Projects Stories
HMML Stories — Projects
Preservation projects that take HMML around the world.
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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

Women in the Courtroom: Legal Documents in Timbuktu
“Despite the vastness of Timbuktu’s digitized archives, it is a collection dominated by men...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

Postscript — On Our Behalf
“The manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea come in all shapes and sizes...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown

Anna Roede and the Fight for Sovereignty
“When Martin Luther proclaimed his 95 Theses in 1517, the resulting shockwaves...”
- Dr. Jennifer Carnell

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

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

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

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

A Decade in Mali
“It began with a dinner in 2013...”
- Dr. Columba Stewart

Decorative Birds in Syriac Manuscripts
“Bird watching is typically an activity that...”
- Dr. James Walters

What Are The Animals Trying To Tell Us?
“In historical Timbuktu—as in any part of the pre-modern world—animals were...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

Where We’re Working: London
“Nestled in the streets of London, just northwest of St. Paul’s Cathedral, resides a...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo

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

Eclipses in Early Muslim History — Between Myth and Reality
“The best-known eclipse mentioned in Muslim sources was the solar eclipse that occurred on...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

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

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

Monastic Sisters on Their Deathbed: A Time to Remember
“The book of vows contained one manuscript...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki

Zaydī Manuscripts
“The story of the Zaydīs begins in approximately 740 CE, with a revolt along the...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler

Postscript — A Swedish Saint in Syriac
“Stories about saints, much like their relics, rarely remain tied to...”
- Dr. James Walters

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

Muḥammad Ṣādiq: A Scribe Between Manuscript and Print Cultures at the Beginning of the 20th Century
“A great opportunity to look at the interaction between manuscript and print cultures can be found in the Middle East...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni

The Calligrapher Clément Perret
“In the mid-15th century, the invention of the printing press made books relatively easier to produce and...”
- Katherine Goertz

Why so Many Fragments? Incomplete Manuscripts in the Timbuktu Collections.
“A large amount of the manuscripts digitized in Timbuktu, Mali, that we at HMML have cataloged are fragments...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

Postscript — Luqmān the Sage
“Luqmān the Sage (also known as Luqmān al-Ḥakīm, the wise) is a legendary character in Arabic and Islamic storytelling...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni

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

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

Jacques Hnizdovsky in Minnesota
“Jacques Hnizdovsky had arrived in the city the year before as a...”
- Katherine Goertz

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

Ḫeruy Walda Śellāsē’s “History of Ethiopia”
“Printing reached Ethiopia rather late. In Europe, texts were occasionally printed in Ethiopic characters from...”
- Ted Erho

Censorship Without Censorship
“Maḥmūd ibn ʻUmar al-Zamakhsharī did not have an easy childhood. He was born in 1075 CE into a...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler

A Book You Would Love to Read...
“A book you would love to read is lost, altered, destroyed, buried, hidden, left unpublished, unwritten, banned.”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh and Margaret Bresnahan

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

Books that Survived the Ban — Syriac Manuscripts in India
“Christianity has a long, rich history in India. Some even trace the origins of Christian communities in India to...”
- Dr. James Walters

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

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

Smoking in the Desert — Between Supporters and Opponents of Tobacco
“The use of tobacco in the Sahel, whether smoking, chewing, or taking as snuff, was widespread and...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

Soup, with a Side of Reform
“A group of women cluster together, several clutching the handles of lidded pots...”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh

Where We’re Working: The Monastery of Santa Ursula
“When Cláudia Garradas learned about the opportunity to digitally preserve the archives of the Monastery of Santa Ursula...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo

The Hard Work of a Market Inspector in Preventing Food Frauds at the Market of Tinnīs, Egypt
“There are several manuals in the Arabic literary tradition describing the profession of the...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni

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

A Man for All Seasonings
“It was the late 14th century, and Shīrāz was the city of poets.”
- Dr. Josh Mugler

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

Arabian Nights of the Christian East
“On a shelf in the Syriac Orthodox Church of Saint George in Aleppo is a manuscript copied in Arabic Garshuni...”
- 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

Icon Collection Finds a New Home at HMML
“This year, HMML received a large donation of Russian icons from the collection of Edmund Gronkiewicz...”
- Katherine Goertz

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

Travelers and Texts Crossing the Sahara
“Mobility was a central feature of individuals, societies, and texts within Muslim West Africa’s...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

The Journey of One Armenian Manuscript
“In 1945, a pharmacist living in Lebanon—Manaseh Kaprielian—presented a 17th-century Armenian manuscript to...”
- Malina Zakian

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

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

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

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

Postscript — A Fāʼidah
“Along with the direct physical resistance to this unjust trade, the text shows...”
- Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor

The Power of a Name
NEH grant for cataloging, to create an authority file system database, and work with Library of Congress (LC) and Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
- Dr. Catherine Walsh

Getatchew Haile, Ethiopic scholar
“The work of Dr. Getatchew Haile, long-time curator of the HMML Ethiopia Study Center...”
- Ted Erho

Digitization of the Lettere consolari fonds at the Cathedral Archives, Mdina, Now Completed
“HMML’s Malta Study Center has completed the digitization of the important Lettere consolari fonds now held at the...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo

Hill Museum & Manuscript Library completes digital cataloging of Khalidi Library’s manuscript collection
“The Khalidi Library in East Jerusalem and The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library announce that the complete digitized manuscript collection...”
- Joe Rogers

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

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

HMML is Gifted a Rare Copy of William Shakespeare's Second Folio
“HMML is pleased to announce the acquisition of “William Shakespeare’s Second Folio” to its...”

Hill Museum & Manuscript Library's Malta Study Center Completes Digitization Project at MUŻA — Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti
“HMML’s Malta Study Center has completed a digitization project with Heritage Malta to...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo

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’S Malta Study Center Begins New Digitization Project at the National Archives of Malta
“Known as the Officium Civile Sacrae Inquisitionis (OSI) Fond, the collection contains records that date from...”
- Dr. Daniel K. Gullo

HMML Completes Armenian Manuscript Project in Aleppo, Syria
“HMML-trained technicians in Aleppo, Syria, have completed the digitization of 225 Armenian manuscripts...”

HMML Begins First Manuscript Preservation Project in Jerusalem
“HMML has begun manuscript preservation work in Jerusalem...”

Where We’re Working: L’viv, Ukraine
“L’viv is a Ukrainian city whose multicultural past survives in at least two forms: its buildings and...”