Projects Stories
HMML Stories — Projects
Preservation projects that take HMML around the world.
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Illustrating Costume of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in the 18th-Century
“In 1714, Hippolyte Hélyot began publishing his monumental eight volume history of religious orders...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Postscript — A Legacy of Female Literacy
“In 1994, HMML microfilmed the collection of manuscripts at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar...”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell
Veiling the Holy: Textiles in Ethiopic Manuscripts
“Textiles play a vibrant role in the churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
Witnesses of Light: Armenian Manuscripts as Testimony and Digital Memory After Genocide
“The extraordinary manuscripts held at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul are a poignant testament to the survival...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Celebrating the Election of the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in Early Modern Europe
“In early modern Europe, the election of the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem was a momentous occasion celebrated...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Remembering Good Deeds
“Have you ever celebrated a special occasion with a homemade gift? Perhaps you made...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Where We’re Working: Casa Buonarroti, Florence
“When Cosimo Buonarroti (1790–1858) reacquired his family’s palazzo—the Casa Buonarroti—in 1812, he found...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Celebrating Shakespeare, Celebrating Friendship
“Pick up any modern book today and you will likely find short quotes on the front or rear cover...”
- Dr. Audrey Thorstad
Veiled in Ink: Armenian Women in Manuscripts
“When we think of medieval manuscripts in general, we may imagine male monastic scribes...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
The Empress and the Church Library: Manuscript Donations by Empress Zawditu
“Church libraries in Ethiopia have often depended upon wealthy and powerful patrons...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
Where We’re Working: Sarajevo
“The 1990s were chaotic and violent in the Balkan federation then known as Yugoslavia...”
- Dr. Columba Stewart
Getting it in Writing: Knowledge Preserved and Passed on in Handwritten Catalogs
“On a recent chilly October morning, I reached for one of HMML’s copies of...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Postscript — On Our Behalf
“The manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea come in all shapes and sizes...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
To Timbuktu From a Land Far Away: Migrating Manuscripts
“Texts in West Africa were highly mobile...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Migration of Ideas through Printmaking
“When discussing the idea of migration in European art history, attention is often focused on...”
- Katherine Goertz
Sacred Gingerbread in Southern Germany
“Have you ever wondered why gingerbread is a common part of Christmas traditions?”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell
Enlightened by One Lamp
“Hindu traditions and Islam share a deeply intertwined history in the Indian subcontinent...”
- Abdullah Ansar
Migrating Monastic Books in Minnesota
“On September 8, 1876, four boxes of books arrived...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
The Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land
“In the middle of the 19th century, Arabic-speaking immigrants began to appear among the waves of newcomers arriving in the United States...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
But Ask the Animals, and They Will Teach You
“Animals in scripts as symbols of meaning and the art of communicating a message...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Instruments of Grace and Judgement
“The refrain “The Lord works in mysterious ways” is rarely truer than it is in the Ethiopic Miracles of Mary...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
Lions and the Grand Masters of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
“Considered the king of animals, lions frequently appeared on coats of arms used by...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Creepy Crawlies and Little Beasts
“Antwerp seemed, in the 16th century, to be the center of the Western world...”
- Katherine Goertz
Postscript — Layers of Translation and Illumination in an Armenian Manuscript
“In the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles (17:34), Luke describes the ‘marketplace of ideas’ in Athens...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Like a Dog
“In Arabic literature, as with many cultures, dogs are viewed with some ambivalence...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Decorative Birds in Syriac Manuscripts
“Bird watching is typically an activity that...”
- Dr. James Walters
Where We’re Working: London
“Nestled in the streets of London, just northwest of St. Paul’s Cathedral, resides a...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
What Does the Fox Say? A Hierarchy of Animal Voices
“For thousands of years, languages around the world have attempted to capture the sounds of animals...”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell
The Mysteries & Rhythms of Nature, Seasons, and Time in the Armenian Liturgical Calendar
“Interwoven tapestry of the natural and spiritual worlds as observed through the Armenian liturgical calendar...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Remembering an Earthquake
“Many of the regions where HMML has worked are no stranger to earthquakes...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Let it Fall as Rain
“Few things can impact daily life in quite the way that weather does...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
The Frozen Tigris and Other Remarkable Weather Events Described in Syriac Colophons
“In the days before social media, how did people share a noteworthy weather phenomena...”
- Dr. James Walters
Music Awakens One’s Soul...
“An answer to the question of what it means to be human...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Postscript — For Loving You Too Much
“One of the most common uses of manuscripts over the centuries is to train children in reading and writing...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Space Adventure: A Maltese Musical Fantasy for Children
“With their 1962 children’s musical Space Adventure...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Arthur Vööbus: Preserving a Legacy
“Dr. Arthur Voobus was many things—a scholar, pastor, teacher, and refugee in exile...”
- Dr. James Walters
Nasheeds from West Africa: Uniting Texts and Sound
“All of Timbuktu’s family libraries that were digitized by HMML include numerous compositions that...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Where We’re Working: Lucknow
“HMML’s preservation work in India began in 2008 with the manuscript collections of...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
The Legacy of Mūrisṭus’ Hydraulic and Pneumatic Pipe Organs in the Early 20th-Century Arabic Literary Culture
“The organ is not the first musical instrument that comes to mind when...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
A Christmas Hymn Sing-Along
“Singing is one of those amazing things...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Visualizing the Audible: Depictions of Music in a Medieval German Manuscript
“Although music is an aural and tactile experience, human beings also have a...”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell
Do You Hear What I Hear? The Audible and Inaudible in Medieval Music
“Among HMML’s microfilms of the Durham Cathedral Library...”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell
I Know It When I See It (I Think…)
“I’m not a musicologist, but I am an avid fan of music from all times...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Deadly snakes and remedies against their venomous bites in the handy charts of a copy of the “Kitāb al-diryāq” (Book on antidotes)
“The Arabic manuscript tradition is rich in medical works discussing remedies and...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Instructions for Burial: The Last Will and Testament of Ephrem the Syrian
“Ephrem is perhaps the most widely known of all Syriac authors...”
- Dr. James Walters
Monuments to the Dead
“Grief, loss, and death itself were very much part of...”
- Katherine Goertz
Zaydī Manuscripts
“The story of the Zaydīs begins in approximately 740 CE, with a revolt along the...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Impressions of a Death Foretold: the Execution of Fra Sylvain de Bosredon
“In the days before they were going to kill him, Fra Sylvain de Bosredon woke up early in the morning to the dull sound of...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Postscript — A Swedish Saint in Syriac
“Stories about saints, much like their relics, rarely remain tied to...”
- Dr. James Walters
Where We're Working: Gaza
“The Gaza Strip is the smallest of the two Palestinian territories in...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Build a Church, Build a Library
“If you want to establish a new church, you’re likely going to need some books...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Tracing Scribal Genealogies in Syriac Manuscripts: The Naṣro Family
“The act of hand-copying a manuscript requires specialized skills that...”
- Dr. James Walters
The Calligrapher Clément Perret
“In the mid-15th century, the invention of the printing press made books relatively easier to produce and...”
- Katherine Goertz
Woodcut Fragments of the 16th Century
“HMML’s Art & Photographs collection is full of fragments of the 15th and 16th century...”
- Katherine Goertz
Johann Wetzstein and the Qurʼan Fragments of Tübingen
“Johann Gottfried Wetzstein served as honorary Prussian consul in Damascus, Syria, from 1849 to 1861...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Medieval Fragments in the Palazzo Falson
“When I arrived at the Palazzo Falson in Mdina, Malta...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Reversal of Fates: Access Through Photographs can be a Counterbalance
“Cultural losses continue to beset communities around the world, especially in areas subject to armed conflict...”
- Ted Erho
Poetry and Agriculture, a Fragmentary Scrapbook
“Manuscripts are known for their idiosyncratic nature...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Identifying Syriac Fragments in the Digital Age
“What would you do if someone handed you a page that had clearly been torn out of a book...”
- Dr. James Walters
Where We’re Working: L’viv, Ukraine
“In the early decades of HMML, the region beyond the proverbial Iron Curtain was out of reach.”
- Dr. Columba Stewart
Poetic fragments at the Great ʿUmarī Mosque in Gaza
“The Great ʿUmarī Mosque in Gaza is the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
The Next Stop was Kremsmünster Abbey
“When Father Oliver Kapsner began to microfilm the medieval manuscripts at Kremsmünster Abbey, Austria, in late 1964, he could not have imagined...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Hiding in the Binding — Fragments in Rare Book Collections at HMML
“Much of human history remains for us today only in the form of smaller remnants or fragments...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Identifying Prohibited Books in Early Modern Malta
“Pope Paul IV (1476–1559) issued the Index Auctorum et Librorum Prohibitorum in 1559 to publicly identify books the...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Sandwiching a Forbidden Text
“The advent of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century led to...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
ʻUmar al-Turūdī’s List of Unreliable Books
“ʻUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Turūdī, was a scholar from Kebbi, present-day northern...”
- Dr. Paul Naylor
Malta Parish Archives Project Completed
“In 2016, HMML’s Malta Study Center began the Malta Parish Archives Project to...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Microfilm Milestones
“HMML’s first library partnerships were to photograph the collections of prominent libraries in...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Feeling the Heavens
“In summer of 1917, the New York-based artist Rockwell Kent made a bold decision.”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Where We’re Working: Mali
“In the spring of 2012, the desert city of Timbuktu in northern Mali was attacked and...”
- Dr. Columba Stewart
Postscript — King Solomon the Gynecologist, a Forgotten Tale From the Syriac Book of Medicines
“The Syriac Book of Medicines is a fascinating compendium of medical lore from the...”
- Dr. David Calabro
The Stars of Ben-Zion
“Born Ben-Zion Weinman in Starokostiantyniv, Ben-Zion came to New York City in...”
- Katherine Goertz
Between the Sun and Moon
“Today, depending on what communities you are a part of, your concept of a year may follow a calendar that is...”
- Ted Erho
Astronomical Technology and Religious Practice in Islam
“Astronomical observation is built into the most basic religious practices of the...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Signs in the Heavens — Astrological Books of Daniel in Eastern Christianity
“In Syriac Christian communities, astrological texts were sometimes appended to medical books and...”
- Dr. David Calabro
A Tale of Two Bears — Astronomy in Austrian Libraries
“When I was a boy, the night sky always fascinated me—stars, moon, planets, nebulae, comets, and...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Why was Esau so Hungry? Genesis 25 in Arabic Manuscripts
“Among the well-known biblical narratives is that of the twins Jacob and Esau, and...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Creating Relationships — Sharing the Past to Build Toward Future Scholarship
“HMML Authority File (HAF) is a new open-access database created as part of...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Postscript — A Sister’s Vows
“In 1744, the French Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary established a convent in ʻAynṭūrah, Lebanon, known in Arabic as...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
The Gouda Life
“Between 1585 to 1600 Maarten de Vos designed 141 engravings depicting hermits.”
- Katherine Goertz
A Syriac Poem on Wine
“Who doesn’t love a good glass of wine? White, red, or something in between, authors throughout history...”
- Dr. James Walters
The Case of the Mysterious Pie and the Amsterdam Theater
“Pie. Today, for many, this tasty baked good with its short, flaky crust suggests associations of...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
The Travels of the Ebony Horse
“The history of Arabian Nights stories in Christian communities is still imperfectly understood.”
- Dr. David Calabro
Want to Marry the Princess? Know thy Bible!
“Who hasn’t heard a fairy tale about a princess whose beauty moves the richest and...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
The Story of the Talking Camel and the Exploits of Ali Genre in West Africa
“While some elements of the story are fiction, others are clearly inspired by real events in Khaybar.”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Parabiblical Literature in the Horn of Africa
“Biblical narratives often leave the audience wanting to know a bit more.”
- Ted Erho
Postscript — Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel
“We live in a world ravaged by a pandemic, by wars, by all manner of catastrophic and...”
- Ted Erho
Ottoman Soap Operas and Other Stories
“HMML’s digital collections include entertaining stories from a wide range of linguistic and...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
The Book of Laughable Stories — A Medieval Joke Book
“Have you ever heard a great joke, but then later when you tried to recount it for someone else, you couldn’t remember it?”
- Dr. James Walters
The Emperor’s Manuscript
“Towards the end of Getatchew Haile’s first published catalog of Ethiopic manuscripts...”
- Ted Erho
Four Family Libraries in Jerusalem
“At many points in its history, Jerusalem has been one of the world’s most important cultural crossroads...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Malta Envisioned by an English Clergyman
“The highlights of the island included the harbor of Valletta, an elaborate and protective harbor famous for...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh
Where We’re Working: The Balkans
“When people ask how we find new projects for HMML, I admit that sometimes they just come to us.”
- Dr. Columba Stewart
The Journey of One Armenian Manuscript
“In 1945, a pharmacist living in Lebanon—Manaseh Kaprielian—presented a 17th-century Armenian manuscript to...”
- Malina Zakian
Protecting Travelers and Maritime Contacts in the Eighteenth-Century Mediterranean
“The great Age of Sail conjures in our minds vast stretches of ocean populated by...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
From Cairo to Mardin, Manuscripts on Camelback
“This note is the sole testament to the manuscript’s remarkable journey from Egypt to Mardin, a city in...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Prof. Getatchew Haile — A Giant in His Field and in the Hearts of All Who Knew Him
“Much has been said about the scholarly achievements of Prof. Getatchew Haile...”
- Joe Rogers
Traveling to France on Paper
“In the mid-19th century, a group of French artists began to reevaluate the art of...”
- Katherine Goertz
Crossing the Red Sea in the 1640s
“In September 1647 CE, al-Ḥasan al-Ḥaymī left the port of al-Mukhā (Mocha) in...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Medicine, Ritual, and Magic in Ethiopia
“Towards the middle of the 15th century, the Ethiopian Emperor Zar’a Yā‘eqob, a prominent theologian and scholar, faced...”
- Ted Erho
Quarantine in Malta, a Print of the Lazaretto from the Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti
“The increased activity of Malta’s ports after the Aragonese conquest in 1283 led to a...”
- Cláudia Garradas
Medical Texts From Timbuktu — Local Pharmacological Remedies with Qur’anic Verses
“In West Africa knowledge of the Qur’an was often combined with local pharmacological traditions to...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Early Miniatures of Ethiopians
“On this day seventy-five years ago, an early-14th century illuminated gospel book arrived at the...”
- Ted Erho
An Anonymous Syriac Medical Compendium
“Many medical works from antiquity were translated into Syriac and transmitted through the...”
- Dr. James Walters
A Tale of Two Herbals, From Medicine to Food in the 16th Century
“Herbals—books describing the medicinal use of plants—have been important scientific sources for...”
- Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Accounts on Plague and Infectious Diseases from Three Arabic Manuscripts
“The disastrous impact of plague epidemics in the Middle East has been documented in numerous accounts...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Yeɗi Sanba Ɓooyi, a Fulani Scholar and Poet
“Yeɗi Sanba Ɓooyi was a scholar who belonged to the Fulani, a traditionally nomadic people who...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Remedies in the Margins of Syriac Manuscripts
“People in past centuries would sometimes use the blank flyleaves and margins of manuscripts to...”
- Dr. David Calabro
Creating Cataloging Standards for Regional Names
“Yeɗi belonged to the Fulani people, one of West Africa’s many ethnic groups, which...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Medical Care for the Enslaved Mustafa Osmon in 18th-Century Valletta, Malta
“The Archivum de Piro in Valletta, Malta preserves a small invoice and...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Where We’re Working: Dayr Anbā Maqār, Egypt
“The Monastery of Saint Macarius is one of the oldest active Coptic monasteries in Egypt.”
- Dr. David Calabro
Postscript — A Fāʼidah
“Along with the direct physical resistance to this unjust trade, the text shows...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor
Getatchew Haile, Ethiopic scholar
“The work of Dr. Getatchew Haile, long-time curator of the HMML Ethiopia Study Center...”
- Ted Erho
Digitization of the Archives of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Completed
“HMML’s Malta Study Center signed an agreement with the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
Advanced Imaging Data for HMML Palimpsest Project Hosted on OPenn
“The HMML palimpsest SJU Ms Frag 32 is a single parchment leaf from...”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton
New Preservation Projects — HMML Looks to the Future
“HMML’s cultural, religious, and geographic focus has expanded considerably since it began...”
Ancient Writing Revealed During HMML Palimpsest Imaging at Stanford's SLAC Lab
“HMML’s very own palimpsest fragment recently underwent high energy x-ray imaging at...”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton
HMML Fieldwork — Fr. Columba Travels to Mali, Renews Agreement
“In December, Fr. Columba traveled again to Mali to visiting HMML’s digitization sites in both...”
Where We're Working: The Pontificio Collegio Armeno, Rome
“HMML began digitization at the Pontificio Collegio Armeno (PCA) in Rome in 2018.”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton
Where We're Working: Missionary Society of Saint Paul, Harissa, Lebanon
“Lebanon is one of the most religiously variegated countries in the Middle East.”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton
Seeing the Invisible — Multispectral Imaging of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts
“This year marks twenty years since the first significant efforts were made to use multispectral imaging (MSI) to reveal hidden...”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton
Digital copies of the Rossi, Ansaldi and Caetani Yemeni manuscript collections now available in vHMML Reading Room
Digital copies of the Rossi, Ansaldi and Caetani Yemeni manuscript collections now available in vHMML Reading Room.
HMML Partners with the Institute for Advanced Study to Share Threatened Manuscript Heritage from Yemen and Neighboring Countries
“HMML is collaborating with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, to provide open access to...”
HMML’S Malta Study Center Completes Digitization of Malta Collection at the Catholic University of America Rare Books and Special Collections
“HMML’s Malta Study Center has completed the digitization of 90 manuscripts and rare Melitensia located at the...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
HMML’S Malta Study Center Begins Digitization Partnership with the Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti
“The Malta Study Center at HMML has signed a partnership agreement with the Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (FPM) to begin...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo
HMML Digitizes Timbuktu's Historic Manuscript Collections
“HMML is creating digital records of more than 22,000 rare and historically-significant documents from a...”
HMML Urgently Working to Save Manuscripts in Iraq, Hopes for Safety of Collections in Syria
“Against a background of terrorism and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage sites, HMML...”
HMML Returns to Mali to Digitize Manuscripts from Timbuktu Library
“Fr. Columba Stewart and his team have returned to Bamako, Mali, where he and...”
HMML Begins First Manuscript Preservation Project in Jerusalem
“HMML has begun manuscript preservation work in Jerusalem...”
Where We’re Working: Ukraine
“L’viv is a Ukrainian city whose multicultural past survives in at least two forms: its buildings and...”