The last meeting in 2024 seminar cycle Meetings with the Psalms and Psalters will take place on Thursday, 17 October 2024, at 18:00 on Zoom. Our guest speaker, Dr Sophia Dege-Müller (Hamburg University) will talk about Ethiopian and Eritrean psalters.

Meeting participants can register via this link: go.nd.edu/f087f5 (a very simple process in which we are supported by the Nanovic Institute at the University of Notre Dame, US). For further details on the series, see the Nanovic Institute website.

Psalters in the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition

The manuscript culture in Ethiopia and Eritrea remains vibrant, with Psalters being the most numerous among the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts. While the overall Psalter tradition has been remarkably stable since the 15th century, these manuscripts exhibit significant features that link them to the broader Christian world. This lecture will highlight various codicological elements and explore the importance of illuminated medieval Ethiopic Psalters, which not only reflect artistic traditions of Ethiopia and Eritrea but also provide insights into the theological and liturgical practices of the time. Additionally, the discussion will address paratextual elements that connect to the Patristic heritage, illustrating how these works serve as vital links between past and present Christian communities in the region.

Sophia Dege-Müller is researcher and scientific coordinator of the ERC project BeInf: the Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity led by Aaron Butts at the University of Hamburg. She is also a member of the editorial team of Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies. In recent years, her research has focussed on the manuscript traditions of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) and the Psalter tradition in Ethiopia and Eritrea.