What: Length of parchment with Coptic writing in black ink. “From King Theodore’s House”.
Where: Perth Museum & Art Gallery, 78 George St, Perth PH1 5LB
Listed in, the “Catalogue of the Ethnographic Collection: Oceania, America, Africa, Perth Museum & Art Gallery” by Dale Idiens, Curator of Ethnography
Museum ref:
1000 Prayer scroll, Ethiopia
1540 x 78 1979.1606
What: An 18th century Ethiopian strip of parchment, folded like a concertina, with three miniatures, prayers and prescriptions and a note on the back mentioning Magdala
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
An 18th century strip of manuscript containing “magical prayers and prescriptions”, according to the catalogue. A note on the back reads: “Found in Theodore’s Church, at the storming of Magdala”.
Listed as Or 12114 B in the British Library catalogue
Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library acquired since the year 1877 / compiled by S. Strelcyn
What: Described as “Ethiopic [religious] text with slight rubrication, end decoration and illustrated miniatures consisting of faces, eyes, saltire crosses, cross, 1090x71mm, rolled vellum.”
Where: Trinity College Library – Dublin
One of at least 19 Ethiopic manuscripts listed in the library’s database.
Library ref: IE TCD MS 3810
database entry – https://manuscripts.catalogue.tcd.ie/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=IE+TCD+MS+3809-3810&pos=12
Provenance:
Purchased by TCLD 9 June 1905. Brought from Abyssinia in 1869 [receipt kept with rolls]. Found in Classing Room, April 1964
1869 is the year after the Abyssinian Expedition
What: Described as “Ethiopic [religious] text with rubrication, illumination and illuminated miniatures, crucifixion – cross with Roman soldiers, no figures of Christ, 800x88mm, rolled vellum”
Where: Trinity College Library – Dublin
One of at least 19 Ethiopic manuscripts listed in the library’s database.
Library ref: IE TCD MS 3809
database entry – https://manuscripts.catalogue.tcd.ie/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=IE+TCD+MS+3809-3810&pos=12
Provenance:
Purchased by TCLD 9 June 1905. Brought from Abyssinia in 1869 [receipt kept with rolls]. Found in Classing Room, April 1964
1869 is the year after the Abyssinian Expedition
What: A [religious] text in Ethiopic script in a roll, interspersed with six illustrations in brown and black. Note on the back mentions the Abyssinian Expedition and one of the British force’s bases on the route.
Where: Trinity College Library – Dublin
One of at least 19 Ethiopic manuscripts listed in the library’s database.
Library ref: IE TCD MS 2286
database entry – https://manuscripts.catalogue.tcd.ie/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=IE+TCD+MS+2286&pos=5
Provenance:
Dated on back “Addigerat, March 22 1868. R.G. Kennedy Abs[ynnia]n Ex[peditio]n.”
Presented by Col. Lefroy, Carrigglas Manor, Longford, 1 May 1950.
What: A scroll made of two pieces of parchment from the mid 19th century with drawings and two prayers against colic. A note mentioning Magdala 1868 is written in English across one of the pictures.
Where: Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Listed as Princeton Ethiopic Magic Scroll No. 172 in the catalogue – https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Ethiopic_Combined.pdf
Provenance: Written across the first drawing in a Western hand is “Madglla [sic] Abyssinia, April 13/1868” and on the reverse is a paper label reading “Presented by Rev. R Hackwell, member of the American Presbyter[ian] Mission, Rawal Pindi Northern India []0th July 1874,” over which is written in a different hand “Jan. 1899 Pres. by Alan Marquand.”
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.