The Prince and the Plunder

A book on how Britain took one boy and piles of treasures from Ethiopia

Author: Andrew Heavens

A manuscript including the life of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos (Lady Meux MS. No 1)

Published September 20, 2026 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A manuscript including the life of the saints Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos. Previously owned by Lady Meux. The British Museum’s E. A. Wallis Budge said the coloured images were “of special interest as they portray events in the daily life of the modern Abyssinians”.

Where: Last seen on sale at Inlibris Gilhofer Nfg. Rathausstrasse 19 1010 Vienna, Austria

One of four beautifully illustrated Magdala manuscripts that went on their own amazing journey after the Abyssinian campaign.

In brief, they were brought back from the battle by an unnamed British officer and put on sale by the antiquarian book dealer Bernard Quaritch in London. The British Museum didn’t have enough money so they were bought by the eccentric Lady Meux (formerly a banjo-playing barmaid named Val), who ran her own private museum in Hertfordshire.

She spent vast sums producing coloured reproductions of the manuscripts, made contacts with the Ethiopian royal family and, in her will, left them to Emperor Menelik II. But her will was ignored and the manuscripts were sold on – one to the U.S. newspaper magnate (and Citizen Kane inspiration) William Randolph Hearst. That manuscript has ended up in the Schøyen manuscript collection which is spread across Oslo and London. Another is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. A rare copy of the Life of Mary’s mother Hanna ended up in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

This manuscript is currently listed for sale on the website of the dealer Inlibris for €135,000. According to that entry, after Lady Meux’s death, it went on to the Canadian mystic Manly Palmer Hall, who bought it for the library of the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles. On the dispersal of that collection around 1996, it was listed for sale by Sam Fogg Rare Books in London and then entered a “European private collection”. There are scans of the original pages on the Inlibris website.

Lady Meux’s reproduction was published in a limited edition titled The lives of Mabâ’ Seyôn and Gabra Krĕstôs: The Ethiopic texts edited with an English translation and a chapter on the illustrations of Ethiopic mss. London: W. Griggs.

See the whole book here: https://archive.org/details/b28037650/mode/2up

The lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos : the Ethiopic texts. Public Domain Mark
The lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos : the Ethiopic texts. Public Domain Mark
The lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos : the Ethiopic texts. Public Domain Mark
The lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos : the Ethiopic texts. Public Domain Mark
The lives of Maba Seyon and Gabra Krestos : the Ethiopic texts. Public Domain Mark

The story of the Meux collection

From the Preface to E. A. Wallis Budge’s Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

“In the spring of 1897 Lady Meux went to the establishment of Mr. Bernard Quaritch in Piccadilly to purchase a copy of Ludolf’s “Historia AEthiopica.” Finding that she had been reading a translation of the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, he took the opportunity of showing her a group of fine Ethiopic MSS., which he had recently acquired from an officer who had served in the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1867. She telegraphed to me asking me to go and examine the manuscripts and to report upon them to her without delay. I did so, and Mr. Quaritch put the manuscripts before me. The oldest of them was a small 4to volume containing a Life of Hanna, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it was illustrated with archaic Ethiopian pictures of Hanna and her husband Joachim, the Birth of the Virgin, etc., and was written in the XVth century. It was, and still is the only copy of the Life of Hanna in Ethiopia known to me. Two of the manuscripts were large handsome volumes about 16 inches square, and each contained a good selection of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, illustrated with many full-page pictures painted in bright colours which were intended to illustrate the texts of the Miracles. The older of these MSS. was written in the XVIth century and the other about a century later ; each had been made for the use of a royal personage. Another manuscript contained the Life of Maba’a Seyon, a comparatively modern Ethiopian saint, and the Life of Gabra Krestos, a prince who abandoned his royal state and home and parents, and became a mendicant monk. These Lives were illustrated by a large series of coloured pictures, which are of special interest as they portray events in the daily life of the modern Abyssinians. I sent to Lady Meux a description of these MSS., pointing out their interest and importance, and their great value from an artistic point of view. I also told the Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum of them, and urged him to attempt to acquire them for the National Collection. But his official financial position was such that it was impossible for him to make an offer for them which Mr. Quaritch would accept, and so the whole group of MSS., together with a few smaller works, became the property of Lady Meux, who added them to her Col- lection of Egyptian and Sudani antiquities preserved in the museum at Theobalds Park…

“… But to return now to the manuscripts that Lady Meux had purchased from Mr. Quaritch. As soon as these were delivered to her she asked me to make a fuller examination of them, and to describe their contents more or less in detail, so that she might come to some decision as to their publication. She had already published for private circulation the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, which I had copied and translated from MSS. in the British Museum, and the very favourable reception which this work met with at the hands of scholars and the literary world in general stimulated her to continue the publication of Ethiopic texts with English translations. And this version of the famous Alexander Book was welcomed in Ethiopia and praised by no less a critic than His Majesty the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek II, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. When the British Mission to Menyelek was received by the King in Addis Abbeba, Sir F. R. Wingate presented to His Majesty, with the other gifts, a copy of the “Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great,” which Lady Meux had sent him. And I was told by a member of the Mission that His Majesty was both surprised and pleased with the Ethiopic text, which he began to read forthwith, and that he admired the Ethiopic type and wished to have more books of the kind produced.

“Of the Lady Meux MSS. the first to be reproduced was that containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos, a stout quarto leather-bound volume containing ninety-two pictures illustrating the text. The coloured facsimiles of the pictures were reproduced by the late Mr. W. Griggs and were inserted in their proper places in the English text. The Ethiopic texts were printed by the eminent German firm of W. Drugulin of Leipzig because the necessary fount of type did not exist in England, and were placed at the end of the book. Up to that time hardly any attention had been paid by scholars to the art exhibited by the pictures in the illustrated manuscripts, and some of them went so far as to describe it as “wretched caricature,” and the pictures as “horrible daubs.” …

“The volume containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos appeared in the summer of 1898, and was so warmly welcomed by scholars and learned societies that Lady Meux decided to reproduce the Miracles of the Virgin and the Life of Hanna, etc., without delay. This work occupied nearly two years, and the new volume, containing Ethiopic texts, English translations and one hundred and eleven coloured plates, appeared in 1900 …

“Lady Meux distributed the volume among scholars and Libraries where it would be easily accessible for study, and her generosity was greatly appreciated … Mr. (now Sir) J. L. Harrington, H.B.M.’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor Menyelek, presented a copy of the work to His Majesty, who was apparently greatly pleased with the gift. He wrote to Lady Meux in the following terms : ” From the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. I am well. How are you ? The book which you sent to me with Mr. Harrington has come to me. I am pleased. And because it is very well done I send you this letter and my seal.” … Soon after this Lady Meux received many applications from leading ecclesiastics and officers in Ethiopia for copies of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, and it was clear that the publication of her manuscripts was greatly appreciated by the writers.

“In 1902 His Highness Ras Makonnen, K.C.M.G., Governor of Harrar and the Dependencies of Ethiopia, came to England to be present at the Coronation of King Edward VH, and as soon as possible, by his Sovereign’s orders, he announced his arrival to Lady Meux. He and his suite visited Theobalds Park one Sunday, and he and the ecclesiastics who were with him spent much time in examining her manuscripts and her reproductions of them. His reverence for the manuscripts was great, and after bowing several times to the older manuscript of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary he knelt on the floor of the Museum and lifting the book on to the top of his head remained in this attitude and prayed for several minutes. A few days later Lady Meux sent to him by me a set of her publications, and when I delivered the books at his lodgings in Westminster the joy of himself and the bishops who were with him was unbounded.”

Lady Meux left all the manuscripts to Emperor Menelik in her will. But that was ignored after her death and the manuscripts were sold on.

Posted In Acts & miracles of the saints | Manuscripts | Previously - Lady Meux Collection
Tagged

An 18th century manuscript of the Miracles of Mary (Lady Meux MS. No 2 – Chester Beatty Library Ref: 914)

Published September 20, 2026 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An 18th century Ethiopian manuscript of the Miracles of Mary

Where: The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2, D02 AD92

This is one of four beautifully illustrated Magdala manuscripts that went on their own amazing journey after the Abyssinian campaign.

In brief, they were brought back from the battle by an unnamed British officer and put on sale by the antiquarian book dealer Bernard Quaritch in London. The British Museum didn’t have enough money so they were bought by the eccentric Lady Meux (formerly a banjo-playing barmaid named Val), who ran her own private museum in Hertfordshire.

She spent vast sums producing coloured reproductions of the manuscripts, made contacts with the Ethiopian royal family and, in her will, left them to Emperor Menelik II. But her will was ignored and the manuscripts were sold on – one to the U.S. newspaper magnate (and Citizen Kane inspiration) William Randolph Hearst. That manuscript has ended up in the Schøyen manuscript collection which is spread across Oslo and London. Another is in the Bodleian Library in the |University of Oxford. Another was last seen on sale at Inlibris in Vienna.

Chester Beatty bought it at a Sotheby’s sale on 14 June 1954 (lot 16). This manuscript is now one of a collection of 58 manuscripts and illustrated pages in the library in Dublin, where its Library Ref is 914. Two others in the collection – an edition of the Praises of Mary (Library ref: W916) and a collection of hymns (Library ref: 949) – have clear links to Magdala. Many of the rest may also be Magdala plunder.

Chester Beatty has scanned in the pages here.

Princeton had a page on the manuscript in its Miracles of Mary project.

Lady Meux’s reproduction of this manuscript was published in two books:

Budge labelled this manuscript as Lady Meux MS. No 3. Here is a screenshot of one of its pages that appeared in Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

Image from The Miracles of Mary (Lady Meux MS. No 3) used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ

The story of the Meux collection

From the Preface to E. A. Wallis Budge’s Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

“In the spring of 1897 Lady Meux went to the establishment of Mr. Bernard Quaritch in Piccadilly to purchase a copy of Ludolf’s “Historia AEthiopica.” Finding that she had been reading a translation of the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, he took the opportunity of showing her a group of fine Ethiopic MSS., which he had recently acquired from an officer who had served in the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1867. She telegraphed to me asking me to go and examine the manuscripts and to report upon them to her without delay. I did so, and Mr. Quaritch put the manuscripts before me. The oldest of them was a small 4to volume containing a Life of Hanna, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it was illustrated with archaic Ethiopian pictures of Hanna and her husband Joachim, the Birth of the Virgin, etc., and was written in the XVth century. It was, and still is the only copy of the Life of Hanna in Ethiopia known to me. Two of the manuscripts were large handsome volumes about 16 inches square, and each contained a good selection of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, illustrated with many full-page pictures painted in bright colours which were intended to illustrate the texts of the Miracles. The older of these MSS. was written in the XVIth century and the other about a century later ; each had been made for the use of a royal personage. Another manuscript contained the Life of Maba’a Seyon, a comparatively modern Ethiopian saint, and the Life of Gabra Krestos, a prince who abandoned his royal state and home and parents, and became a mendicant monk. These Lives were illustrated by a large series of coloured pictures, which are of special interest as they portray events in the daily life of the modern Abyssinians. I sent to Lady Meux a description of these MSS., pointing out their interest and importance, and their great value from an artistic point of view. I also told the Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum of them, and urged him to attempt to acquire them for the National Collection. But his official financial position was such that it was impossible for him to make an offer for them which Mr. Quaritch would accept, and so the whole group of MSS., together with a few smaller works, became the property of Lady Meux, who added them to her Col- lection of Egyptian and Sudani antiquities preserved in the museum at Theobalds Park…

“… But to return now to the manuscripts that Lady Meux had purchased from Mr. Quaritch. As soon as these were delivered to her she asked me to make a fuller examination of them, and to describe their contents more or less in detail, so that she might come to some decision as to their publication. She had already published for private circulation the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, which I had copied and translated from MSS. in the British Museum, and the very favourable reception which this work met with at the hands of scholars and the literary world in general stimulated her to continue the publication of Ethiopic texts with English translations. And this version of the famous Alexander Book was welcomed in Ethiopia and praised by no less a critic than His Majesty the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek II, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. When the British Mission to Menyelek was received by the King in Addis Abbeba, Sir F. R. Wingate presented to His Majesty, with the other gifts, a copy of the “Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great,” which Lady Meux had sent him. And I was told by a member of the Mission that His Majesty was both surprised and pleased with the Ethiopic text, which he began to read forthwith, and that he admired the Ethiopic type and wished to have more books of the kind produced.

“Of the Lady Meux MSS. the first to be reproduced was that containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos, a stout quarto leather-bound volume containing ninety-two pictures illustrating the text. The coloured facsimiles of the pictures were reproduced by the late Mr. W. Griggs and were inserted in their proper places in the English text. The Ethiopic texts were printed by the eminent German firm of W. Drugulin of Leipzig because the necessary fount of type did not exist in England, and were placed at the end of the book. Up to that time hardly any attention had been paid by scholars to the art exhibited by the pictures in the illustrated manuscripts, and some of them went so far as to describe it as “wretched caricature,” and the pictures as “horrible daubs.” …

“The volume containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos appeared in the summer of 1898, and was so warmly welcomed by scholars and learned societies that Lady Meux decided to reproduce the Miracles of the Virgin and the Life of Hanna, etc., without delay. This work occupied nearly two years, and the new volume, containing Ethiopic texts, English translations and one hundred and eleven coloured plates, appeared in 1900 …

“Lady Meux distributed the volume among scholars and Libraries where it would be easily accessible for study, and her generosity was greatly appreciated … Mr. (now Sir) J. L. Harrington, H.B.M.’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor Menyelek, presented a copy of the work to His Majesty, who was apparently greatly pleased with the gift. He wrote to Lady Meux in the following terms : ” From the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. I am well. How are you ? The book which you sent to me with Mr. Harrington has come to me. I am pleased. And because it is very well done I send you this letter and my seal.” … Soon after this Lady Meux received many applications from leading ecclesiastics and officers in Ethiopia for copies of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, and it was clear that the publication of her manuscripts was greatly appreciated by the writers.

“In 1902 His Highness Ras Makonnen, K.C.M.G., Governor of Harrar and the Dependencies of Ethiopia, came to England to be present at the Coronation of King Edward VH, and as soon as possible, by his Sovereign’s orders, he announced his arrival to Lady Meux. He and his suite visited Theobalds Park one Sunday, and he and the ecclesiastics who were with him spent much time in examining her manuscripts and her reproductions of them. His reverence for the manuscripts was great, and after bowing several times to the older manuscript of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary he knelt on the floor of the Museum and lifting the book on to the top of his head remained in this attitude and prayed for several minutes. A few days later Lady Meux sent to him by me a set of her publications, and when I delivered the books at his lodgings in Westminster the joy of himself and the bishops who were with him was unbounded.”

Lady Meux left all the manuscripts to Emperor Menelik in her will. But that was ignored after her death and the manuscripts were sold on.

Posted In Festivals & miracles of Mary, Jesus & the angels | Manuscripts | Previously - Lady Meux Collection
Tagged

A manuscript including 33 Miracles of the Virgin Mary, previously owned by Lady Meux and William Randolph Hearst (Lady Meux MS. No 3 – Schøyen MS 248)

Published September 20, 2026 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An Ethiopian Manuscript, dated 1682-1706, including 33 Miracles of Mary and a document concerning a conciliation. A document that has previously passed through the hands of a British soldier, Britain’s Lady Meux and U.S. newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst

Where: The Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo

One of four beautifully illustrated Magdala manuscripts that went on their own amazing journey after the Abyssinian campaign.

In brief, they were brought back from the battle by an unnamed British officer and put on sale by the antiquarian book dealer Bernard Quaritch in London. The British Museum didn’t have enough money so they were bought by the eccentric Lady Meux (formerly a banjo-playing barmaid named Val), who ran her own private museum in Hertfordshire.

She spent vast sums producing coloured reproductions of the manuscripts, made contacts with the Ethiopian royal family and, in her will, left them to Emperor Menelik II. But her will was ignored and the manuscripts were sold on – this one to the U.S. newspaper magnate (and Citizen Kane inspiration) William Randolph Hearst. That manuscript has ended up in the Schøyen manuscript collection which is spread across Oslo and London.

Two of the others are in the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Another was last seen on sale at Inlibris in Vienna.

The Schøyen Collection website entry lists this manuscript as MS 248. It publishes two images of the manuscript and sets out this provenance:

1. Emperor Zyasu I (1682-1706); 2. Emperor Täkla Haymanot I (1706-1708); 3. Emperor Dawit III (1708-1721); 4. The Church of Makdala, Ethiopia; 5. An officer in the British Expedition to Abyssinia 1867 (1867-1897); 6. Quaritch, London (1897); 7. Lady Meux, Hertshire MS 2 (1897-1911); 8. William Randolph Hearst, San Simeon, California (1911-1939); 9. John F. Fleming, New York (1960); 10. Otto Schäfer, Schweinfurt (1960-1989); 11. Bernard Breslauer, New York, May 1989; 12. De-accessioned to Sam Fogg, Dec. 2004.

The Schøyen Collection has 10 other Ethiopian manuscripts that may have also come from Magdala. 

Princeton had a page on the manuscript in its Miracles of Mary project.

Before this manuscript was sold on, parts of it were reproduced in:

Budge labelled this manuscript as Lady Meux MS. No 2. Here is a screenshot of one of its pages that appeared in Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

Image from The Miracles of Mary (Lady Meux MS. No 2) used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ

The story of the Meux collection

From the Preface to E. A. Wallis Budge’s Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

“In the spring of 1897 Lady Meux went to the establishment of Mr. Bernard Quaritch in Piccadilly to purchase a copy of Ludolf’s “Historia AEthiopica.” Finding that she had been reading a translation of the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, he took the opportunity of showing her a group of fine Ethiopic MSS., which he had recently acquired from an officer who had served in the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1867. She telegraphed to me asking me to go and examine the manuscripts and to report upon them to her without delay. I did so, and Mr. Quaritch put the manuscripts before me. The oldest of them was a small 4to volume containing a Life of Hanna, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it was illustrated with archaic Ethiopian pictures of Hanna and her husband Joachim, the Birth of the Virgin, etc., and was written in the XVth century. It was, and still is the only copy of the Life of Hanna in Ethiopia known to me. Two of the manuscripts were large handsome volumes about 16 inches square, and each contained a good selection of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, illustrated with many full-page pictures painted in bright colours which were intended to illustrate the texts of the Miracles. The older of these MSS. was written in the XVIth century and the other about a century later ; each had been made for the use of a royal personage. Another manuscript contained the Life of Maba’a Seyon, a comparatively modern Ethiopian saint, and the Life of Gabra Krestos, a prince who abandoned his royal state and home and parents, and became a mendicant monk. These Lives were illustrated by a large series of coloured pictures, which are of special interest as they portray events in the daily life of the modern Abyssinians. I sent to Lady Meux a description of these MSS., pointing out their interest and importance, and their great value from an artistic point of view. I also told the Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum of them, and urged him to attempt to acquire them for the National Collection. But his official financial position was such that it was impossible for him to make an offer for them which Mr. Quaritch would accept, and so the whole group of MSS., together with a few smaller works, became the property of Lady Meux, who added them to her Col- lection of Egyptian and Sudani antiquities preserved in the museum at Theobalds Park…

“… But to return now to the manuscripts that Lady Meux had purchased from Mr. Quaritch. As soon as these were delivered to her she asked me to make a fuller examination of them, and to describe their contents more or less in detail, so that she might come to some decision as to their publication. She had already published for private circulation the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, which I had copied and translated from MSS. in the British Museum, and the very favourable reception which this work met with at the hands of scholars and the literary world in general stimulated her to continue the publication of Ethiopic texts with English translations. And this version of the famous Alexander Book was welcomed in Ethiopia and praised by no less a critic than His Majesty the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek II, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. When the British Mission to Menyelek was received by the King in Addis Abbeba, Sir F. R. Wingate presented to His Majesty, with the other gifts, a copy of the “Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great,” which Lady Meux had sent him. And I was told by a member of the Mission that His Majesty was both surprised and pleased with the Ethiopic text, which he began to read forthwith, and that he admired the Ethiopic type and wished to have more books of the kind produced.

“Of the Lady Meux MSS. the first to be reproduced was that containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos, a stout quarto leather-bound volume containing ninety-two pictures illustrating the text. The coloured facsimiles of the pictures were reproduced by the late Mr. W. Griggs and were inserted in their proper places in the English text. The Ethiopic texts were printed by the eminent German firm of W. Drugulin of Leipzig because the necessary fount of type did not exist in England, and were placed at the end of the book. Up to that time hardly any attention had been paid by scholars to the art exhibited by the pictures in the illustrated manuscripts, and some of them went so far as to describe it as “wretched caricature,” and the pictures as “horrible daubs.” …

“The volume containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos appeared in the summer of 1898, and was so warmly welcomed by scholars and learned societies that Lady Meux decided to reproduce the Miracles of the Virgin and the Life of Hanna, etc., without delay. This work occupied nearly two years, and the new volume, containing Ethiopic texts, English translations and one hundred and eleven coloured plates, appeared in 1900 …

“Lady Meux distributed the volume among scholars and Libraries where it would be easily accessible for study, and her generosity was greatly appreciated … Mr. (now Sir) J. L. Harrington, H.B.M.’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor Menyelek, presented a copy of the work to His Majesty, who was apparently greatly pleased with the gift. He wrote to Lady Meux in the following terms : ” From the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. I am well. How are you ? The book which you sent to me with Mr. Harrington has come to me. I am pleased. And because it is very well done I send you this letter and my seal.” … Soon after this Lady Meux received many applications from leading ecclesiastics and officers in Ethiopia for copies of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, and it was clear that the publication of her manuscripts was greatly appreciated by the writers.

“In 1902 His Highness Ras Makonnen, K.C.M.G., Governor of Harrar and the Dependencies of Ethiopia, came to England to be present at the Coronation of King Edward VH, and as soon as possible, by his Sovereign’s orders, he announced his arrival to Lady Meux. He and his suite visited Theobalds Park one Sunday, and he and the ecclesiastics who were with him spent much time in examining her manuscripts and her reproductions of them. His reverence for the manuscripts was great, and after bowing several times to the older manuscript of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary he knelt on the floor of the Museum and lifting the book on to the top of his head remained in this attitude and prayed for several minutes. A few days later Lady Meux sent to him by me a set of her publications, and when I delivered the books at his lodgings in Westminster the joy of himself and the bishops who were with him was unbounded.”

Lady Meux left all the manuscripts to Emperor Menelik in her will. But that was ignored after her death and the manuscripts were sold on.

Posted In Festivals & miracles of Mary, Jesus & the angels | Manuscripts | Previously - Lady Meux Collection
Tagged

A manuscript of the Life of Hanna (Lady Meux MS. No 4 – Bodleian Aeth. J-J 41)

Published September 20, 2026 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A 15th century Ethiopian manuscript of the life of Mary’s mother Hanna. Described by the British Museum’s E. A. Wallis Budge in 1933 as “the only copy of the Life of Hanna in Ethiopia known to me”. Possibly the rarest manuscript in the whole Maqdala library.

Where: The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford Address: Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BG

One of four beautifully illustrated Magdala manuscripts that went on their own amazing journey after the Abyssinian campaign.

In brief, they were brought back from the battle by an unnamed British officer and put on sale by the antiquarian book dealer Bernard Quaritch in London. The British Museum didn’t have enough money so they were bought by the eccentric Lady Meux (formerly a banjo-playing barmaid named Val), who ran her own private museum in Hertfordshire.

She spent vast sums producing coloured reproductions of the manuscripts, made contacts with the Ethiopian royal family and, in her will, left them to Emperor Menelik II. But her will was ignored and the manuscripts were sold on – one to the U.S. newspaper magnate (and Citizen Kane inspiration) William Randolph Hearst. That manuscript has ended up in the Schøyen manuscript collection which is spread across Oslo and London. Another is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Another was last seen on sale at Inlibris in Vienna.

This volume is currently in the collection of The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, where it is filed as MS Aeth. J-J 41 Gadla Hanna. The photos were taken by Andrew Heavens during a tour of the library on April 25, 2025.

Lady Meux’s reproduction of this manuscript was published in two books:

Here are some images from those books.

A copy of the reproduction of The miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the life of Ḥannâ (Saint Anne), and the magical prayers of ‘Ahĕta Mîkâêl. Currently on sale for £1,426.50 via AbeBooks
Image of page from the missing History of Hanna, used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ
Image of page from the missing History of Hanna, used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ
Image of page from the missing History of Hanna, used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ
Image of page from the missing History of Hanna, used in E. A. Wallis Budge’s 1933 book Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ

The story of the Meux collection

From the Preface to E. A. Wallis Budge’s Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ:

“In the spring of 1897 Lady Meux went to the establishment of Mr. Bernard Quaritch in Piccadilly to purchase a copy of Ludolf’s “Historia AEthiopica.” Finding that she had been reading a translation of the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, he took the opportunity of showing her a group of fine Ethiopic MSS., which he had recently acquired from an officer who had served in the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1867. She telegraphed to me asking me to go and examine the manuscripts and to report upon them to her without delay. I did so, and Mr. Quaritch put the manuscripts before me. The oldest of them was a small 4to volume containing a Life of Hanna, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it was illustrated with archaic Ethiopian pictures of Hanna and her husband Joachim, the Birth of the Virgin, etc., and was written in the XVth century. It was, and still is the only copy of the Life of Hanna in Ethiopia known to me. Two of the manuscripts were large handsome volumes about 16 inches square, and each contained a good selection of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, illustrated with many full-page pictures painted in bright colours which were intended to illustrate the texts of the Miracles. The older of these MSS. was written in the XVIth century and the other about a century later ; each had been made for the use of a royal personage. Another manuscript contained the Life of Maba’a Seyon, a comparatively modern Ethiopian saint, and the Life of Gabra Krestos, a prince who abandoned his royal state and home and parents, and became a mendicant monk. These Lives were illustrated by a large series of coloured pictures, which are of special interest as they portray events in the daily life of the modern Abyssinians. I sent to Lady Meux a description of these MSS., pointing out their interest and importance, and their great value from an artistic point of view. I also told the Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum of them, and urged him to attempt to acquire them for the National Collection. But his official financial position was such that it was impossible for him to make an offer for them which Mr. Quaritch would accept, and so the whole group of MSS., together with a few smaller works, became the property of Lady Meux, who added them to her Col- lection of Egyptian and Sudani antiquities preserved in the museum at Theobalds Park…

“… But to return now to the manuscripts that Lady Meux had purchased from Mr. Quaritch. As soon as these were delivered to her she asked me to make a fuller examination of them, and to describe their contents more or less in detail, so that she might come to some decision as to their publication. She had already published for private circulation the Ethiopic Version of the History of Alexander the Great, which I had copied and translated from MSS. in the British Museum, and the very favourable reception which this work met with at the hands of scholars and the literary world in general stimulated her to continue the publication of Ethiopic texts with English translations. And this version of the famous Alexander Book was welcomed in Ethiopia and praised by no less a critic than His Majesty the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek II, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. When the British Mission to Menyelek was received by the King in Addis Abbeba, Sir F. R. Wingate presented to His Majesty, with the other gifts, a copy of the “Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great,” which Lady Meux had sent him. And I was told by a member of the Mission that His Majesty was both surprised and pleased with the Ethiopic text, which he began to read forthwith, and that he admired the Ethiopic type and wished to have more books of the kind produced.

“Of the Lady Meux MSS. the first to be reproduced was that containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos, a stout quarto leather-bound volume containing ninety-two pictures illustrating the text. The coloured facsimiles of the pictures were reproduced by the late Mr. W. Griggs and were inserted in their proper places in the English text. The Ethiopic texts were printed by the eminent German firm of W. Drugulin of Leipzig because the necessary fount of type did not exist in England, and were placed at the end of the book. Up to that time hardly any attention had been paid by scholars to the art exhibited by the pictures in the illustrated manuscripts, and some of them went so far as to describe it as “wretched caricature,” and the pictures as “horrible daubs.” …

“The volume containing the Lives of Maba’a Seyon and Gabra Krestos appeared in the summer of 1898, and was so warmly welcomed by scholars and learned societies that Lady Meux decided to reproduce the Miracles of the Virgin and the Life of Hanna, etc., without delay. This work occupied nearly two years, and the new volume, containing Ethiopic texts, English translations and one hundred and eleven coloured plates, appeared in 1900 …

“Lady Meux distributed the volume among scholars and Libraries where it would be easily accessible for study, and her generosity was greatly appreciated … Mr. (now Sir) J. L. Harrington, H.B.M.’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor Menyelek, presented a copy of the work to His Majesty, who was apparently greatly pleased with the gift. He wrote to Lady Meux in the following terms : ” From the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Menyelek, King of the Kings of Ethiopia. I am well. How are you ? The book which you sent to me with Mr. Harrington has come to me. I am pleased. And because it is very well done I send you this letter and my seal.” … Soon after this Lady Meux received many applications from leading ecclesiastics and officers in Ethiopia for copies of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, and it was clear that the publication of her manuscripts was greatly appreciated by the writers.

“In 1902 His Highness Ras Makonnen, K.C.M.G., Governor of Harrar and the Dependencies of Ethiopia, came to England to be present at the Coronation of King Edward VH, and as soon as possible, by his Sovereign’s orders, he announced his arrival to Lady Meux. He and his suite visited Theobalds Park one Sunday, and he and the ecclesiastics who were with him spent much time in examining her manuscripts and her reproductions of them. His reverence for the manuscripts was great, and after bowing several times to the older manuscript of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary he knelt on the floor of the Museum and lifting the book on to the top of his head remained in this attitude and prayed for several minutes. A few days later Lady Meux sent to him by me a set of her publications, and when I delivered the books at his lodgings in Westminster the joy of himself and the bishops who were with him was unbounded.”

Lady Meux left all the manuscripts to Emperor Menelik in her will. But that was ignored after her death and the manuscripts were sold on.

Posted In Acts & miracles of the saints | Manuscripts | Previously - Lady Meux Collection
Tagged

An 18th century manuscript of St Luke and St John

Published September 20, 2026 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: “Lavishly decorated Gondarine Gospel once owned by Emperor Tewodros II”

Where: Last seen on sale at Inlibris Gilhofer Nfg. Rathausstrasse 19 1010 Vienna Austria

Provenance; Tewodros and Napier mentioned in the Inlibris listing

Story: TewodrosGospels spotted on sale in Abu Dhabi – September 2026

It’s a sign of how much was looted from Ethiopia in 1868 that new treasures keep turning up almost 160 years later.

Look at this lavishly illustrated C18th copy of the Gospels of Luke and John, until recently on sale in Abu Dhabi for c €250,000

Clearly listed as from the library of Ethiopia’s Emperor Tewodros II and taken by Robert Napier, the commander of the British forces that invaded in 1867/8. From there it passed through a chain of private collections and dealers.

The Ethiopian Heritage Authority and academic campaigner @alulapan spotted the sale and asked for it to be stopped. The seller – Inlibris of Vienna – initially refused, saying it was satisfied it had the “lawful ownership” of the manuscript.

But Inlibris then backed down and withdrew the book from sale. The next question – will it make its way back to Ethiopia?

See images of the manuscript on the Inlibris website.

Posted In Biblical books | Manuscripts
Tagged

Review: Barbara Blake Hannah on ‘The Prince and the Plunder’

Published July 02, 2025 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

By Barbara Blake Hannah

Finally, the full story of the Ethiopian Prince Alemayu, the son of Emperor Tewodros, who was taken from Ethiopia to England after the Battle of Maqdala, has been told and told well. Andrew Heavens must be commended for using his literary talent to explain details of the life of the boy prince, completely clarifying the mystery that has always surrounded his name and describing his life with words so vivid and descriptive, that at times I felt I was watching a documentary film, not just reading a book.

Heavens begins by explaining that Emperor Tewodros was a brave soldier king who, in an effort to unite the nation under his leadership, led his army to conquer the many Rases who ruled other parts of Ethiopia. The fortress castle of Maqdala stood on top of a precipitous mountain that made it almost impregnable. Here was Prince Alemayu born, son of a beautiful wife who agreed to marry Tewdros in return for him freeing her father from among the many prisoners he kept chained in the castle. Tewodros had asked two British explorers who became his friends, to help improve his relations with Britain’s Queen Victoria by delivering to her a letter requesting a close military association to defeat his Turkish enemies. But after they died, this important letter was delayed by 15 months without an answer, making the Emperor so angry that he captured and imprisoned at Maqdala all the British and Europeans who were then in Ethiopia. It was this group of prisoners that Britain decided to send an army to rescue.

The details of the army sent under Robert Napier, are astonishing. Consider the 42 elephants that were just one small detail of the immense collection of items accompanying the soldiers. Food, clothing, even railway tracks to be laid from the port where the army landed, carrying men and armaments into and across Ethiopia, showed the strength of Britain’s military might. The truths Heavens uncovers with his detailed research show that, faced with the failure of his own cannons to do damage to the British army, and his impending defeat, Tewdros fires his pistol into his mouth. His still-bleeding body is immediately subjected to the first of hundreds of acts of the looting of Maqdala. his clothing is cut into shreds and locks of his long hair render him nearly bald. Halfway through this act of ghoulish theft, one man sketches a picture of Tewdros’s head, giving us the first close-up look at the historic Emperor.

After the battle and subsequent looting, Napier takes responsibility for little Alemayu and his mother, as the British army makes a rapid return to England. Though some stories of this departure gave the impression that the little prince and his mother were either kidnapped or trafficked, in fact Tewodros had several times in the past said he wanted his son brought up in England, to which his mother had agreed. She, sadly, died en route to Aden, and Alemayu was taken on board ship under the care of a very unusual Englishman, Captain Speedy, who becomes a central figure in his life.

Captain Speedy, another explorer who knew Ethiopia so well he spoke Amharic, became the prince’s official caretaker for several years thereafter, a relationship with which the child was happy and which Queen Victoria, to whom the royal child was presented, official approved of. While a previous impression had been given that the Queen had held Alemayu under duress, the book shows she treated him like a caring and loving grandmother, giving him — under Captain Speedy’s care — access to her summer home on the Isle of Wight and frequent visits to her at Windsor Castle. She was forever interested in his welfare, but in details Heavens reveals, the Queen had less power over decisions about life, than the government officials who ruled Britain.

Little Alemayu grows up in England under Speedy’s care. The book shares photos of the young prince, in each of which we can see unhappiness behind his quiet, sad eyes. Speedy and his wife move to India with Alemayu, but when Speedy wants to move to the Phillipines, that move is denied by government decisions, Alemayu is returned to England and efforts made for him to receive a proper English education. He is sent to Rugby school where he endures traditional bullying, then to Sandhurst military school where the bullying becomes brutal and cruel. His inability to acquire the desired level of English education causes those in charge of Alemayu to give up trying to qualify him for a proper job.

Sent to stay with a former tutor in a cold countryside house in the middle of winter, 18-year old Alemayu contracts a bad cold, refuses to eat food and, despite efforts by nurses, doctors and even a brief visit from Captain Speedy, he dies. Considering the boy’s story — the paradise life in which he spent his early years, the shock of witnessing the onslaught on his home Maqdala, the death of his father, then his mother, his move to the very foreign England where his colour and royal birth made him a constant source of attention and racism, his several moves from persons and places, and his eventual brutal experience at Sandhurst — his experiences in England must have made Alemayu decide that his life was no longer worth living. Refusing to eat must have been his easiest way out of all the sadness, mental and physical pain he had suffered in his short life and though various pulmonary diagnoses are given, it seems clear that suicide is the cause of Alemayu’s death. The photo of him in death shows his very handsome face, resting and finally at peace.

The book does not end there. We learn that Alemayu’s constant wish to be returned to Ethiopia was on the point of being granted, but he didn’t live to know that. The Ethiopians at home and abroad who have tried since then to have Alemayu’s remains returned are told that his tomb is inaccessible, but this is inaccurate. Ras Tafari Makonnen, later crowned Emperor Haile Selassie, visited St. George’s Chapel in 1924, examined his tomb and corrected the inscription by placing an Amharic version of his name on it. Clearly it is not buried and irretrievable. Those who love Ethiopia will not cease asking to have his remains returned. The book lists the various items of booty looted from Maqdala, identifying the British museums and libraries where they are located and how they came to be there. Not all have been found, and some are in private collections, while a few have actually been returned. Some, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tabots locked in secret rooms of the British Museum that cannot be seen except by priests, are part of the ongoing request for their return to Ethiopia, as they all should be. The book makes special mention of Rastafari in a chapter about Ras Seymour McLean, the Book Liberator, who removed hundreds of Ethiopian books from British museums and libraries, claiming that he was returning ‘stolen legacy’ to its original owners, and bringing Rastafari energy to the campaign to have all of the Maqdala treasures repatriated.

I deeply congratulate Andrew Heavens for writing this fascinating, well-researched and informative book. It gives a vivid picture of Ethiopia a century ago, providing a link through the young Prince to today’s Ethiopia. Prince Alemayu in life and death is a symbol of Ethiopia’s history and the treasures looted at Maqdala. The story is not over till he and the treasures looted from his father’s kingdom, are returned.

© Barbara Blake Hannah

Posted In Features