Ethiopian Manuscripts : Service Book

Ethiopian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This work is a typical example of a privately-owned Ethiopian service book containing hymns and prayers arranged for the hours. Several coloured images are inserted towards the beginning and end of the codex, with miscellaneous common service texts and other readings in between. Images appear on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>4r</a> (Daniel in the lion's den, St. George and the dragon, Virgin and child with angels and a priest, and Täklä Haymanot and the dragon) and f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(193);return false;'>95v</a> (the Crucifixion). According to a note on the inside front cover, William Simpson, an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, bought it from an Ethiopian during the Napier Expedition as the troops returned to Aden after the defeat of Tewodros II: “This book of Devotion, 350 or 400, years old, I bought from an Abyssinnian [sic], at the tent door, during the return march from Magdala, 1868”. The seller may have been either Waldä Giyorgis or Śarḍa Māryām; both names appear in the manuscript. </p>