of the known inscriptions from Ethiopia and
Eritrea
wherever possible. Part of the encoding is carried out in Hamburg, part is
the result of
cooperation with other projects, such as
DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic
Arabian Inscriptions.
✖We identify each unit of content in every manuscript. We consider any
text with an independent circulation a work, with its own identification number within
the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe). Parts of texts (e.g. chapters)
without independent circulation (univocally identifiable by IDs assigned within the records) or recurrent
motifs as well as documentary additional texts
(identified as Narrative Units)
are not part of the CAe. You can also check the list of different types of
text titles or various Indexes
available from the top menu.
The clavis is a repertory of all known works relevant for the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition; the work being defined as any text with an independent circulation.
Each work (as well as known recensions where applicable) receives a unique identifier in the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe).
In the filter search offered here one can search for a work by its title, a keyword, a short quotation, but also directly by its
CAe identifier - or, wherever known and provided, identifier used
by other claves, including Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (BHG),
Clavis Patrum Graecorum (CPG), Clavis Coptica (CC),
Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti (CAVT), Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti (CANT), etc.
The project additionally identifies Narrative Units to refer to text types, where no clavis identification is possible or necessary. Recurring motifs or also frequently documentary
additiones are assigned a Narrative Unit ID, or thematically clearly demarkated passages
from various recensions of a larger work.
This list view shows the documentary collections encoded by the project Ethiopian Manuscript Archives (EMA) and its successor EthioChrisProcess - Christianization and religious interactions in Ethiopia (6th-13th century) : comparative approaches with Nubia and Egypt, which aim to edit the corpus of administrative acts
of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, for medieval and modern periods.
See also the list of documents contained in the additiones in the manuscripts described by the Beta maṣāḥǝft project .
Works of interest to Ethiopian and Eritrean studies.
✖While encoding manuscripts, the project Beta maṣāḥǝft aims at creating an
exhaustive repertory of art themes and techniques present in Ethiopian
and Eritrean Christian tradition. See our
encoding guidelines for details.
Two types of searches for aspects of manuscript decoration are possible,
the decorations filtered search and the general keyword search.
The filtered search for decorations, originally designed with Jacopo Gnisci,
looks at decorations and their features only. The filters on the left are relative
only to the selected features, reading the legends will help you to figure out
what you can filter. For example you can search for all encoded decorations of a specific art
theme, or search the encoded legends. If the decorations are present, but not encoded, you
will not get them in the results. If an image is available, you will also find a thumbnail linking
to the image viewer. [NB: The Index of Decorations currently often times out, we are sorry for the inconvenience.]
You can search for particular motifs or aspects, including style, also through the keyword search. Just click on "Art keywords" and "Art themes" on the left to browse through the options.
This is a short cut to a search for all those manuscripts which have miniatures of which we
have images.
✖We create metadata for all places associated with the manuscript production and
circulation as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the project.
The encoding of places in Beta maṣāḥǝft will thus result in a
Gazetteer of the Ethiopian tradition. We follow the principles established by
Pleiades and lined out in the
Syriaca.org TEI
Manual and Schema for Historical Geography which allow us to distinguish
between places, locations, and names of places.
See also Help page fore more guidance.
This tab offers a filtrable list of all available places.
Geographical references of the type "land inhabited by people XXX"
is encoded with the reference to the corresponding Ethnic unit (see below);
ethnonyms, even those used in geographical contexts, do not appear in this list.
Repositories are those locations where manuscripts encoded by the project are or
used to be preserved. While they
are encoded in the same way as all places are, the view offered is different,
showing a list of manuscripts associated with the repository.
✖We create metadata for all persons (and groups of persons) associated with the
manuscript production and circulation (rulers, religious authorities, scribes,
donors, and commissioners) as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the
project. The result will be a
comprehensive Prosopography of the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition.
See also Help page for
more guidance.
We encode persons according to our
Encoding Guidelines.
The initial list was
inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica,
and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix.
We consider ethnonyms as a subcategory of personal names, even when
many are often used in literary works in the context of the
"land inhabited by **". The present list of records has been mostly
inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica,
and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix.
✖This section collects some additional resources offered by the project. Select Bibliography to explore the references cited in the project records. The
Indexes list different types of project records (persons, places, titles, keywords, etc).
Visit Projects for information on partners that have input data
directly in the Beta maṣāḥǝft database. Special ways of exploring the data are offered under
Visualizations.
Two applications were developed in cooperation with the project
TraCES,
the Gǝʿǝz Morphological Parser and the
Online Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae.
Here you can view all references (extracted from Zotero) that have been cited in project records.
The Indexes list different types of project records (persons, places, titles, keywords, etc).
These associated projects have fed their data directly in the
Beta maṣāḥǝft database.
Check some special ways of exploring our data, including comparing manuscripts containing the same work,
mapping manuscripts with a given content, collating passages, searching for gender aspects, and many more.
The experimental morphological parser was developed in cooperation with the project
TraCES: From Translation to Creation: Changes in Ethiopic Style and Lexicon from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
This application uses basic techniques to display data from the digitization process of the
Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae by August Dillmann, with additions by the
team of the project TraCES: From Translation to Creation: Changes in
Ethiopic Style and Lexicon from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
This parchment codex
is composed of 135.0 leaves.
It has 3 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: The colophon indicates that the Ms.
was completed on the 14th year after the coronation of King Bakāffā, but he
ruled only 9 years (1721-30); it contains also two other dates which appear
to be incorrect. Despite the information in the colophon, the script does
not look so old palaeographically. The Ms. may date into a later period,
second half of the 19th cent. The binding (boards covered with tooled
leather) appears to be older than the text block. The Ms. (and the colophon)
may be a copy of another 18th-cent. Ms. of Hāymānot ʾabaw.. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 158.0 leaves.
It has 2 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: 1700-1800. There are
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 190.0 leaves.
It has 2 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: According to the colophon, the Ms.
was donated to Māryām Ganāḥti Church during the reign of King Dāwit, who is
probably Dāwit III (r. 1716-21).. There are
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 159.0 leaves.
It has 3 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: 1900-1950. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 154.0 leaves.
It has 3 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: Ca. 1660 (?). The colophon indicates
that the Ms. was completed on the year of mercy 7152 (=1660 A.D.) which
falls upon the time of King Fāsiladas (r. 1632-67). It mentions the 28th
year of reign of a king was is “Dāgǝmāwi Qʷasṭanṭinos” ("the second
Constantine"). King Fāsiladas’ regnal name was ʿālam Sagad; Both hand a and
hand b seem to be of a later time.. There are
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 66.0 leaves.
It has 3 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: late 19th – early 20th
cent.. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 233.0 leaves.
It has 3 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: The colophon indicates that the Ms.
was completed on the 14th year after the coronation of King Fāsiladas (r.
1632-67).. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 226.0141014788 leaves.
It has 10 main content units in 4 codicological units.
Available dates of origin in the description: Mid 17th - mid 18th cent.(?)
Quire III is of more recent time (19th cent).. There are
The description includes a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 250 leaves.
It has 210 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: 1550-1800. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description does not include a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of leaves.
It has 2 main content units in 2 codicological units.
Available dates of origin in the description: 1850-1999.
The description does not include a collation of the quires.
This parchment codex
is composed of 180 leaves.
It has 64 main content units in 1 codicological unit.
Available dates of origin in the description: 1600-1700. There is 1 hand described with Ethiopic script attested.
The description includes a collation of the quires.
