BPG Ethiopian Bindings

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Book and Paper Group Wiki > Book Conservation Wiki > Ethiopian Bindings

This page covers the structure and conservation of Ethiopian bindings. See also: Book Boards. For information on other binding traditions, see Bookbinding Traditions by Region or Culture.

Wiki Compilers: Eliana Dal Sasso, Bill Hanscom, Marcela Ivanovicova
Wiki Contributors: Tessa Gadomski, Cathie Magee, Abigail Quandt, please add your name here

Copyright 2025. The AIC Wiki is a publication of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). It is published as a convenience for the members of AIC. Publication does not endorse nor recommend any treatments, methods, or techniques described herein. Information on researching with and citing the wiki can be found on the Reference and Bibliography Protocols page.

Cite this page:

American Institute for Conservation (AIC). "BPG Ethiopian Bindings." AIC Wiki. May 20, 2025. https://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/BPG_Ethiopian_Bindings.

Terminology

Issues related to the chosen system of transliteration

The Ethiopian manuscript culture

History

When it developed and its link with Christianity. Islam culture in Ethiopia.

Number and distribution of manuscripts

How many and where they are.

Dating of manuscripts

How old they are.

The production of the codex

Scribes and bookbinders

Who are they, the training etc.

Writing supports

The composition of the quire

Pricking, ruling, composition of the quire, tackets.

Conservation

Ethical concerns, approaches

Bibliography

Abbadie, Antoine. 1859. Catalogue raisonné de manuscrits éthiopiens appartenant à Antoine d’Abbadie. Paris: Imprimerie impériale.

Bausi, Alessandro, Eugenia Sokolinski, and Pier Giorgio Borbone, eds. 2015. Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies : An Introduction. COMSt.

Bull, William. 1987. "A 17th Century Ethiopic Bookbinding." The Abbey Newsletter 11: 44-45.

Capon, Lester. 2008. "Extreme Bookbinding: A Fascinating Preservation Project in Ethiopia." Skin Deep 26: 2-11.

Chernetsov, Sevir. 2007. "Magic Scrolls." In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, edited by Siegbert Uhlig, 3: 642-643. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Dal Sasso, Eliana. 2022. "Describing Ethiopian Bookbinding in TEI." Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative.

Di Bella, Marco and Nikolas Sarris. 2014. "Field conservation in East Tigray, Ethiopia." Care and Conservation of Manuscripts 14. 271-307.

Faqāda Śellāsē Tafarrā. 2002. ጥንታዊ የብራና መጻሕፍት አዘጋጃጀት (Ṭentāwi yaberānnā maṣāḥeft azzagāǧāǧat, "The ancient manner of preparing parchment books"). Addis Ababā: Yunivarsiti Prēss.

Godet, Eric. 1981a. "Le Preparation Du Parchemin En Ethiopie." Abbay 11 (1980–1982): 203-210.

Godet, Eric. 1981b. "Une methode traditionelle de preparation de lencre noire en Ethiopie." Abbay 11 (1980-1982): 211-217.

Hanscom, Bill. 2016. "Towards a Morphology of the Ethiopian Book Satchel." In Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding, edited by Julia Miller, III: 300-355. Ann Arbor: The Legacy Press.

Liszewska, Weronika, and Jacek Tomaszewski. 2016. "Analysis and Conservation of Two Ethiopian Manuscripts on Parchment from the Collection of the University Library in Warsaw." Edited by M. J. Driscoll. Care and Conservation of Manuscripts 15: 183-202.

Medhin, Taye Wolde. 1981. "La Preparation Traditional des Couleurs en Ethiopie." Abbay 11 (1980–1982): 219–24.

Mellors, John, and Anne Parsons. 2003. "Manuscript and Book Production in South Gondar in the Twenty-First Century." In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the History of Ethiopian Art, Addis Ababa, 5–8 November 2002, edited by Birhanu Teferra and Richard Pankhurst: 85-99. Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University.

Mellors, John, and Anne Parsons. 2002a. Bookmaking in Rural Ethiopia in the Twenty-First Century: Scribes of South Gondar. London: New Cross Books.

Mellors, John, and Anne Parsons. 2002b. Ethiopian Bookmaking: Bookmaking in Rural Ethiopia in the Twenty-First Century. London: New Cross Books.

Nosnitsin, Denis. 2017. Catalogue of Ethiopic Manuscripts. Copenhagen: NIAS Press : Det Kongelige Bibliotek.

Nosnitsin, Denis. 2016. "Lesser Known Features of the Ethiopian Codex." In Movements in Ethiopia, Ethiopia in Movement. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies I, edited by Éloi Ficquet, Ahmed Hassen, and T. Osmond: 75-90. Addis Ababa and Los Angeles: CFEE–IES and Tsehai Publishers.

Nosnitsin, Denis, and Dorothea Reule. 2021. The Ethiopic Manuscripts of Dayr As-Suryān: A Catalogue. Weisbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1984. "Ethiopian manuscript illuminations: Some aspects of the artist’s craft as revealed in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century manuscripts in the British Library." Azania 19: 105-14.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1983/4. "Ethiopian Manuscript Bindings and Their Decoration." Abbay 12: 205-257.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1981. "Imported Textiles in Ethiopian Eighteenth Century Manuscripts in Britain." Azania 16: 131-150.

Pankhurst, Richard. 1980. "Imported Textiles in Ethiopian Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Manuscripts in Britain." Azania 15: 43-55.

Paterson, Dan. 2008. "An Investigation and Treatment of an Uncommon Ethiopian Binding and Consideration of its Historical Context." The Book and Paper Group Annual 27: 55-62.

van Regemorter, Berthe. 1962. ""Ethiopian Bookbindings." The Library s5-XVII (1): 85 88.

Richardin, Pascale, Jacques Mercier, Gabrielle Tieu, Stéphanie Elarbi, and Stéphanie Legrand-Longin. 2006. "Les rouleaux protecteurs éthiopiens d’une donation au musée du quai Branly: étude historique, scientifique et interventions de conservation-restauration." Technè 23 (January): 79-84.

Sərgaw Ḥable Selassie. 1981. Bookmaking in Ethiopia. Leiden: Karstens Drukkers.

Tomaszewski, Jacek, and Michael Gervers. 2015. "Technological aspects of the monastic manuscript collection at May Wäyni, Ethiopia." From Dust to Digital. Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. Edited by Maja Kominko. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.

Vadrucci, Monia, Davide Bussolari, Massimo Chiari, Claudia De Rose, Michele Di Foggia, Anna Mazzinghi, Noemi Orazi, Carlotta L. Zanasi, and Cristina Cicero. 2023. "The Ethiopian Magic Scrolls: A Combined Approach for the Characterization of Inks and Pigments Composition." Heritage 6 (2): 1378-96.

Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. 2015. "Ethiopian Healing Scrolls." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. 2015.

Winslow, Sean M. 2019. "Making Manuscripts." Treasures of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, edited by Jacopo Gnisci, 23-27. Oxford: Manar al-Athar–University of Oxford.

Winslow, Sean Michael. 2015. "Ethiopian Manuscript Culture: Practices and Contexts." Thesis, University of Toronto.

Winstanley, Mark. 2007. "Tsbook - (Tigrinya for Good). An Ethiopian Odyssey – and the Repair of the Illuminated Pages of the 6th-Century Gospel of Abba Garima." Skin Deep 23 (Spring): 2-10.

History of This Page

This page was created in September 2021 from content previously found on the Bookbinding Traditions by Region or Culture page under the heading "Ethiopian".