Ethiopian manuscript collections are found in many parts of the world, the monasteries and modern institutions in Ethiopia maintaining extensive collections with some monasteries still centres of manuscript production.

Parchment (berānnā) was used for Ethiopian manuscripts from the time of the Four Gospel books of Abbā Garimā, generally known as the Garima Gospels, preserved in the Abba Garima Monastery. These gospels are thought to be the oldest surviving Christian illuminated manuscripts, with their dating established by C-14 analysis.Bausi, Alessandro, and Eugenia Sokolinski, Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction ([Hamburg]: COMSt, 2015): 154. Apart from Islamic manuscripts, paper only came into general use in the twentieth century.Bausi, Alessandro, and Eugenia Sokolinski, Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction ([Hamburg]: COMSt, 2015): 155.

There are 88 languages in Ethiopia according to Ethnologue,Ethnologue page on Ethiopian languages but not all support manuscript cultures. The majority of manuscripts are in Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language of Ethiopia.

Catalogues and Online Resources. Catalogues of individual collections were written in the nineteenth century, with a key work for the disposition of Ethiopian MSS more widely prepared in 1995 and published by Robert Beylot and Maxime Rodinson.Robert Beylot and Maxime Rodinson, Répertoire des Bibliothéques et des Catalogues de Manuscrits Éthiopiens (DNRS Editions; Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Éditions, 1995) Since that time, there have been several disparate initiatives, for example, Inventory of Libraries and Catalogues of Ethiopian Manuscripts, hosted by MÉNESTREL.Inventory of Libraries and Catalogues of Ethiopian Manuscripts, hosted by MÉNESTREL : Médiévistes sur le net : sources, travaux et références en ligne. See http://www.menestrel.fr/?-Inventaire-des-bibliotheques-et-des-catalogues-des-manuscrits-ethiopiens-&lang=enRetrieved Retrieved January 2024. More stable and ambitious is Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea (Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung), a project hosted by the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies at the Universität Hamburg.Beta maṣāḥǝft. Retrieved January 2024.

The list of institutions below is a partial selection of the most prominent and best known collections, giving special attention to the individual researchers involved in forming the collections and those scholars who wrote the catalogues.

Ethiopian collections in Ethiopia Thousands of monasteries and churches in Ethiopia have manuscript collections that are not listed here. Below are some of the important ones.

Gunda Gunde Monastery, Tigray Region The Gunda Gunde Monastery is located in the Misraqawi (Eastern) Zone of the northern Tigray Region in Ethiopia. It is known for its prolific scriptorium, and library of Ge'ez manuscripts. This collection of over 220 volumes, all but one dating from before the 16th century, is one of the largest collections of its kind in Ethiopia. The Gunda Gunde Manuscript Project, based at the University of Toronto, seeks to preserve a digitized manuscript collection of the monastery's holdings.See: University of Toronto, Gunda Gunde Manuscripts, Digital Scholarship Unit, https://digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/collections/gunda-gunde-manuscripts

Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa The Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa has a collection of approximately 1500 manuscripts, still largely uncatalogued as of 2012. However a team led by Alessandro Gori undertook a listing exercise with regard to the Arabic materials and published the results in 2014.Alessandro Gori et al, Handlist of the Manuscripts in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. The Arabic Materials for the Ethiopian Islamic Tradition, (Pickwick Publications: Eugene OR, 2014.

National Archives and Library of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa National Archives and Library of Ethiopia has a collection of approximately 835 manuscripts, at present largely uncatalogued.

Debre Libanos Monastery Since 2016, the Debre Libanos Monastery holds Tweed MS150 from Howard University.

European collections of Ethiopian Manuscripts Ethiopian manuscripts are known to have reached Europe as early as the fifteenth century, perhaps even earlier, through Egypt, Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land and through members of the Ethiopian monastery of St Stephen of the Abyssinians in Rome.D. Nosnitsin, "Ethiopian Manuscripts and Ethiopian manuscript studies. A brief overview and evaluation," Gazette du livre médiéval, 58 (2012), 2–16. Subsequently, travellers, missionaries, military personnel and scholars contributed to the development of collections outside Ethiopia. In Europe, the three biggest collections of Ethiopian manuscripts are in Rome (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and in London (British Library). These three organisations together hold about 2,700 manuscripts. Oriental collections of nearly all significant European libraries also have Ethiopian material, with some still pursuing a policy of acquisition.V. Six, “Neuzugang von äthiopischen Handschriften an die Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz,” Aethiopica 10 (2007), 177-83.

Accademia dei Lincei, Rome The Accademia dei Lincei in Rome holds the collection of 138 manuscripts formed by Carlo Conti Rossini. The catalogue prepared by Stefan Strelcyn includes 30 further manuscripts in the Fonds Caetani.Stefan Strelcyn, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de l'Accademia nazionale dei Lincei: fonds Conti Rossini et fonds Caetani 209, 375, 376, 377, 378 (Roma: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1976). The oldest manuscripts in the collections date to the fifteenth century with some having a provenance of Debre Damo.

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

The collections in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, held primarily in the Département des Manuscrits, have been subject to several cataloguing campaigns. In 1877 a catalogue was published by Hermann Zotenberg and gave an account of the 170 manuscripts then in the collection.H. Zotenberg, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens (gheez et amharique) de la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1877). Available online at https://archive.org/details/manuscritsorient00bibl The Ethiopic holdings were subsequently enlarged by the three collections, those of d'Abbadie, Casimir Mondon-Vidailhet,For him see: http://data.bnf.fr/15411049/casimir_mondon-vidailhet/ Accessed Sēptembre 2016 and Marcel Griaule which increased the number at BnF to more than 970 manuscripts. Zotenberg's work was accordingly followed by a catalogue of the Mondon-Vidailhet collection prepared by M. Chaine.M. Chaine, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la collection Mondon-Vidailhet (Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1913). Available online at https://archive.org/stream/catalogueethiopia00bibluoft#page/n7/mode/2up The Griaule collection was published by Stefan Strelcyn.Stefan Strelcyn, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens (Collection Griaule). Ethiopien 301-304, 675-687 Tome IV (Paris: Impr. nationale, 1954). The BnF has the largest single collection of magico-medical scrolls in France, with over 160 specimens in the Griaule collection.Sylvain Grébaut and S. Strelcyn, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la Collection Griaule (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie, 1938).

The Bibliothèque nationale de France has now digitized and provided freely online its collection at Gallica (e.g., the Chronicle of the Kings of Ethiopia).

Bodleian Library, Oxford The early collections in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University came from James Bruce, and consisted of 25 Ethiopic manuscripts purchased by the library in 1843. The collection soon grew to 33 manuscripts and these were catalogued and published in 1848 by August Dillmann.August Dillmann, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae Oxoniensis. Pars 7 Pars 7 (Oxonii: E Typographeo Academico, 1848). Since the mid-nineteenth century the collection has expanded to 130 items. A notable addition in 2002 was an illustrated seventeenth-century manuscript of a Marian text, Arganona Weddase (‘Harp of Praise’) (MS. Aeth.e.28).Retrieved September 2016 https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston/finding-resources/guides/hebrew The uncatalogued manuscripts were revisited in 2007 by Steve Delamarter and Damaqa Berhāna Tafarā.Steve Delamarter and Damaqa Berhāna Tafarā, A Catalogue of Previously Uncatalogued Ethiopic Manuscripts in England: Twenty-Three Manuscripts in the Bodleian, Cambridge University and John Rylands University Libraries and in a Private Collection, (Oxford: Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester, 2007).

British Library, London

The founding Ethiopic collections in the British Museum until 1973 and since then in the British Library—74 manuscripts—came from the Church Mission Society and the materials that had been assembled by Karl Wilhelm Isenberg and Johann Ludwig Krapf, missionaries and linguists who travelled to the country between 1839 and 1842.British Library, retrieved August, 2016: http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelplang/ethiopic/ethiopiancoll/. See further: Isenberg and Krapf, Journals of Isenberg and Krapf (London, 1843), visible online at https://archive.org/stream/journalsofrevmes00isen/journalsofrevmes00isen_djvu.txt However, some of the collection has an earlier provenance, for example, Extracts from the Chronicle of Axum, written on paper in about 1810 with the book plate of George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris.William Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired Since the Year 1847 (London: British Museum, 1877), 319, now British Library Add MS 19341. The book was purchased at the Arley Castle sale of 1852. In 1847 the Trustees of the British Museum published a catalogue of the Ethiopian manuscripts that were then under their care. This catalogue was prepared by August Dillmann and included 88 items.William Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired Since the Year 1847 (London: British Museum, 1877), iii. August Dillmann, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars tertia, Pars tetra (Londini: Impensis Curatorum Musei Britannici, 1847).

The British Museum collections grew in 1868 when 349 manuscripts came after the British Expedition to Abyssinia against emperor Tewodros II.Rita Pankhurst, "The library of Emperor Tewodros II at Mäqdäla (Magdala)," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36, no. 1 (1973): 15-42. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00097974 Stéphane Ancel, Denis Nosnitsin, "On the History of the Library of Mäqdäla: New Findings," Aethiopica 17 (2014): 90-95, dec. 2014. ISSN 2194-4024. Available at: <http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/aethiopica/article/view/859>. Date accessed: 30 Aug. 2016. A catalogue of the enlarged collection was prepared by William Wright and published in 1877.William Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired Since the Year 1847 (London: British Museum, 1877), iii. Nine decades later, Stefan Strelcyn reviewed the manuscripts that had come to the British Library after 1877 and published a catalogue of them.Stefan Strelcyn, Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in the British Library Acquired Since the Year 1877 (London: British Museum Publications, 1978). The catalogue lists 108 items (some with multiple parts) and covers the general range of Ethiopian literature from Biblical texts to magical and divinatory writings.

The transfer of the India Office collection to the British Library in 1982 brought 6 further manuscripts to the collection, first acquired in 1842 by the India Museum in East India House.