Journal articles on the topic 'Museu do Vaticano'

Este artigo teve como fundamento trabalhos e pesquisas realizados no setor de Etnologia do Museu Dom Bosco de Campo Grande, durante o projeto de transferência do acervo para um novo espaço museal, obedecendo a normas e técnicas desenvolvidas a partir de consultorias com especialistas nacionais e internacionais, dos quais citamos: Gedley Braga, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Agostinho Eibajwu e Ayrton Meri Ekureu, Centro de Cultura Bororo da Aldeia de Meruri- Mato Grosso; Dra. Claudia Kusch, restauradora em diversos museus da Itália, principalmente do Museu do Vaticano, e professora do Instituto Central de Restauração de Roma; Axel Nielsen, arqueólogo, professor e restaurador radicado em Roma; Ester Console, curadora do departamento de Etnologia do Museo Missionario Etnologico Vaticano, na Itália.

A exposição Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (Corpos sagrados: moda e a imaginação católica), realizada pelo Metropolitan Museum of Arts and Costume Institute (MET) em Nova York, de 10 de maio a 8 de outubro de 2018, teve como objetivo promover a reflexão sobre o diálogo entre moda, religião e arte1 . A mostra esteve pautada em três elementos principais: trajes assinados por renomados estilistas que tiveram inspiração na arte sacra, a coleção de arte medieval do MET e peças raras do Museu do Vaticano, cedidas exclusivamente para a exibição. [...]

A partir da última casa habitada por Dom Helder Camara (anexa à Igreja das Fronteiras, no Recife), o artigo estuda o quanto aquela residência foi emblemática em sua perspectiva de não encarar limites como intransponíveis, mas, ao contrário, enxergar a possibilidade de ampliá-los ou aboli-los. Assim, foram abordados três eixos: o primeiro explora aspectos da construção, desde a capela primitiva, localizada na fronteira da estância de Henrique Dias, até quando, após visita do Imperador Pedro II, ela recebeu o título de Capela Imperial; o segundo trata das inquietações de Dom Helder que, ao assumir a Arquidiocese local, morou no Palácio Episcopal embora desejasse despojar-se daquele simbolismo de poder. Foram percorridas as opções cogitadas e a escolha da Igreja das Fronteiras, investigando tanto o alcance da mudança representando rompimento de limites, quanto a ampliação do seu testemunho de bispo coerente com debates e compromissos firmados intra e extra Concílio Vaticano II. Tudo é analisado sob o prisma do lema do seu episcopado – Em tuas mãos! –, inclusive seu posicionamento quando muros da Igreja foram alvejados e ele experimentou a iminência da morte enquanto última fronteira. Como consequência, o local passou a demarcar outra extinção de divisas ao tornar-se referência para visitas de estadistas, religiosos, artistas e gente do povo; o terceiro analisa os processos pelos quais passou a igreja – tombamento (1947), inventário dos bens (2003) – e o reconhecimento como Casa-museu, condição atual da residência do falecido arcebispo, conferida também pelo fluxo regular de visitantes e pelas exposições permanentes nela realizadas acerca do legado helderiano.

Egyptian elite representation in the Twenty-seventh Dynasty features a number of statues with Persian honour awards. The following paragraphs discuss the socio-cultural significance of displaying Persian jewellery in the statues of Udjahorresnet in the Musei Vaticani, of Ptahhotep in the Brooklyn Museum, and of a man of unknown name in the Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. The context of these persika will be contrasted to those in the tomb reliefs of Petosiris in Tuna el-Gebel, which open up very different lines of interpretation.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> This work starts from the request to have a physical high-resolution 3D model of the external, anthropoid coffin of the scribe Butehamon, held at the Museo Egizio, Turin. At the time of writing, a replica of the coffin, based on this survey work, functions as final and focal installation of the temporary exhibition Archeologia Invisibile of the Museo Egizio, Turin, running from March 2019 to January 2020. The replica acts as support for a micro-mapping installation meant to re-project a pattern of images onto the coffin’s surface, including the results of different radiometric and colourimetric analyses performed in the recent past by Museo Egizio and Musei Vaticani. This collaborative work encouraged a thorough discussion on the interaction between scientists and humanists engaged in the study of archaeological finds, on the needs and expectations of both sides, and on the technical problems relating to handling objects of different sizes.</p>

Debates around the significance, function and social value of museums are still challenging museum practices and models. In particular, the demands of “source communities” for self-representation and self-emancipation in the global community continue to call into question the role of the museum as a catalyst for promoting social change across cultures. In this paper, I push this question further by discussing the desires of a group of Roman Catholic woodcarvers in central Asmat (Indonesian Papua) to build a museum for exhibiting their carvings in the Vatican. To them, the Vatican is not only the sacred centre of Catholicism but also an integral part of their mythical world of ancestors. After a brief examination of their considerations, I attempt to put their ambitious museum idea into dialogue with current debates on “the postcolonial museum” to highlight how it can dictate new directions for indigenising museums.

IL CASINO DI PIO IV AL VATICANOIl Casino di Pio IV nei Giardini Vaticani fu progettata dall'antiquario Pirro Ligorio (c. 1531–83), uno degli archeologici classici più competenti del sedicesimo secolo. In considerazione dell'attività di Ligorio sia come antiquario che come archeologo, sono spesso stati sottolineati paralleli tra il Casino di Pio IV e l'architettura classica, fin dal diciottesimo secolo. Comunque, tentativi di associare il Casino con antiche architetture si sono basati sul presupposto che il Casino (che è poi il nome più recente) fosse stato progettato da Ligorio come una villa. Ciò, ad ogni modo, non è supportato da alcuna evidenza documentaria, e sia l'architettura che il carattere del Casino sembrano escluderlo. Il Casino è infatti menzionato nei documenti dell'epoca come sede di una fonte, e le iscrizioni commemorative contengono le parole FONTIBUS e LYMPHAEUM. Allo stesso modo, l'intero edificio è chiamato da Ligorio un Lymphaeo. Si discute in questo articolo che il ‘Casino’ possa essere meglio compreso come una ricostruzione antiquaria di un musaeum classico. Non è inoltre da escludere che Ligorio, nel progettare il Casino, avesse in mente il Museo dell'Accademia di Atene come modello per un'accademia moderna. Questa è una nuova interpretazione del complesso, e nuovo materiale documentario legato alla sua cronologia ed ai cambiamenti che ebbero luogo durante il pontificato di Clemente XI, vengono inoltre presentati.

L'articolo si propone di descrivere alcuni importanti casi di musei sacri cristiani dalla tarda antichità all'età contemporanea, al fine di tracciare la storia di questa istituzione e individuare i concetti chiave che ne stanno alla base. Il confronto diacronico parte dalla donazione di libri e oggetti liturgici da parte di Sant'Agostino alla sua chiesa episcopale (fine del IV secolo), per poi passare al Medioevo - quando l'idea di musei sacri cristiani è pienamente sviluppata - e concentrarsi sul Tesoro di San Denis, istituito dall'abate Suger nel XII secolo. Nella seconda parte del saggio sono esposte le storie relative alle collezioni di oggetti cristiani nei Musei Vaticani e i concetti che li hanno ispirati nel XVIII secolo. Si passa poi alla presentazione finale con l'analisi delle attuali linee guida dei musei sacri cristiani, visti come il prodotto finale del millenario patrimonio della museologia cristiana.

AbstractThe four frescoes by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Museum visually embody close approximations of several numerical ratios that are of deep significance in the material grounding of musical harmonies in the physics of natural harmonics. Of special significance is the Pythagorean musical frequency ratio of 9:8, the (discordant) whole tone interval, which in Plato's Timaeus is called the epogdoôn (‘and an eighth’).

In 1972, one of Michelangelo's earliest and best-known Pietàs was attacked by an evident lunatic. Fifteen times it was struck with a ninepound hammer; the Madonna's arm was broken in several places, her nose was knocked off, and her eye and veil were badly chipped. Immediately after the assault, and before knowing precisely what was needed to be replaced, the Director of the Vatican Museum, Redig de Campos, decided that integral restoration was called for.

AbstractLa Menorà: Culto, Storia E Mito, The Menorah: Worship, History and Myth was a monumental exhibition mounted by the Vatican Museums and the Jewish Museum of Rome in the Spring of 2017. Bringing together many of the most important artifacts relating to the history of the biblical lampstand in both Jewish and Christian traditions, this exhibition marks a milestone in Jewish-Catholic engagement, and was an active agent in that process. This article presents this act of museological diplomacy, describing many of its most significant artifacts as well as the historiographic challenges presented by this exhibition.

Resumen Siguiendo el trabajo anterior sobre la Expedición Científica de Exploración de la Sección de Arqueología y Etnografía del Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileño, en ese texto será evidenciada la relación entre la ilustración etnográfica y la producción artística promovida por la corte del emperador Don Pedro II y por el Academia Imperial de Bellas Artes de Rio de Janeiro. En particular, serán tratados dos casos: las esculturas figurando indios norte-americanos ejecutadas por el alemán Ferdinand Pettrich en Estados Unidos entre 1835 y 1845, re-elaboradas durante la estada brasileña del artista hasta 1857 y donadas al papa Pio IX, hoy en el Museo Etnologico Missionario en Ciudad del Vaticano. El caso más relevante para nuestro análisis, sin embargo, es el del monumento ecuestre de Don Pedro I realizado por el escultor francés Louis Rochet en Rio de Janeiro entre 1857 y 1862, en que la ilustración etnográfica se une con intenciones conmemorativas y soluciones estéticas de fuerte impacto para el arte de la época.

AbstractThe focus of this article is a vast seventeenth-century panorama of Constantinople, which is an exceptional drawing of the city, currently displayed at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The panorama is an elaborate piece of anti-Ottoman propaganda designed by the Franciscan friar Niccolò Guidalotto da Mondavio. Guidalotto also prepared a large manuscript, held in the Vatican Library, which details the panorama’s meaning and the motivation behind its creation. It depicts the city as seen from across the Golden Horn in Galata, throwing new light on both the city and the relationships between the rival Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire. It also trumpets the unalloyed Christian zeal of Niccolò Guidalotto and serves as a fascinating example of visual Crusade propaganda against the Ottomans in the early modern period.

Throughout my life I have studied edges, borderlines, signs determining inside and outside, insider and outsider, seeking to understand the differences – or similarities – between scientific and artistic ways of appreciating life. In 2005 I had a special opportunity to follow the lectures of the Vatican summer school of astrobiology, and expand my understanding of the origin and limiting factors of life. Inspired by this, I made the strongly hairy, three-dimensional, black felt Dark Matter and Extraterrestrial art works, expressing something between known and foreign, visible and hidden, combining male and female and general mammalian features. These works were exhibited in Gerald R. Ford Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 2006. I continued reading my notes about the inspiring lectures by Lunine et al., resulting in making a series of fibre artworks called Lecture Notes and, finally, a series of twenty works about the origin and limitations of life. This exhibition, The way I see the Stars, felt inspired by astrobiology and has been shown in Castel Gandolfo, Rome, Italy and in Kaarina, Finland. All the works have been made using fibre techniques.

LE PITTURE CON SCENE DELL'ODISSEA DA VIA GRAZIOSA: UN TENTATIVO DI RICONTESTUALIZZAZIONELe pitture con scene dell'Odissea, scoperte tra il 1849 e il 1850 e conservate nei Musei Vaticani, costituiscono una delle opere capitali della pittura romana di secondo stile. La tendenza recente ad abbassarne la data fino all'età augustea e l'assenza di uno studio topografico adeguato inducono ad un tentativo di ricontestualizzazione, tanto sul piano cronologico quanta sul piano spaziale. Dal primo punto di vista, il ritrovamento awenuto contemporaneamente di frammenti di un calendario dipinto coevo alle pitture, che è dimostrabilmente pregiuliano, indica un terminus post quern non al 46 a.C: le pitture vanno quindi datate intorno al 50 a.C. circa. Dal secondo punto di vista la posizione della domus sul Cispius permette di identificarne l'atrio in un frammento della Pianta Marmorea Severiana. La presenza nella stessa zona del tempio di Mefitis e la scoperta nelle vicinanze di due iscrizioni che nominano i Papirii, suggeriscono di attribuire la casa a questa gens. Infatti, il tempio di Mefitis, probabilmente di carattere privato, è stato forse fondato, a seguito di evocatio, da L. Papirius Cursor, dopo il trionfo su Sanniti, Tarantini e Lucani del 272 a.C.

In this work, we present some new results in applying thermoluminescence (TL) dating to the clay core of bronze statues. This is very important, due to the impossibility of directly dating a metal. Very few cases of indirect dating of clay cores by TL are reported in the literature. We re-considered three cases of dating of clay core from important bronzes in Rome. The parameters to be considered were not easy to calculate in the case of the Lupa Capitolina. However, its traditionally reported Etruscan origin is definitely ruled out, even if the accuracy in the dating is too low to precisely propose a date of the casting. The comparison with radiocarbon results shows good agreement for a Medieval dating. Two other bronze statues were analysed in order to date their casting by TL; a horse from Musei Capitolini resulted to have been cast in the Greek classical period, excluding its casting in the Rome imperial period. A third study shows that, in particularly favourable situations, TL dating of clay core can give rather precise results. This is the case where in the clay core are present materials that behave like good dosimeters, as generally happens in dating ceramics. Furthermore, the possibility of measuring all the parameters influencing the calculation of the dose rate is essential; both the external radiation sources and the radiation reduction by the water content must be taken into account. This was the case of Saint Peter in the Vatican that turned out to be a cast from the beginning of the XIV century.

The manuscript tradition of the Zaydi branch of Shiʿism, which since the 9th century has been preserved primarily in Yemen, is nowadays dispersed over countless libraries in Yemen and the Middle East, Turkey, Europe, and the United States, of which only a fraction has been digitized and is available for open access. Its treasures came to the attention of scholars outside Yemen at a relatively late stage. Whereas the bulk of Arabic manuscripts nowadays housed in the libraries of Europe were acquired between the 17th and 19th centuries in centrally located cities and regions such as the Ottoman capital Istanbul, Syria and Palestine, and Egypt—all strongholds of Sunnism—the collections of Zaydi/Yemeni manuscripts were established only at the end of the 19th and first decades of the 20th century. Among the European explorers and merchants who collected manuscripts in South Arabia and later sold them to libraries in Europe was Eduard Glaser, who visited Yemen on four occasions between 1882 and 1894. After Glaser sold the manuscripts purchased during his first and second journey to the Königliche Bibliothek zu Berlin in 1884 and 1887, Wilhelm Ahlwardt made them the last acquisition to be included in his Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts, published between 1887 and 1899. The third Glaser collection was purchased in 1889 by the British Museum in London—with the exception of the Lane collection that was purchased in 1891 and 1893, it was the last acquisition to be included in Charles Rieu's Supplement to the Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts published in 1894. The fourth Glaser collection was sold in 1894 to the Kaiserlich-Königliche Hofbibliothek in Vienna, constituting the most important acquisition of Arabic manuscripts by the library at the time—unlike the Berlin and London Glaser collections, the Vienna Glaser manuscripts were never described in a published catalogue. An even larger collection of Zaydi/Yemeni manuscripts was brought together by the Italian merchant Giuseppe Caprotti during his sojourn in South Arabia from 1885 to 1919. Portions of the Caprotti collection now belong to the Bavarian State Library in Munich and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, while the majority of the collection is owned by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. European libraries and increasingly US libraries have continuously purchased manuscripts of Yemeni provenance during the 20th and 21st centuries.

RESUMENLa pretensión de este artículo es ofrecer una serie de reflexiones y valoraciones metodológicas sobre la historia medieval de la Iglesia y la religiosidad partiendo de algunos aspectos destacados de la producción historiográfica reciente y esbozar ciertas propuestas en la misma clave metodológica. Este ensayo reflexiona sobre temas, enfoques y perspectivas, sobre los niveles de estudio de lo religioso y sobre la integración de la historia de la Iglesia y la historia social, y aboga por una historiasocial de la Iglesia.PALABRAS CLAVE: Historia Medieval, Historia de la Iglesia y la vida religiosa en la Edad Media, Metodología histórica, Liturgia y sociedad, Tendencias historiográficas.ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to offer a series of reflections and methodological evaluations on the medieval history of the Church and religiosity based on some outstanding aspects of recent historiographical production, and to outline certain proposals in the same methodological vein. 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Este estudo tem como objetivo problematizar a questão da repatriação de bens culturais, especialmente aqueles que atualmente se encontram sob a guarda de instituições museais. Os processos de repatriação foram evidenciados mundialmente nos últimos 50 anos, consequência de um movimento de consciência da importância da cultura material de diversas culturas, que por anos sofreram com o colonialismo e o domínio de outros países. Atualmente, muitos países e grupos sociais reivindicam junto a organizações mundiais, a partir da construção ainda incipiente de políticas internacionais, o retorno de seu patrimônio cultural. Para o embasamento teórico, conceitos como repatriação, restituição, discurso, nacionalismo, universalismo e réplicas contribuíram para estabelecer um diálogo com a produção de autores do campo da Antropologia, da Arqueologia, da História, da Museologia, entre outros, a exemplo de James Clifford, José Reginaldo Gonçalves, Ulpiano Bezerra de Meneses e John Merryman. Desta forma, para exemplificar a discussão se pretende apresentar alguns estudos de caso nacionais e estrangeiros (tanto os que já foram solucionados, quanto os que ainda esperam por um desfecho). A investigação centrou-se na metodologia de análise documental e bibliográfica, consultando fontes como sites oficiais, livros, artigos, catálogos, jornais, entre outros. Apoiada na perspectiva da crítica pós-colonial, que visa trazer à luz outras concepções e narrativas possíveis, esperamos contribuir para o avanço da discussão sobre a propriedade dos bens culturais, especialmente no que se refere ao debate sobre a repatriação. Na tentativa de avançar nessa discussão, apontaremos alguns caminhos possíveis que podem auxiliar na resolução desses casos, como a utilização de réplicas empregues como um recurso adicional para as nações que se encontram fora desta disputa, servindo como elementos visuais didáticos nas exposições. Estas réplicas são geralmente oriundas dos estudos das escolas de Belas Artes Nacionais, devidamente autorizadas para a realização de cópias de elementos icônicos de grandes acervos, como peças do Museu do Louvre, do Museu Britânico, do Museu do Vaticano, entre outros. O momento é propício para uma reflexão sobre o quadro mundial dos acervos museológicos, bem como a compreensão da importância desses objetos que fundamentam os discursos e narrativas construídas pelos museus.

During the summer of 2002, thirty-one medieval frescoes went on display at the Museum of Texas Tech University, the only venue in the world for this extraordinary exhibition. This paper summarizes a qualitative research study that focused on the experiences of three visitors to the Medieval Frescoes from the Vatican Museums Collection exhibition. The study applied Gadamers (1993) idea of horizons to both the visitor-participants and the frescoes to illuminate the interpretive event, the meeting of horizons, and to uncover any obstacles that might hinder the fusion of horizons. The findings of the study are presented in a readers theatre format as an alternative to traditional reporting methods so that the voices of the participants, frescoes, and researcher can be portrayed more clearly.

IntroductionThere are two types of Africa. The first is a place where people and cultures live. The second is the image of Africa that has been invented through colonial knowledge and power. The colonial image of Africa, as the Other of Europe, a land “enveloped in the dark mantle of night” was supported by western states as it justified their colonial practices (Hegel 91). Any evidence that challenged the myth of the Dark Continent was destroyed, removed or ignored. While the looting of African natural resources has been studied, the looting of African knowledges hasn’t received as much attention, partly based on the assumption that Africans did not produce knowledge that could be stolen. This article invalidates this myth by examining the legacy of Ethiopia’s indigenous Ge’ez literature, and its looting and abduction by powerful western agents. The article argues that this has resulted in epistemic violence, where students of the Ethiopian indigenous education system do not have access to their books, while European orientalists use them to interpret Ethiopian history and philosophy using a foreign lens. The analysis is based on interviews with teachers and students of ten Ge’ez schools in Ethiopia, and trips to the Ethiopian manuscript collections in The British Library, The Princeton Library, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and The National Archives in Addis Ababa.The Context of Ethiopian Indigenous KnowledgesGe’ez is one of the ancient languages of Africa. According to Professor Ephraim Isaac, “about 10,000 years ago, one single nation or community of a single linguistic group existed in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Horn of Africa” (The Habesha). The language of this group is known as Proto-Afroasiatic or Afrasian languages. It is the ancestor of the Semitic, Cushitic, Nilotic, Omotic and other languages that are currently spoken in Ethiopia by its 80 ethnic groups, and the neighbouring countries (Diakonoff). Ethiopians developed the Ge’ez language as their lingua franca with its own writing system some 2000 years ago. Currently, Ge’ez is the language of academic scholarship, studied through the traditional education system (Isaac, The Ethiopian). Since the fourth century, an estimated 1 million Ge’ez manuscripts have been written, covering religious, historical, mathematical, medicinal, and philosophical texts.One of the most famous Ge’ez manuscripts is the Kebra Nagast, a foundational text that embodied the indigenous conception of nationhood in Ethiopia. The philosophical, political and religious themes in this book, which craft Ethiopia as God’s country and the home of the Ark of the Covenant, contributed to the country’s success in defending itself from European colonialism. The production of books like the Kebra Nagast went hand in hand with a robust indigenous education system that trained poets, scribes, judges, artists, administrators and priests. Achieving the highest stages of learning requires about 30 years after which the scholar would be given the rare title Arat-Ayina, which means “four eyed”, a person with the ability to see the past as well as the future. Today, there are around 50,000 Ge’ez schools across the country, most of which are in rural villages and churches.Ge’ez manuscripts are important textbooks and reference materials for students. They are carefully prepared from vellum “to make them last forever” (interview, 3 Oct. 2019). Some of the religious books are regarded as “holy persons who breathe wisdom that gives light and food to the human soul”. Other manuscripts, often prepared as scrolls are used for medicinal purposes. Each manuscript is uniquely prepared reflecting inherited wisdom on contemporary lives using the method called Tirguamme, the act of giving meaning to sacred texts. Preparation of books is costly. Smaller manuscript require the skins of 50-70 goats/sheep and large manuscript needed 100-120 goats/sheep (Tefera).The Loss of Ethiopian ManuscriptsSince the 18th century, a large quantity of these manuscripts have been stolen, looted, or smuggled out of the country by travellers who came to the country as explorers, diplomats and scientists. The total number of Ethiopian manuscripts taken is still unknown. Amsalu Tefera counted 6928 Ethiopian manuscripts currently held in foreign libraries and museums. This figure does not include privately held or unofficial collections (41).Looting and smuggling were sponsored by western governments, institutions, and notable individuals. For example, in 1868, The British Museum Acting Director Richard Holms joined the British army which was sent to ‘rescue’ British hostages at Maqdala, the capital of Emperor Tewodros. Holms’ mission was to bring treasures for the Museum. Before the battle, Tewodros had established the Medhanialem library with more than 1000 manuscripts as part of Ethiopia’s “industrial revolution”. When Tewodros lost the war and committed suicide, British soldiers looted the capital, including the treasury and the library. They needed 200 mules and 15 elephants to transport the loot and “set fire to all buildings so that no trace was left of the edifices which once housed the manuscripts” (Rita Pankhurst 224). Richard Holmes collected 356 manuscripts for the Museum. A wealthy British woman called Lady Meux acquired some of the most illuminated manuscripts. In her will, she bequeathed them to be returned to Ethiopia. However, her will was reversed by court due to a campaign from the British press (Richard Pankhurst). In 2018, the V&A Museum in London displayed some of the treasures by incorporating Maqdala into the imperial narrative of Britain (Woldeyes, Reflections).Britain is by no means the only country to seek Ethiopian manuscripts for their collections. Smuggling occurred in the name of science, an act of collecting manuscripts for study. Looting involved local collaborators and powerful foreign sponsors from places like France, Germany and the Vatican. Like Maqdala, this was often sponsored by governments or powerful financers. For example, the French government sponsored the Dakar-Djibouti Mission led by Marcel Griaule, which “brought back about 350 manuscripts and scrolls from Gondar” (Wion 2). It was often claimed that these manuscripts were purchased, rather than looted. Johannes Flemming of Germany was said to have purchased 70 manuscripts and ten scrolls for the Royal Library of Berlin in 1905. However, there was no local market for buying manuscripts. Ge’ez manuscripts were, and still are, written to serve spiritual and secular life in Ethiopia, not for buying and selling. There are countless other examples, but space limits how many can be provided in this article. What is important to note is that museums and libraries have accrued impressive collections without emphasising how those collections were first obtained. The loss of the intellectual heritage of Ethiopians to western collectors has had an enormous impact on the country.Knowledge Grabbing: The Denial of Access to KnowledgeWith so many manuscripts lost, European collectors became the narrators of Ethiopian knowledge and history. Edward Ullendorff, a known orientalist in Ethiopian studies, refers to James Bruce as “the explorer of Abyssinia” (114). Ullendorff commented on the significance of Bruce’s travel to Ethiopia asperhaps the most important aspect of Bruce’s travels was the collection of Ethiopic manuscripts… . They opened up entirely new vistas for the study of Ethiopian languages and placed this branch of Oriental scholarship on a much more secure basis. It is not known how many MSS. reached Europe through his endeavours, but the present writer is aware of at least twenty-seven, all of which are exquisite examples of Ethiopian manuscript art. (133)This quote encompasses three major ways in which epistemic violence occurs: denial of access to knowledge, Eurocentric interpretation of Ethiopian manuscripts, and the handling of Ge’ez manuscripts as artefacts from the past. These will be discussed below.Western ‘travellers’, such as Bruce, did not fully disclose how many manuscripts they took or how they acquired them. The abundance of Ethiopian manuscripts in western institutions can be compared to the scarcity of such materials among traditional schools in Ethiopia. In this research, I have visited ten indigenous schools in Wollo (Lalibela, Neakutoleab, Asheten, Wadla), in Gondar (Bahita, Kuskwam, Menbere Mengist), and Gojam (Bahirdar, Selam Argiew Maryam, Giorgis). In all of the schools, there is lack of Ge’ez manuscripts. Students often come from rural villages and do not receive any government support. The scarcity of Ge’ez manuscripts, and the lack of funding which might allow for the purchasing of books, means the students depend mainly on memorising Ge’ez texts told to them from the mouth of their teacher. Although this method of learning is not new, it currently is the only way for passing indigenous knowledges across generations.The absence of manuscripts is most strongly felt in the advanced schools. For instance, in the school of Qene, poetic literature is created through an in-depth study of the vocabulary and grammar of Ge’ez. A Qene student is required to develop a deep knowledge of Ge’ez in order to understand ancient and medieval Ge’ez texts which are used to produce poetry with multiple meanings. Without Ge’ez manuscripts, students cannot draw their creative works from the broad intellectual tradition of their ancestors. When asked how students gain access to textbooks, one student commented:we don’t have access to Birana books (Ge’ez manuscripts written on vellum). We cannot learn the ancient wisdom of painting, writing, and computing developed by our ancestors. We simply buy paper books such as Dawit (Psalms), Sewasew (grammar) or Degwa (book of songs with notations) and depend on our teachers to teach us the rest. We also lend these books to each other as many students cannot afford to buy them. Without textbooks, we expect to spend double the amount of time it would take if we had textbooks. (Interview, 3 Sep. 2019)Many students interrupt their studies and work as labourers to save up and buy paper textbooks, but they still don’t have access to the finest works taken to Europe. Most Ge’ez manuscripts remaining in Ethiopia are locked away in monasteries, church stores or other places to prevent further looting. The manuscripts in Addis Ababa University and the National Archives are available for researchers but not to the students of the indigenous system, creating a condition of internal knowledge grabbing.While the absence of Ge’ez manuscripts denied, and continues to deny, Ethiopians the chance to enrich their indigenous education, it benefited western orientalists to garner intellectual authority on the field of Ethiopian studies. In 1981, British Museum Director John Wilson said, “our Abyssinian holdings are more important than our Indian collection” (Bell 231). In reaction, Richard Pankhurst, the Director of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, responded that the collection was acquired through plunder. Defending the retaining of Maqdala manuscripts in Europe, Ullendorff wrote:neither Dr. Pankhurst nor the Ethiopian and western scholars who have worked on this collection (and indeed on others in Europe) could have contributed so significantly to the elucidation of Ethiopian history without the rich resources available in this country. Had they remained insitu, none of this would have been possible. (Qtd. in Bell 234)The manuscripts are therefore valued based on their contribution to western scholarship only. This is a continuation of epistemic violence whereby local knowledges are used as raw materials to produce Eurocentric knowledge, which in turn is used to teach Africans as though they had no prior knowledge. Scholars are defined as those western educated persons who can speak European languages and can travel to modern institutions to access the manuscripts. Knowledge grabbing regards previous owners as inexistent or irrelevant for the use of the grabbed knowledges.Knowledge grabbing also means indigenous scholars are deprived of critical resources to produce new knowledge based on their intellectual heritage. A Qene teacher commented: our students could not devote their time and energy to produce new knowledges in the same way our ancestors did. We have the tradition of Madeladel, Kimera, Kuteta, Mielad, Qene and tirguamme where students develop their own system of remembering, reinterpreting, practicing, and rewriting previous manuscripts and current ones. Without access to older manuscripts, we increasingly depend on preserving what is being taught orally by elders. (Interview, 4 Sep. 2019)This point is important as it relates to the common myth that indigenous knowledges are artefacts belonging to the past, not the present. There are millions of people who still use these knowledges, but the conditions necessary for their reproduction and improvement is denied through knowledge grabbing. The view of Ge’ez manuscripts as artefacts dismisses the Ethiopian view that Birana manuscripts are living persons. As a scholar told me in Gondar, “they are creations of Egziabher (God), like all of us. Keeping them in institutions is like keeping living bodies in graveyards” (interview, 5 Oct. 2019).Recently, the collection of Ethiopian manuscripts by western institutions has also been conducted digitally. Thousands of manuscripts have been microfilmed or digitised. For example, the EU funded Ethio-SPaRe project resulted in the digital collection of 2000 Ethiopian manuscripts (Nosnitsin). While digitisation promises better access for people who may not be able to visit institutions to see physical copies, online manuscripts are not accessible to indigenous school students in Ethiopia. They simply do not have computer or internet access and the manuscripts are catalogued in European languages. Both physical and digital knowledge grabbing results in the robbing of Ethiopian intellectual heritage, and denies the possibility of such manuscripts being used to inform local scholarship. Epistemic Violence: The European as ExpertWhen considered in relation to stolen or appropriated manuscripts, epistemic violence is the way in which local knowledge is interpreted using a foreign epistemology and gained dominance over indigenous worldviews. European scholars have monopolised the field of Ethiopian Studies by producing books, encyclopaedias and digital archives based on Ethiopian manuscripts, almost exclusively in European languages. The contributions of their work for western scholarship is undeniable. However, Kebede argues that one of the detrimental effects of this orientalist literature is the thesis of Semiticisation, the designation of the origin of Ethiopian civilisation to the arrival of Middle Eastern colonisers rather than indigenous sources.The thesis is invented to make the history of Ethiopia consistent with the Hegelian western view that Africa is a Dark Continent devoid of a civilisation of its own. “In light of the dominant belief that black peoples are incapable of great achievements, the existence of an early and highly advanced civilization constitutes a serious anomaly in the Eurocentric construction of the world” (Kebede 4). To address this anomaly, orientalists like Ludolph attributed the origin of Ethiopia’s writing system, agriculture, literature, and civilisation to the arrival of South Arabian settlers. For example, in his translation of the Kebra Nagast, Budge wrote: “the SEMITES found them [indigenous Ethiopians] negro savages, and taught them civilization and culture and the whole scriptures on which their whole literature is based” (x).In line with the above thesis, Dillman wrote that “the Abyssinians borrowed their Numerical Signs from the Greeks” (33). The views of these orientalist scholars have been challenged. For instance, leading scholar of Semitic languages Professor Ephraim Isaac considers the thesis of the Arabian origin of Ethiopian civilization “a Hegelian Eurocentric philosophical perspective of history” (2). Isaac shows that there is historical, archaeological, and linguistic evidence that suggest Ethiopia to be more advanced than South Arabia from pre-historic times. Various Ethiopian sources including the Kebra Nagast, the works of historian Asres Yenesew, and Ethiopian linguist Girma Demeke provide evidence for the indigenous origin of Ethiopian civilisation and languages.The epistemic violence of the Semeticisation thesis lies in how this Eurocentric ideological construction is the dominant narrative in the field of Ethiopian history and the education system. Unlike the indigenous view, the orientalist view is backed by strong institutional power both in Ethiopia and abroad. The orientalists control the field of Ethiopian studies and have access to Ge’ez manuscripts. Their publications are the only references for Ethiopian students. Due to Native Colonialism, a system of power run by native elites through the use of colonial ideas and practices (Woldeyes), the education system is the imitation of western curricula, including English as a medium of instruction from high school onwards. Students study the west more than Ethiopia. Indigenous sources are generally excluded as unscientific. Only the Eurocentric interpretation of Ethiopian manuscripts is regarded as scientific and objective.ConclusionEthiopia is the only African country never to be colonised. In its history it produced a large quantity of manuscripts in the Ge’ez language through an indigenous education system that involves the study of these manuscripts. Since the 19th century, there has been an ongoing loss of these manuscripts. European travellers who came to Ethiopia as discoverers, missionaries and scholars took a large number of manuscripts. The Battle of Maqdala involved the looting of the intellectual products of Ethiopia that were collected at the capital. With the introduction of western education and use of English as a medium of instruction, the state disregarded indigenous schools whose students have little access to the manuscripts. This article brings the issue of knowledge grapping, a situation whereby European institutions and scholars accumulate Ethiopia manuscripts without providing the students in Ethiopia to have access to those collections.Items such as manuscripts that are held in western institutions are not dead artefacts of the past to be preserved for prosperity. They are living sources of knowledge that should be put to use in their intended contexts. Local Ethiopian scholars cannot study ancient and medieval Ethiopia without travelling and gaining access to western institutions. This lack of access and resources has made European Ethiopianists almost the sole producers of knowledge about Ethiopian history and culture. For example, indigenous sources and critical research that challenge the Semeticisation thesis are rarely available to Ethiopian students. Here we see epistemic violence in action. Western control over knowledge production has the detrimental effect of inventing new identities, subjectivities and histories that translate into material effects in the lives of African people. In this way, Ethiopians and people all over Africa internalise western understandings of themselves and their history as primitive and in need of development or outside intervention. African’s intellectual and cultural heritage, these living bodies locked away in graveyards, must be put back into the hands of Africans.AcknowledgementThe author acknowledges the support of the Australian Academy of the Humanities' 2019 Humanities Travelling Fellowship Award in conducting this research.ReferencesBell, Stephen. “Cultural Treasures Looted from Maqdala: A Summary of Correspondence in British National Newspapers since 1981.” Kasa and Kasa. Eds. Tadesse Beyene, Richard Pankhurst, and Shifereraw Bekele. Addis Ababa: Ababa University Book Centre, 1990. 231-246.Budge, Wallis. 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