Cindi --

Here's a name for your files, if you continue to work with this subject.  -- Pam

At 01:13 AM 2/14/98 +0200, you wrote:
>Thank you to those who responded to my request for advice on software
>for starting a photo archive.
>I have another question now, about copyright issues relating to the
>manuscripts I have been photographing.
>A brief background:  these are manuscripts written on parchment bound
>between wooden boards, that were brought by the Ethiopian Jews from
>Ethiopia to Israel. The contents are prayers and religious texts, copied
>from earlier manuscripts; the prayers are related to the oral liturgical
>tradition. The authorship is unknown: the Ethiopian Jews traditionally
>attribute many of them to Abba Sabra, a 15th-century monk, but their
>origins may well go back earlier.
>The manuscripts I have handled date probably to the early 20th or the
>19th century. For some of them, I have been able to find out from the
>Qes (priest/religious leader) who lent them to me the name of the
>scribe/copyist (generally an Ethiopian Jewish monk or Qes), and his
>relationship to the present owner (e.g. grandfather, teacher). Others
>are said to have been bought or commissioned from professional copyists
>(sometimes Ethiopian Christian - but copied under supervision by an
>Ethiopian Jewish monk or qes, to ensure faithful copying and that no
>Christian expressions were included).
>I am translating one of these manuscripts from Ge`ez into English,and
>also recording oral history from the Qessotch regarding the social
>background and provenance of the manuscripts. I have been told that the
>copyist of the book I am translating died about 50 years ago, and that
>his grandchildren are living in Israel.
>How I gained access to the manuscripts: the Qessotch asked me to make
>photocopies of them and get these bound for their own use and
>distribution among the community (since many of their books had got lost
>during their journey from Ethiopia to Israel), and allowed me also to
>make a copy for myself. (This is a rare privilege: they have been
>traditionally very secretive about their books and reluctant to show
>them to outsiders or to part with them. They are now very concerned
>about the survival and continuance of their religious and cultural
>heritage in the very different conditions of Israel; and I have been
>fortunate in gaining their confidence to the extent that they entrust
>their books to me.)
>
>I would like to know what copyright laws might apply in this situation.
>For example, my photographs of the manuscripts are my own work; if I
>want to publish them or to deposit copies in a public archive, do I need
>the permission of the owners of the original manuscripts?
>What is the status of a scribe/copyist who copies by hand a pre-existing
>text? - is he the "creator" of this work, even though he is not its
>author?
>
>Margaret Hayon
>Student of Museology, University of Haifa, Israel
>and researcher of Ethiopian Jewish heritage.
>