The research focuses on two areas. The first is Ludolf's "History of Ethiopia". The research will examine the extent to which this work has shaped the future historiography of the country and whether his ideas have found their way into the traditional historiography of Ethiopia - in other words, into the way Ethiopians see their history.
The second will be a preparation of a brief profile of
Abba Gorgoryos. This brief profile requires an examination of the surviving correspondence because they give bits and pieces of information on the activities of the Ethiopian monk. This may help in filling out the life of the scholar.
Results so far
The research work, which focuses on the historical works of the master and the contributions of Gorgoryos, requires the study of all scholarly publications on Ludolf himself and an examination of the manuscripts left by him and his Ethiopian collaborator.
Prof. Shiferaw Bekele will carry out the study in two places. The first will be at the library of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies where the published books of Ludolf are available. The second will be at the library of the Goethe University of Frankfurt (University Library J. C. Senckenberg of the Johann Wolfgang University) to see how much material exists in the form of unpublished documents from the papers of
Hiob Ludolf.
We gave priority to the letters exchanged between the two scholars in the Ge'ez language. The German scholar Johannes Flemming had already published at the end of the 19th century with a German translation several letters exchanged between the two men, and the Dutch scholar E. van Donzel brought out two letters in 1974. This shows that the unpublished corpus of the correspondence is very sizeable.
Further research revealed that other manuscripts are available in the library of the University of Frankfurt and that, in addition, the Gotha Ducal Library (which is connected to the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt) contains possibly other collections of letters and other manuscripts.
The oriental department of the library of the University of Frankfurt kindly provided soft copies of the following manuscripts:
1. Epistoloae Aethiopicae â Iobo Ludolfo et Abba Grigorio Aethiopae. This manuscript (a large, register-like notebook) is extremely useful because it contains all (or most) of the correspondence between the two scholars, copied on the instructions of the master himself by one of his disciples, Christoph Schlichting.
2. “The Oriental Manuscripts of the Duke's Library at Gotha”. This is a catalogue of the Oriental manuscripts (in Persian, Arabic and Turkish) held in the library.
3. Catalogue of Ludolf's manuscripts and letters (57 pp.) in the collection of the library of the University of Frankfurt.
4. Ms. Ff H.Ludolf II 21 - Pentateuch.pdf. This manuscript is the draft of the translation of the Pentateuch. It is very useful for philologists who can get an idea of Ludolf's methodology and thoroughness.
5.- Ms.Ff. H.Ludolf II 22 - Collectanea Aethiopicae. This is a catalogue of the codices available in Rome at the time, compiled by Ludolf or probably by one of his assistants. The annotations to the individual codices could be useful.
An important research question is when and how the publications - and the ideas contained in them - of Ludolf and, more broadly, of Gorgoryos found their way in to Ethiopia, and to explore whether these works had an influence on national thought. The letters reveal that Gorgoryos made a continuous effort to obtain information about Ethiopia despite all the difficulties, and he managed to get some. For example, he was able to learn that the Protestant missionary Peter Heyling (1607/8-1652) managed to enter the Gonderine kingdom in 1634, where he lived for 17 years, but was eventually expelled. The most remarkable thing about this information is that it was fresh - it reached the Ethiopian scholar in Europe in the same year that the missionary was expelled and killed. Gorgoryos informs Ludolf that the Turks killed the missionary on his way to Egypt, a fact that later research proved. (Letter dated 14 Tahsas 1652 [G.C.], f. 67). Another very interesting "discovery", at least, was the fact that there are fragments - poems (in Amharic) and ቅኔ (in Ge'ez) - in one of the manuscripts of Ludolf authored by the Ethiopian scholar. It will be a desideratum to collect these fragments and to publish them together with annotations and an introduction.
400th anniversary of Hiob Ludolf
Abba Gorgoryos (1595 - 1658)
Hiob Ludolf (1624 - 1704)
Research area
Abba Daniel Assefa
Prof. Shiferaw Bekele
Short Bio of the researchers