What: An 18th century manuscript, “written in a fair hand”, including Discourses for the Festivals of the Archangel Michael, with a miracle appended to each
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
Provenance: Listed as part of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847
Does not appear in British Library’s online catalogue or list of digitised manuscripts
What: A manuscript written by two people – one from the 18th and one from the 19th century – including Discourses for the Festivals of the Archangel Michael
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
Provenance: Listed as part of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847
Does not appear in British Library’s online catalogue or list of digitised manuscripts
What: An 18th century manuscript including Discourses for the Festivals of the Archangel Michael
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
Provenance: Listed as part of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847
Does not appear in British Library’s online catalogue or list of digitised manuscripts
What: The Miracles of the blessed Virgin Mary and the Order of Baptism with lessons, “imperfect at the end”.
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
Provenance: It has a note: “Obtained from the Church on the Rock at Senafe, 31st Jan. 1868. R Holmes”, referring to the British Museum’s official archaeologist on the expedition, Richard Rivington Holmes. Senafe was a stop on the march to Maqdala. Listed just before the start of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847
Does not appear in British Library’s online catalogue or list of digitised manuscripts
What: The Miracles of the blessed Virgin Mary, 26 in number, “imperfect at the end”.
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
Provenance: It has a note: “Obtained from the Church on the Rock at Senafe, 31st Jan. 1868. R Holmes”, referring to the British Museum’s official archaeologist on the expedition, Richard Rivington Holmes. Listed just before the start of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847
According to thr catalogue: “Foll. 17-20 do not belong to this manuscript. They are the last leaves of a small book, about 4-1/4 in. by 4-1/8, with from 10 to 13 lines in a page, and contain a hymn to the blessed Virgin Mary. On f. 19 ft is a note, stating that the volume belonged by purchase to the priest Walda Kidan, the son of Fesha Seyon, and that he gave it, along with the Miracles of the blessed Virgin, to the church of Matara.”
Does not appear in British Library’s online catalogue or list of digitised manuscripts
What: An early 18th century manuscript of Homilies of the Archangel Michael and associated texts, with 23 paintings
Where: Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Listed as Garrett Ethiopic Manuscript No. 2 i in the catalogue – https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Ethiopic_Combined.pdf
Provenance: There is a note in English on the first page that the manuscript was taken from the fortress of King Theodore (Tēwodros II) at Magdala in 1868
See the note here in the digital version of the manuscript – http://pudl.princeton.edu/viewer.php?obj=7fd2dd40-5294-432f-996e-59b9e8ab5019#page/4/mode/2up
It is described as “from the library of the Emperor Theodore”in the article PRINCETON’S ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT 100 in The Princeton University Library Chronicle , Vol. 71, No. 3 (Spring 2010), pp. 461-466.
Background: The broader Robert Garrett collection consists of 113 bound manuscripts in Ge’ez and Amharic. The university’s manuscript division as a whole has more than 600 Ethiopic works. There is also an illuminated manuscript, a diptych icon and a hand cross in the Princeton University Art Museum. But none mention Magdala in their provenance.