What: A 17th century collection of homilies for festivals for St Michael and others
Where: Cambridge University Library, West Rd, Cambridge CB3 9DR
Provenance: According to the Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library by Wright, S. G. and Ullendorff, E., it was : “Brought to England from India where it had been taken by a member of Napier’s 1867-8 Abysinian Expedition”.
What: An Ethiopian manuscript, possibly 18th century, including ‘Tabiba Tabiban’, Miracles of the Virgin Mary and hymns
Where: Bodleian Library, Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BG
MS. 57 was sent to this country by Col. Knight, a member of Napier’s British Expedition in 1868, and purchased in 1883, according to Edward Ullendorff’s Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: Volume II.
His book describes 66 manuscripts in the collection. He writes: “On the whole, it is safe to assume that the majority of the MSS here described, were acquired in Ethiopia by individual members of Napier’s expedition in 1867-8. After the death of their owners many found their way to auction sales and were then purchased by the Bodleian Library.”
Rita Pankhurst’s paper The Library of Emperor Tewodros II at Mäqdäla is more conservative and lists MS 57 as one of six manuscripts in the Bodleian Library that probably came from Magdala, on top of five that were almost definitely taken from there.
She adds: “Thirty-two other manuscripts in the Bodleian could conceivably have also come from Maqdala although there is no evidence to this effect.”
Many of the Western academics who got a first look at the manuscripts were scornful.
Here is Jacob Leveen on some of the manuscripts listed in Ullendorff’s catalogue:
“Of the 66 items catalogued here, a large proportion consists of copies of those magical scrolls, which are perhaps too well represented in the libraries of Europe. They offer a melancholy spectacle of the depths of credulity and superstition to which Abyssinians sank. The hagiographical literature is no less depressing, with its exhibition of ‘Mariolatry run mad’ (as Willliam Wright so aptly called it).” [Jacob Leveen’s review of Ullendorff, E. (1951). Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: 2 7. Oxford: Clarendon Press]
What: An illustrated double page taken out of an 18th century manuscript of the Miracles of Mary, found in one of the churches at Magdala
Where: The National Records of Scotland, 2 Princes St, Edinburgh EH1 3YY
The entry in the Records catalogue reads:
Abyssinian liturgical fragment
Ref no: GD1/1317/1-2
C18th
Page from an illuminated Coptic manuscript with miniatures depicting the Miracles of Mary, acquired by Lt H.H. Cole (1843-1916) from a church in Magdala in 1868
It is made up of four pages, back to back – i.e. one double page, pulled out, printed on both sides. Maybe the centre pages.
Four illustrations, two tall, thin oblongs, one shorter oblong and a backwards L-shape.
What: An 18th century manuscript of the Miracles of Mary or ‘Nagara Maryam’ with images on almost every page
Where: The Royal Collection, Britain
Click here to see details and images on the Royal Collection website – https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/14/collection/1005082/nagara-maryam-geez
The database entry, which has several black and white images, reads: “Manuscript on vellum, in three columns, written by one scribe in a fair hand, in the Ge’ez language. Illuminated and illustrated copiously, with images on virtually every page. | 18.0 x 34.5 cm (whole object) | RCIN 1005082”.
Note:
One of six ecclesiastical manuscripts from Maqdala, currently part of the Queen of England’s personal collection in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle.
They were part of the original haul of manuscripts given to the British Museum in the aftermath of the campaign. Museum staff selected the six most beautiful volumes and presented them to Queen Victoria.
Prof Richard Pankhurst, AFROMET vice chair, described the six illuminated books as “six of the finest Ethiopian religious manuscripts in existence”. He added: “These were specially selected for Queen Victoria, and are therefore, from the artistic point of view, virtually without equal anywhere in the world.”
Each volume includes a line identifying it as the property of the Church of Madhane Alam at Magdala. Thay are all written in the ancient Ethiopian language of Geez. All but one are described in the Royal Library catalogue as “profusely illustrated”.
Listed in Edward Ullendorff’s paper The Ethiopic Manuscripts in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
What: An 18th century manuscript of the The Miracles of Our Lord Jesus with images on almost every page
Where: The Royal Collection, Britain
Click here to see details and images on the Royal Collection website – https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/30/collection/1005079/the-miracles-of-our-lord-jesus-geez
The database entry, which has several black and white images, reads: “Manuscript on vellum, in two columns, by three scribes, in the Ge’ez language. Profusely illustrated with images particularly of the Virgin Mary and Child; first two lines of each Miracle rubricated. | 34.5 x 29.5 cm (whole object) | RCIN 1005079”.
Note:
One of six ecclesiastical manuscripts from Maqdala, currently part of the Queen of England’s personal collection in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle.
They were part of the original haul of manuscripts given to the British Museum in the aftermath of the campaign. Museum staff selected the six most beautiful volumes and presented them to Queen Victoria.
Prof Richard Pankhurst, AFROMET vice chair, described the six illuminated books as “six of the finest Ethiopian religious manuscripts in existence”. He added: “These were specially selected for Queen Victoria, and are therefore, from the artistic point of view, virtually without equal anywhere in the world.”
Each volume includes a line identifying it as the property of the Church of Madhane Alam at Magdala. Thay are all written in the ancient Ethiopian language of Geez. All but one are described in the Royal Library catalogue as “profusely illustrated”.
Listed in Edward Ullendorff’s paper The Ethiopic Manuscripts in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
What: A manuscript, dated 1766, of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary, with unusually rounded pages
Where: The Royal Collection, Britain
Click here to see details and images on the Royal Collection website – https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/31/collection/1005083/miracles-of-the-virgin-mary-geez
The database entry, which has several black and white images, reads: “Manuscript on vellum, in two columns, written by one scribe in a fair hand, in the Ge’ez language. | 30.5 x 25.5 cm (whole object) | RCIN 1005083”.
“Full leather bound in brown calfskin over wooden boards, partly lined with cloth. An Abyssinian binding with a blind-stamped pattern.
“Unusually for an Ethiopic manuscript the outside edges (top and bottom) have been cut round. It is illustrated to a high standard of both design and execution.”
“Originally owned by Walda Giyorgis (f.19r and passim). Later owned by the Church of Madhane Alam at Magdala; acquired by Queen Victoria, c.1868”
Note:
One of six ecclesiastical manuscripts from Maqdala, currently part of the Queen of England’s personal collection in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle.
They were part of the original haul of manuscripts given to the British Museum in the aftermath of the campaign. Museum staff selected the six most beautiful volumes and presented them to Queen Victoria.
Prof Richard Pankhurst, AFROMET vice chair, described the six illuminated books as “six of the finest Ethiopian religious manuscripts in existence”. He added: “These were specially selected for Queen Victoria, and are therefore, from the artistic point of view, virtually without equal anywhere in the world.”
Each volume includes a line identifying it as the property of the Church of Madhane Alam at Magdala. Thay are all written in the ancient Ethiopian language of Geez. All but one are described in the Royal Library catalogue as “profusely illustrated”.
Listed in Edward Ullendorff’s paper The Ethiopic Manuscripts in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.