page_title: Ethiopian manuscript collections
section_title: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
hierarchical_section_title: Ethiopian manuscript collections / American Collections of Ethiopian Manuscripts / Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
context_page_description: Ethiopian manuscripts are known to have reached Europe as early as the fifteenth century, perhaps even earlier, through Egypt, Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land and through members of the Ethiopian monastery of St Stephen of the Abyssinians in Rome. Subsequently, travellers, missionaries, military personnel and scholars contributed to the development of collections outside Ethiopia. In Europe, the three biggest collections of Ethiopian manuscripts are in Rome, in Paris and in London. These three organisations together hold about 2,700 manuscripts. Oriental collections of nearly all significant European libraries also have Ethiopian material, with some still pursuing a policy of acquisition. The five largest collections in North America are at Catholic University, the Library of Congress, UCLA, Princeton, and Howard University.
  Monasteries and modern institutions in Ethiopia have, meanwhile, maintained extensive collections and in some cases are still centres of manuscript production. Parchment was used for Ethiopian manuscripts from the time of the Four Gospels books of Abbā Garimā. Apart from Islamic manuscripts, paper only came into general use twentieth century.
context_section_description: The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland has a small collection of manuscripts and Ethiopian art. Digital catalogues of some of this material is available, notably Walters Ms. W.768, Ethiopic Psalter with Canticles, Song of Songs, and two hymns in praise of Mary. Ethiopian Gospels WDL13018 is available entire through Wikicommons.
caption: Leaf from Gunda Gunde Gospels, Walters Art Museum, W850199R
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