1. Overview

Vansleb’s signature (BnF MS italien 435)

Vansleb’s acquisition stamp as seen in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ar. 1569, f. 2r. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / http://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc29527j.

Title page of Vansleb’s copy of ’The Fundations & Modell of a Perfect Commonwealth’, published 1665, a work on James Harrington’s ’The Commonwealth of Oceana’, published 1656. Source: ’Wansleben’s Harrington, or „The Fundations & Modell of a Perfect Commonwealth“‚, in: Gaby Mahlberg/ Dirk Wiemann (eds.), European Contexts for English Republicanism (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), p. 158 Figure 8.1.

Vansleb’s passport granted by Louis XIV, King of France; Archives nationales, Marine B/6/3, f. 75v – 76r

Geʽez Bible annotated by Vansleb („scripta sunt manu Vanslebii propria“). MS: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Éthiopien 1-2. Contains the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Kings. Source: Gallica/BNF

Ethiopia — the destination of Vanslebs two journeys to the Middle East that he would never reach. Map of Ethiopia by Vansleb’s mentor Hiob Ludolf, drawn by Christian Ludolf, published in Amsterdam 1683. Source: https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/upload/1121189/f_89721511509970927511/8972151_master.jpg?width=1500

Page from ዘኢዮብ፡ ሉዶልፍ፡ መዝገበ፡ ቃላት፡ ዘልሳነ፡ ግዕዝ፡ ዝውእቱ፡ ልሳነ፡ መጽሐፍ፡ ዘ ኢ ት ዮ ጵ ያ, an Ethiopic grammar by Hiob Ludolf with additions by Vansleb (1661). Source: https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10521851_00007.html

Front page of the printed version of Nouvelle Relation (1677); Source: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8n2JTTnOoMIC/page/n5/mode/2up

Front page of the hand-written Italian original of Vansleb’s report to King Louis XIV on his trip to acquire manuscripts (MS: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Italien 435). Source: BnF / Gallica

Tombstone in Bourron

Vansleb’s travel-stops in the Levant Source: Alastair Hamilton: Johann Michael Wansleben’s Travels in the Levant, 1671–1674 p. 61

Vansleb’s travel-stops in Egypt Source: Alastair Hamilton: Johann Michael Wansleben’s Travels in the Levant 1671–1674 p. 62

Letter of Athanasius Kircher to Cardinal Francesco Barberini regarding Vansleb Vat. Barb.lat.6467, 38r. Source: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Barb.lat.6467

Ernest I, ‘the Pious‘, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (1601 – 1675); Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_I,_duke_of_Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.jpg#/media/File:Ernest_I,_duke_of_Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.jpg

German scholar Hiob Ludolf (1624 – 1704); Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hiob_Ludolf.jpg#/media/Datei:Hiob_Ludolf.jpg

Title page of Vansleb’s account on Egypt based on his first travel; Source: https://digitale-sammlungen.ulb.uni-bonn.de/content/titleinfo/67795

Abba Gregorius; Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aba_Gorgorios,_1681.jpg

French Minister of Finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619 – 1683); Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colbert1666.jpg

Custodian of the Royal Libary Pierre de Carcavy (1600 – 1684); Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre_de_Carcavy_LACMA_AC1993.213.8.jpg

Drawing of the White Monastery church in Vansleb’s original manuscript, the earliest visual record of this church, BnF, MS italien 435, 116v–117r

Johann Michael Vansleb (1635–1679) was born on November 1st, 1635 in Sömmerda, near Erfurt, Germany, a son to a Lutheran pastor. Studying Oriental languages, he became the student and mentee of the founding father of Ethiopian studies Hiob Ludolf (1624—1704). Vansleb travelled on his behalf to London to edit and publish works on the Ethiopian language — later the two would engage in a famous conflict.

Vansleb set out for his first journey to the Middle East on behalf of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha in 1663. The aim of his political-religious mission was to reach Ethiopia, but Vansleb didn’t get further than Egypt, where he mainly collected information by and about the Copts.

Returning to Europe in 1665 he stayed in Italy for five years continuing his work on Ethiopian studies. Here Vansleb converted to Catholicism and became a Dominican priest.

In 1670, he moved to Paris, from where he was sent on a second journey to the Middle East in 1671 by the French Minister of Finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a second time with the aimed destination Ethiopia — and again he didn’t get further than Egypt.

On this second journey (1671-1675) he collected antiquities and around 580 manuscripts for the French Sun King Louis XIV that are now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, nonetheless his expedition was considered a failure.

Returning to Paris in 1677, he lived under modest conditions and became vicar in Bourron, near Fontainebleau, where died on June 13th, 1679.

Vansleb not only published foundational works on the Ethiopian language, but even more so on the Copts and on Egypt.

(Variations of his name occur as Wansleben, Wanschleb, Wansleb, Vanslep, Vanslebius; French: Jean Michel Vansleb; Italian: Giovanni Michele Vanslebio.)

• Check some of the recent biographical work on Vansleb with a view to either
  • his travel experiences or
  • his role in inspiring Coptic and Ethiopic studies among Western scholars .
• Peruse Vansleb's report of his travels with an eye to what he says about manuscript acquisition .