Ato Demeke Berhane shows and discusses Ethiopian manuscripts in Ge'ez, pointing out aspects of their binding, wooden board covers, cloth backings, cloth cotton covers to protect illuminations, and changing numbers, on a fifteenth-century manuscript. He also discuses the use of color in the particular manuscript, pointing out that all the persons--Jesus, saints, the Virgin Mary--are black.

He discusses the importance of studying these manuscripts, their technology, calligraphy, paleography, and symbols for understanding Ethiopian history, literature, languages, cultures, and philosophy. Using a manuscript restored by an Italian expert, he points out the placement and meaning of marginal notes, decorative designs, leather exteriors, materials used in making the books.

He spends time on a late-seventeenth-century manuscript, which includes an illumination of St Raphael, showing the good men protected by him, his wings, and variation in decorative borders from other styles; an illumination of King David who is using a fly whisk and has servants wearing combs in their hair; and an illumination of two Ethiopian saints including Saint Takla Haymanot.

These manuscripts are mines of information about many subjects, Demeke concludes. Wendy Belcher conducted the interview with the Head of the Manuscript and Archives Department at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University on May 10, 2007.