Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This mass book, containing one of about twenty anaphoras of the Church, was made for Wäldä Mädhen between 1929 and 1942 (that is, when Yohannes or John was Patriarch of Alexandris, 1928-1942, and Qerelos or Cyril was the metropolitan of Ethiopia, 1929-1950). It was written by the scribe Wändemmu Gashaw (whose baptismal name was Gäbra Maryam) of Däbrä Libanos monastery, just north of Addis Ababba, Ethiopia. Written in Ge'ez, the traditional liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the manuscript contains the Anaphora of Mary ascribed to Cyriacus, bishop of the city of Bahnasa, in Upper Egypt. There is a richly colored image of the Virgin and Child on the blank folio before the text, and the manuscript ends with a depiction of St. Michael conquering the Devil. Both illuminations were painted on reused text pages, which were added much later to give value to the manuscript. The late date of this work is a testimony to the remarkable continuation of the medieval manuscript tradition into the modern era in Ethiopia.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
15169
label
Anaphora of Mary (Mass book)
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
15169
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Anaphora of Mary (Mass book)
description
This mass book, containing one of about twenty anaphoras of the Church, was made for Wäldä Mädhen between 1929 and 1942 (that is, when Yohannes or John was Patriarch of Alexandris, 1928-1942, and Qerelos or Cyril was the metropolitan of Ethiopia, 1929-1950). It was written by the scribe Wändemmu Gashaw (whose baptismal name was Gäbra Maryam) of Däbrä Libanos monastery, just north of Addis Ababba, Ethiopia. Written in Ge'ez, the traditional liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the manuscript contains the Anaphora of Mary ascribed to Cyriacus, bishop of the city of Bahnasa, in Upper Egypt. There is a richly colored image of the Virgin and Child on the blank folio before the text, and the manuscript ends with a depiction of St. Michael conquering the Devil. Both illuminations were painted on reused text pages, which were added much later to give value to the manuscript. The late date of this work is a testimony to the remarkable continuation of the medieval manuscript tradition into the modern era in Ethiopia.
provenance
Copied by Wändemmu Gashaw [Gäbrä Maryam] of Däbrä Libanos monastery, north of Addis Ababba, Ethiopia, 1929-1950; Owned by Wäldä Mädhen (?) [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Daniel M. Friedenberg, New York, 1952, by purchase [in Addis Ababba]; Walters Art Museum, 1993, by gift.
date
2nd quarter 20th century
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
illuminated manuscripts
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
12.8
height
8.5
dimensionsRaw
H: 5 1/16 x W: 3 3/8 in. (12.8 x 8.5 cm)
Source extras
cul
Christian Ethiopian
RelatedObjects
87633
87632
87634
med
ink and pigments on medium-weight, yellow parchment of uneven finish; folios with images thicker and darker between blind-tooled red morocco binding
creator_ids
31616
collection_ids
MSS
ETH
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
8268707755440e2d