The Prince and the Plunder

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

Category: Manuscripts

A manuscript of The Miracles of Jesus Christ (OR 8824)

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An 18th century illuminated manuscript of The Miracles of Jesus Christ

Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

Ref: OR 8824
Digital version – http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_8824
Title: The Miracles of Jesus Christ, ተአምረ ኢየሱስ.
Date: 18th century
Decription: An Ethiopian manuscript containing: 42 miracles of Jesus Christ. Number of illustrations: 40 miniatures illustrating the Miracles of Jesus and a rough drawing in black for a miniature representing of God the Father with the symbols of the four Evangelists.
Provenance:
Front flyleaf, a note “Bequeathed by Barea Batoness Zouche, 13 Oct 1917.”
Before f.1 a double paper leaf is inserted (110 x 185 mm.) containing a letter written by W. Wright to R. Curzon concerning the content of the manuscript. 6 November 1868. The letter says the manuscript came from Magdala.

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A manuscript of The Octateuch (OR 480)

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A 14th-15th Century manuscript of The Octateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth

Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

Ref: OR 480
Digital version – http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_480
Description: An Ethiopian manuscript containing:The Octateuch. (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth)

Provenance:
On f.2r. Upper margin ኦሪት ዘቅዱስ መድኃኔ ዓለም, “the Law, belonging to the Holy Saviour of the World”. The church Holy Saviour of the World built by King Theodore at Magdala.

It is the first manuscript 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

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A manuscript including The Octateuch, Gospels and ecclesiastical works (OR 481)

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A late 17th Century, profusely illustrated, manuscript of The Octateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth – as well as the Gospels and ecclesiastical works

Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

Ref: OR 481
Digital version – http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_481

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

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The sapper’s scroll

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: Scroll with ‘Sapper John Abbotts’ written on back

Where: The Royal Engineers Museum, Prince Arthur Rd, Gillingham ME7 1UR

The museum’s catalogue entry shows a 5 ft-long long narrow scroll with “five coloured drawn images depicting Christ and the apostles, an angel holding a knife in the right hand and a prayer object in the left”. There is also “a decorative image with a face in the top section of the scroll and a Coptic cross at the other end”.

On the back is written “7990 Sapper John Abbotts. 10th Company Royal Engineers. Abyssinian Field Force. Abyssinia // 13th April 1868”. That is the date of the last decisive battle when the British forces overran Magdala, found Tewodros dead and started looting the buildings.

From the catalogue entry
Object number: 4901.38
Material: parchment
Length: 1565 mm
Width: 75 mm

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The Dundee scroll

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A 19th century scroll painted with figures and geometric patterns

Where: University of Dundee Museum, Hawkhill House DD1 4HN

“Said to have been found in the palace of the King of Abyssinia ‘at the taking of Magdala,'” according to Andrew Proctor’s 1994 book Cultures of the world: The Ethnographic collections of Dundee Art Galleries and Museums.

Detail:
1060 SCROLL
Ethiopia
L.100 x DI.40 1993-382

Andrew Proctor’s book lists another Ethiopian scroll, with no mention of Magdala:

1059 SCROLL
Ethiopia
L.70 x DI.42 (Rolled up) 9999-1172
Long length of leather in three sections, inscribed in an Ethiopian script (“ge’ez”) and painted with figures and geometric patterns. Used for healing and protecting purposes.

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Manuscript ‘acquired by my friend Captain James’ (Or.MS.461-462)

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A manuscript in two volumes of the Acts of St George according to Theodotus of Ancyra with 20 full-page coloured illustrations

Where: Edinburgh University Library, 30 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ

One of 11 manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library written in Amharic or Ge’ez. Two of them – this one and a Bible – are positively linked with the battle of Magdala in the catalogue. Two others were “procured – i.e. not necessarily looted – on some of the British mission’s stop-overs on their way there.

The catalogue entry labels this manuscript Or.MS.461-462 and reads: “Gadala Georgios. The Acts of St George according to Theodotus of Ancyra. Ethiopic/Amharic. 2 vols, 163, 129 ff. Vellum, 30 by 26 cm. 20 full-page coloured illustrations. Brown camel or calf skin binding over thick wooden blind-tooled boards. Repaired by D.Cockerell, 1961. With MS letter of John Wilson to Sir Alexander Grant, Principal of the University, accompanying the gift, 1871 “Acquired by my friend Captain James after the taking of Magdala”.

The two other manuscripts in the library “procured” on the way are Or.MS.656 [Bible. Psalms.] Ethiopic/Amharic and Or.MS.673 Portion of the Gospels (?). Parchment Scroll. Ethiopic/Amharic. 

The arrival of the last two, as well as a copy of the Gospels currently in the National Library of Scotland, is described in Volume 8 (1868-70) of The Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland. This says: “The large book, believed to be the Priest’s Bible, or rather the one belonging to the church, and from which he explained to his people, was procured in a church between Adabagah and Dongalo, about thirty-two or thirty-three miles south of Adigrat. The smaller book and scrolls were mostly procured in the neighbourhood of Senafe, from churches and villages. One of the boos was said to be the Psalms … Presented … by Captain Charles McInroy, Staff Service, Madras.”

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