The Manuscript Book in the Traditional Culture of Ethiopia, written by Platonov Vyačeslav Michajlovič, 2017
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: This book by Vyacheslav Platonov resulted from the long-life interest of the scholar for the Ethiopian manuscript culture and his direct contact with the Ethiopian manuscript collections available in Saint Petersburg.Through the examination of the available literature in European languages and Amharic, enriched with his sometimes passionate reflections, this work will introduce many Russian readers to the fascinating manuscript culture of Ethiopia and Eritrea.The book was originally presented in its typewritten form in 1998.The book was later edited post mortem by one of his pupils, Ekaterina Gusarova, who introduced some necessary updates to the bibliography.In addition, Gusarova further enriched the book by adding colour images of some of the manuscripts that were preserved in Saint Petersburg in order to give some idea of the physical collections even for those who do not read Russian.The only unfortunate aspect regarding the images is their small scale.The concordance of information about Ethiopian manuscripts in the Saint Petersburg collection, prepared by Gusarova is an important resource, which has been already appreciated by the scholars of the Beta Maṣāḥǝft project.Generally, Gusarova treated her teacher's work with great respect, her interference, from what I can judge from the declared strategy, is clearly distinguished from the original exemplar.This allows a reader to appreciate the work by Vyačeslav Platonov in its historical context.For those who were not acquainted with Platonov, the bibliographic profile prepared by Gusarova may be of special importance.There we meet Platonov as a young student of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Saint Petersburg University, who goes to Ethiopia; then we find him as an activist and later a political prisoner, rehabilitated in 1994; in the footnotes we meet Platonov as a grandfather, kindly teaching his granddaughter how to read Ethiopic.See also a short biography of Platonov in: Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in the Soviet Union: 1956Union: -1975, ed. by S.P. de Boer, E.J. Driessen, H.L. Verhaar, The Hague-Boston-London, 1982, p. 437.This contribution apparently was based on the seminary materials prepared for students.Each topic related to the book finds its place, the material is well balanced and well structured, which is a great achievement for such an
Source: Scrinium
Author: Nafisa Valieva
Institution: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2989535284