Preserving Words and Worlds
The Hill Museum & Monastic Library rescues manuscripts from across the centuries and across the world. And there are worlds in this place on palm leaf and papyrus, in microfilm and pixels — stories of ordinary life as well as the rise and fall of civilizations. We explore this with a Benedictine monk and an Ethiopian scholar who have led some of its most intriguing work. In their lives as in this work, the relevance of ancient manuscripts to people of the present, and the cultural cargo of the past itself, are revealed in a new light.
About the Image
Boys in Yeha, Tigray Province, northern Ethiopia, learn to read the ancient language of the Ethiopian Church, Ge'ez, by reading from a manuscript while a monk tutors in the background.
SoundSeen
» Fragments of History
[video, 13:37]
A behind-the-scenes look from Krista's interview. Here, Fr. Columba shows centuries-old manuscripts in Ge'ez and Samaritan Hebrew, Latin and Armenian, and Greek with Arabic translations. It's an intimate perspective of precious objects well worth viewing.
» Arca Artium
[audio slideshow, 6:54]
HMML's rare book archive holds a vast collection of medieval manuscripts and sacred texts. Here, watch a guided tour of some its most prized possessions of parchment and press.
» The Maltese Bookworm
[video, 14:24]
Historian Theresa Vann's descriptions of crude repairs and bookworms tunneling through fleshy parchment come to life. And she shows us rare pages from the Knights of Malta's first pressings.
SOF Observed
» The Process of Creating the St. John's Bible [video]
This six-minute video introduces you to the genesis and process of creating the illuminated, handwritten Bible.
» Prepping (Smelling) Manuscripts with Columba [video]
In preparing for Krista's interview with Fr. Stewart, several producers listen as he previews a few manuscripts from the HMML collection.
» Wired Benedictine
A monk makes the case to the pop culture digerati that his Catholic brothers have been on the cutting edge of technology for centuries.
Voices on the Radio
Columba Stewart
Stewart is the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's Abbey and University.
Getatchew Haile
Haile is a MacArthur Fellow and the curator of the Ethiopian Study Center at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's Abbey and University.