Cataloging is complete for the 35 Ethiopic manuscripts at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. This collection of manuscripts was microfilmed by HMML in the 1960s and 1970s, and the images and cataloging information have now been added to Reading Room. The first 28 manuscripts in this collection (Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus. Aethiop. 1-28) were cataloged by Nikolaus Rhodokanakis in his 1906 catalog, Die äthiopischen Handschriften der k. k. Hofbibliothek zu Wien. The rest of the collection was largely undescribed until now.

The most commonly cited manuscript in this collection is Aethiop. 16 (HMML project number 24994). This manuscript is of particular importance to the study of the Ethiopic Bible with its unique forms of the books of Daniel and the Minor Prophets that are copied intermingled with commentary. One of the earliest illuminated manuscripts in this collection is the fifteenth-century Aethiop. 21 (HMML project number 24990). This manuscript features five full-page miniatures, interspersed to introduce each of the manuscript’s five texts. The ornate crosses and decorative designs called ḥarag (ሐረግ) in the fifteenth-century Aethiop 5 (HMML project number 24974) may also be of interest to art historians.

The images and catalog descriptions of these manuscripts and the rest of the collection can be found in Reading Room by searching "Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus. Aethiop." View now