27/08/2026
"Ask a monastery custodian if a manuscript is made of horse skin, and they may say no. But what if its size and the literature suggest it must be? In that case biocodicology can provide answers."
Shimels Ayele Yalew, a PhD student at ARCHES (University of Antwerp) and lecturer at Bahir Dar University, studies Ethiopic manuscripts in our Special Collections as a Brill Fellow. He studies their material, techniques of preparation, and how they deteriorate or survive in different environments.
โBahir Dar University sits along Ethiopiaโs historic route, near numerous island monasteries and inland churches holding rare manuscripts,โ Yalew explains. โMany of these libraries remain quite inaccessible due to lack of infrastructure and awareness. Religious leaders are protective of their heritage and take care of it in their own way."
The project goes far beyond personal research. After completing his PhD, Yalew plans to return to Bahir Dar to launch a heritage conservation masterโs program and run short-term training sessions.
โWe want to build local knowledge and capacity to conserve manuscripts and other objects, like old vestments, crosses, coins, and architecture. I cooperate with groups like the Ethiopian Art Conservation Program to make this happen.โ
"I study the manuscripts here in Leiden because you need an understanding of their construction to be able conserve them. Especially the diversity of the collection is impressive, in genre and material composition. So far, materials and conservation study of Ethiopic manuscripts has been limited, but that's what I hope to change: to integrate modern and traditional conservation methods and enhance knowledge with local communities. Hopefully, my students will be able to solve the many remaining mysteries around dating or material properties, like this tradition of using horse parchment".
โThis 19th century Anaphora of Mary was bound with a 20th-century Litany. And look at the colourful miniatures in this other one! For this painting of Gebre Menfesqidus on the final page, they may have erased text, but it could also be ink transferred from a lost page. I'm still figuring that out.โ
Learn more about our fellowship programmes:
https://www.library.universiteitleiden.nl/special-collections/fellowships
