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Source Description
This beautifully copied and bound Ethiopian Psalter likely belonged to one of the princes of the Gonderite royal family, whose reign ended in 1769. The main text of this undecorated manuscript is written in the ecclesiastical language of Ge'ez while the minor texts are in Amharic, added at a later time. While the colophon and the hand suggest that the original manuscript only contained the 151 Psalms of David, which is in an early eighteenth-century hand, the other texts such as the fifteen Canticles, Song of Songs, Weddase Maryam (Encomium of Mary) and the Anqasa Berhan (Porch of Light) were added in the nineteenth century to create a more complete Psalter. More unusual texts, unrelated to the Psalter, have also been added, for it begins with a homily admonishing the clergy to conduct themselves well spiritually, and ends with directions for undoing charms. The life of the manuscript can be traced not only in these cumulative texts, but also in added prayers for later owners, of which there are at least twelve appended to the ends of the Biblical texts.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
35288
label
Ethiopic Psalter with Canticles, Song of Songs, and Two Hymns in Praise of Mary
core
obj
dtoType
manuscript
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
35288
sourceUrl
contentType
manuscript
stage
normalized
title
Ethiopic Psalter with Canticles, Song of Songs, and Two Hymns in Praise of Mary
description
This beautifully copied and bound Ethiopian Psalter likely belonged to one of the princes of the Gonderite royal family, whose reign ended in 1769. The main text of this undecorated manuscript is written in the ecclesiastical language of Ge'ez while the minor texts are in Amharic, added at a later time. While the colophon and the hand suggest that the original manuscript only contained the 151 Psalms of David, which is in an early eighteenth-century hand, the other texts such as the fifteen Canticles, Song of Songs, Weddase Maryam (Encomium of Mary) and the Anqasa Berhan (Porch of Light) were added in the nineteenth century to create a more complete Psalter. More unusual texts, unrelated to the Psalter, have also been added, for it begins with a homily admonishing the clergy to conduct themselves well spiritually, and ends with directions for undoing charms. The life of the manuscript can be traced not only in these cumulative texts, but also in added prayers for later owners, of which there are at least twelve appended to the ends of the Biblical texts.
provenance
Gonderite royal family, before 1769; Wälättä Heywät and Wälättä Kidan [added prayers] [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1960, by purchase.
date
Early 18th century and 19th century
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
manuscripts
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
dimensions
units
cm
width
31
height
29
RelatedObjects
87625
med
ink and paint on heavy, yellow parchment covered with blind-tooled, stamped goatskin with cross design over wooden boards
cul
Christian Ethiopian
creator_ids
6234
31601
collection_ids
MSS
exhibition_ids
none
dimensionsRaw
H: 12 3/16 x W: 11 7/16 in. (31 x 29 cm)
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
c73d57a42aedd17f