The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Book Launch - Symposium and launch of Pedro Páez's History of Ethiopia
The Hakluyt Society
Thursday 29th March 2012
The Stevenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
6:00pm, Thursday 29 March. Tickets £10.00, payable by 19 March.
To celebrate the Hakluyt Society's latest publication a symposium on Pedro Páez and the First History of Ethiopia will be held at 6.00 pm on Thursday 29 March 2012 at the British Museum. The venue will be The Clore Education Centre, The Stevenson Lecture Theatre, located on the 'Lower Floor' within the British Museum (directions available at the main entrance). The meeting will proceed with a panel presentation by the three editors and the translator, followed by a discussion in which those attending may freely participate. Refreshments and a reception will follow the meeting, together with a launch of the book, copies of which will be available for purchase. The meeting will close around 8.00 pm. The Stevenson Lecture Theatre is fully wheelchair accessible.
The symposium and reception are open to all at a cost of £10. Download a two page application form which has to be completed and posted off to the Hakluyt Society together with your payment by 19 March.
Pedro Páez's History of Ethiopia, 1622. Edited by Isabel Boavida, Hervé Pennec & Manuel João Ramos. Translated by Christopher J. Tribe (2 vols).
In two volumes the Hakluyt Society is delighted to offer the first English translation of the História da Etiópia by the Spanish Jesuit missionary priest Pedro Páez (1564-1622) who worked in the Portuguese missions, first in India and then in Ethiopia. The History of Ethiopia, dealing with a country long thought to be the abode of the legendary Prester John, was written in Portuguese in the last ten years of Páez's life and survives in only two manuscripts. The translation here is based on the critical edition published by the same three editors at Lisbon in 2008.
Páez's History provides not only a detailed history of the Catholic missions in Ethiopia, but also a thorough account of the country's customs, arts and religion; its political and territorial administration; and its geography and geographical exploration. The book also reworks a wide variety of documents, including the first translations of a number of Ethiopian literary texts, from royal chronicles to hagiographies. Needless to say, the work is an absolutely essential source for those interested in the history of Ethiopia. It is a study of epic proportions, and its translation represents a landmark in the history of the Hakluyt Society. Páez's text occupies a full 800 pages of the two volumes, and is supplemented by a 55-page introduction, an alphabetical historical glossary, an 18-page bibliography, and a 21-page index. It includes two maps and seventeen monochrome plates.
More information can be found on the Hakluyt Society website.