Translating Faith
Ethiopian Pilgrims in Renaissance Rome
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Published:22nd Mar '24
Should be back in stock very soon
A revealing account of the lives and work of Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims in sixteenth-century Rome, examining how this African diasporic community navigated the challenges of religious pluralism in the capital of Latin Christianity.
Tucked behind the apse of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome is the ancient church of Santo Stefano. During the sixteenth century, Santo Stefano hosted an unusual community: a group of Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims whose faith and culture were both like and unlike those of Latin Europe. The pilgrims of Santo Stefano were the only African community in premodern Europe to leave extensive documents in their own language (Gǝʿǝz). They also frequently collaborated with Latin Christians to disseminate their expert knowledge of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Christianity, negotiating the era’s heated debates over the boundaries of religious belonging.
Translating Faith is the first book-length study of this community in nearly a century. Drawing on Gǝʿǝz and European-language sources, Samantha Kelly documents how pilgrims maintained Ethiopian Orthodox practices while adapting to a society increasingly committed to Catholic conformity. Focusing especially on the pilgrims’ scholarly collaborations, Kelly shows how they came to produce and share Ethiopian knowledge—as well as how Latin Christian assumptions and priorities transformed that knowledge in unexpected ways. The ambivalent legacies of these exchanges linger today in the European tradition of Ethiopian Studies, which Santo Stefano is credited with founding.
Kelly’s account of the Santo Stefano pilgrim community is a rich tale about the possibilities and pitfalls of ecumenical dialogue, as well as a timely history in our own age marked by intensive and often violent negotiations of religious and racial difference.
An epic piece of scholarship on a global encounter of the highest importance: cultural and religious translation between Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics in Renaissance Rome. Focusing on the dynamics of textual collaboration, predominantly in Gǝʿǝz, Kelly persuasively restores the contributions of Ethiopians to these exchanges. Brilliant, complex, and written with sustained lucidity, this is a game-changing book. -- Kate Lowe, coeditor of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe
Through meticulous analysis of manuscript and archival sources, Samantha Kelly offers a precise and original assessment of the religious politics surrounding the Ethiopian Christian diasporic community in sixteenth-century Rome. Translating Faith powerfully highlights the intricate negotiations of identity and perspective that took place between the Christian West and Christian Ethiopia. -- Alessandro Bausi, Director of Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea
Translating Faith reveals how the Ethiopian community at Santo Stefano in Rome transformed the city’s intellectual profile through erudite collaboration and negotiation with other scholars. It is a work of tremendous skill and scholarship, a vital contribution to intellectual history, religious history, and the history of early modern Rome. -- Emily Michelson, author of Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews
Samantha Kelly expertly illuminates the world of the monastic community of Santo Stefano, a thriving outpost of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity that flourished in sixteenth-century Rome. Her meticulous examination of manuscripts in Gǝʿǝz, Latin, and vernacular languages offers an unparalleled view into the lives of Ethiopian pilgrims, clerics, scholars, and humanists—free Africans celebrating, debating, and writing on their faith, culture, and history in the heart of Renaissance Europe. -- Verena Krebs, author of Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe
ISBN: 9780674294172
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 37mm
Weight: 847g
512 pages