Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project : Codices 601-654. the Meseret Sebhat Le-ab Collection of Mekane Yesus Seminary, Addis Ababa

The Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project (EMIP), volume 7, provides a full catalog for the collection of fifty-four manuscripts in the Meseret Sebhat Le-Ab collection at Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. These include one late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century manuscript of Jubilees and the Minor Prophets. Each catalog entry provides a full physical description, a listing of contents (with incipits), illuminations, varia (known works added later), notes on codicology and scribal practice, as well as a full quire map. Opening articles provide an introduction to the collection, a biography of Aläqa Meseret's life and work, an introduction to the Ethiopian musical tradition of Saint Yared, and a study on the textual character of the manuscript of Jubilees. Four indices (works, names, miniatures, and scribal practice) provide quick access for the researcher.

Kesis Melaku Terefe served the church in Ethiopia for several years in various positions in Awasa (southern Ethiopia) and Harar (eastern Ethiopia). For the last nine years he has served as priest in the Virgin Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Los Angeles, California. He is in frequent demand, speaking in various churches through North America. He served as cataloger of the Wolf Leslau collection of Ethiopian manuscripts at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA. Steve Delamarter is Professor of Old Testament at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Director of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project (EMIP), Chair of the Society of Biblical Literature's Consultation on the Ethiopic Bible and Literature, and Project Co-Director with Ato Demeke Berhane in the British Library Endangered Archives Programme project (#286) to digitize and catalogue 5,749 items in the Manuscripts and Archives Department of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Delamarter is also head of the steering committee for the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT) Project. Jeremy R. Brown works in the EMIP as director of digitization and technology. In December of 2008 and January of 2009, he served on a digitization team that worked in Ethiopia to digitize about 1,200 manuscripts. Between January and June 2010, he served as Director of Digitization and Conservation in the Endangered Archives Programme grant to digitize the collection at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Steve Delamarter is Professor of Hebrew Bible at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, director of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project, and founding chair of the section on Ethiopic Bible and Literature at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.


Jeremy Brown has served as director of digital imaging at the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project and is currently in the PhD program in Semitics at Catholic University of America.