Editorial notes

Georg Wilhelm Schimper (1804-1878), the scientist from Germany who lived for forty years in Ethiopia (1837-1878), kept up his links with European scholars, governments, friends and family. He pursued academic research based on many years of field work. As a botanist he described plants and came to classify a great many of them by naming genus, appearance, distribution, seasonal developments and use of plant. He left a corpus of scientific writings, which is kept in the British Library, London. The text is written in German, in a very neat hand. This open access on-line edition presents the digitised manuscripts from the collection of the British Library as well as well as the German transcript and an English translation under Creative Common Zero.

           

The papers were written in the course of a few years from 1864 to 1868 and came to the British Museum, London, in 1870. They have been bound in London into two manuscript books, BL Add Ms 28505 and 28506. They feature text and sketches in black ink and manuscript maps and mountain profiles in colour.

Add Ms 28505 is entitled: In Abÿssinien. Wilhelm Schimper’s Betrachtung der Vegetation während eines Spaziergangs vom Märäb=Thal, über die Ebene Hāmĕdó, die Adoa=Gebirge hinweg nach Urāhut in der Provinz Agāmĕ, auf einem Terrain von 4000 bis 11000 Fuss absoluter Höhe, Theil des Reiches Tigré. d. i. ein Verzeichniss der daselbst am häufigsten vorkommenden Gewächse mit Angabe deren Verbreitung, also nur das Sichtbarste der Vegetation. Als nachträgliche Notizen zu den von ihm aus Abÿssinien eingeschikten Sammlungen. Auch zum Gebrauch für spätere reisende Botaniker. (= Dr. William Schimper’s observations on the Botany of Tigré made during a journey from Marab Valley over the plain Kamedo past the Adoa mountains to Urahut in the province Agame in a country 4.000 – 11,000 ft (Paris) above sea level.) The project uses Observations as a short title for Add Ms 28505

Add Ms 28506 is entitled: 1864/65 Maps of parts of Abyssinia, with lists of names of places, remarks, etc. The project uses Maps as a short title for Add Ms 28506

This edition provides

1. of BL Add Ms 28505: Observations (1868)

• digitised images of the handwritten text, in German [the first four pages in English], manuscript book BL Add Ms 28505 (Observations), folios 202, with sketches.
• transcription of the German text, footnoted and annotated, into a typed version. The typed version is the identical version of the handwritten text, with all additional texts inserted by the author into the original text, with words being crossed out, underlined, written between lines, in the margins, etc. The original spelling was kept, where necessary words were explained using the modern spelling and explanations in footnotes. The spelling of Amharic and Tigrinya names for locations, plants etc. follows the German original; however, wherever possible, a footnote was created to refer the name to the modern spelling as used by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, five volumes, 2003 to 2014, Hamburg. As a finding aid, all names for locations and plants have been printed in bold.
• English translation of the German text in modern Standard English. This version is an easily legible version of the German text, where insertions, crossed out words etc. are not marked but worked into the text.The spelling of Amharic and Tigrinya names for locations, plants etc. is rendered in a simplified transcription, with a minimum of diacritics; however, wherever possible, a footnote was created to refer the name to the modern spelling as used by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. 2003-2014, HAMBURG. Again, as a finding aid, all names for locations and plants have been printed in bold.

2. of BL Add Ms 28506: Maps (1864/65):

• digitised images of the handwritten text, in German, manuscript book BL Add Ms 28506 (Maps), folios 19, with maps, profiles and sketches.
• transcription of the German text, footnoted and annotated. The transcription of the handwritten text into a typed version. The typed version is the identical version of the handwritten text, with all additional texts inserted by the author into the original text, with words being crossed out, underlined, written between lines, in the margins, etc. The original spelling was kept, where necessary words were explained using the modern spelling and explanations offered in the footnotes. The spelling of Amharic and Tigrinya names for locations, plants etc. follows the German original; however, wherever possible, a footnote was created to refer the name to the modern spelling as used by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, five volumes, 2003 to 2014, Hamburg. As a finding aid, all names for locations and plants have been printed in bold.
• English translation of the German text in modern Standard English. This version is an easily legible version of the German text, where insertions, crossed out words etc. are not marked but worked into the text.The spelling of Amharic and Tigrinya names for locations, plants etc. is rendered in a simplified transcription, with a minimum of diacritics; however, wherever possible, a footnote was created to refer the name to the modern spelling as used by the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. 2003-2014, HAMBURG. Again, as a finding aid, all names for locations and plants have been printed in bold.

3. An alphabetical index of botanical names, used by Schimper.

The names, either names used by Schimper or the local names he was given, as well as the names as used in modern scholarship, together with relevant folio numbering, have been arranged in an alphabetical list. The names are linked electronically to the digitised specimens of the herbaria at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

4. An index of all place names in the texts and on the maps drawn by Schimper.

The names on the three maps, the maps of Bägemder / shore of Lake Tana, Kolla Noari and Adwa and Aksum have been transcribed and they feature in the German transcription and the English translation. The index is at the same time a concordance and a list of the location with all variations in spelling and their relevant folio numbers. The names are linked electronically to the maps.

A word on Schimper’s style:

Schimper writes good German, albeit in the old spelling, but mostly easily legible. He describes in detail mainly the flora of Ethiopia, but the text is interspersed with comments on the political situation, the social reality, military news as well as long chapters on the geology, mineralogy, meteorology, natural phenomena, imports and exports of Ethiopia, crop growing, harvesting and storing of crops, cooking and preserving of food, healing physical and mental illnesses.

Finally, the project managers welcome further research on the texts to be published on the website. Inquiries to be sent to schimper(at)ghil.ac.uk.

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