Ethiopian Bookbinding Tradition

The first major work to detail and to describe the tradition
and the practices around the Ethiopian scribal bound book, providing a
comprehensive technical study of its materials, structures, and techniques.

The history of the codex in the Ethiopian highlands stretches back over a millennium to the earliest centuries of the now ubiquitous book form. The legacy of Ethiopia’s bound manuscript tradition – one of the longest continuously practiced in the world – has been carried forward by countless scribes, passing their skills down through generation after generation. This history is evident not only in the hundreds of thousands of bound manuscripts that survive, many still in active use, but also in those still being produced today. Ethiopian Bookbinding Tradition is the first major work to detail and to describe this tradition and the practices of the Ethiopian scribal bound book, providing a comprehensive technical study of its materials, structures, and techniques. It gathers and synthesizes the significant but dispersed and often inaccessible body of literature on the subject with further observations and analysis provided by the author. Through in-depth discussion and extensive illustrations, this book meets the long-overdue need to bring Ethiopian bookbinding into the spotlight as a significant tradition in its own right and to firmly establish it within the larger history of bookbinding.

Foreword; Preface and Acknowledgments; Amharic Transliteration and Ethiopian Names; Introduction; Chapter One: The Codex in Christian Ethiopia – Ownership and use; Estimated numbers of extant manuscripts; Dating manuscripts and their bindings; Scribal training and labor; Chapter Two: Materials – Parchment and other writing surfaces; Leather; Boards; Thread; Textiles; Chapter Three: Structure – Measurements; Quire composition; Endleaves; Chapter Four: Construction – Sewing; Board attachment; Spine wrappers; Board linings and mirrors; Covering; Endbands; Fastenings; Chapter Five: Decoration – Tooling; Tool designs; Motifs; Metal ornamentation; Uncommon embellishments; Chapter Six: Protection and Transport – Over-covers; Satchels; Conclusion; Appendix A: Codices referenced by location/collection; Appendix B: Results of analysis of thread from a nineteenth-century manuscript; Appendix C: Proportions of psalters (fourteenth to twentieth centuries); Appendix D: Expanded descriptions of satchels; Appendix E: Early European accounts; Glossary of Ethiopian bookbinding terms; Bibliography and published catalogs of Ethiopian manuscripts; Indices; About the author

• By (author) Bill Hanscom

Bill Hanscom has created a foundational work that will inform and guide future research and description of the Ethiopian binding tradition for a long time to come. This beautiful book is truly a testament to one of our most ancient and historically important binding traditions, and it will serve as a treasured resource for those who have custody of these bindings.

— Julia Miller