Ethiopian MonkBiblio.com
1780rif. 507Ethiopia: Unknown 1780. First edition. Hand-made: Hand-tooled full red morocco over wood boards. Very Good/`. Ethiopian Monk. MAGNIFICENT EXAMPLE OF AN ANTIQUE ETHIOPIAN-HANDMADE HANDWRITTEN AND HAND-PAINTED- COPTIC MANUSCRIPT ON PARCHMENT. This is a large luxurious monastic psalter comprised of about 75 psalms of 151 total handwritten and handmade at an Ethiopian monastery by a talented scribe at the height of the Second Gondarine period in Ethiopia or shortly thereafter circa 1780s to 1830s judging by the aging of the vellum signs of centuries-old wear and the distinct paleography. Its four hand-painted miniatures were added later by a skilled artist over existing text circa mid-19th to early 20th century. The beautifully preserved leather wrap-around binding over heavy wood boards is later with remnants of unremoved goat hair still intact. Most examples of Ethiopian Coptic manuscripts are quite small usually ranging between 3" x 5" to 7" x 5" or pocket-sized for personal use and often lack illustrations or sparsely and crudely have a page or two illustrated. This example is quite large for an Ethiopian Coptic manuscript: 9" x 8" 2 to 5 times larger than a typical example and features 122 total unnumbered pages written in Ge'ez - the ancient liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. This lovely lectern copy was designed to be used during religious ceremonies. The Ge'ez script is written in a confident highly practiced monastic hand. The letters are bold sharp neat and evenly spaced which is characteristic of the late Gondarine literary renaissance. The alternating black and red ink red being used to rubricate sacred names or section headers utilizes traditional organic soot and mineral pigments. The symbol composed of red and black dots at the end of each text line is a traditional scribal verse separator called a Geʽez misraf. The prayer book is bound in luxurious red-brown morocco Beranna stretched tightly over wooden boards with intricate tooling in blind framing a large centralized cross. Interlaced within the text are four full-page miniatures that were added later and painted over existing text in a Gondarine style using more modern pigments. The paintings are themes commonly featured in psalters from the late 18th century to early 20th century. 1. Saint George Slaying the Dragon. This painting is a classic representation of Saint George. In the Ethiopian tradition he is deeply venerated as the patron saint of the nation a protector of the faithful and a symbol of unwavering courage. The large expressive almond-shaped eyes of St. George the three-quarter turn of the head the specific layout of the horse's tack and the warm earth-and-mineral pigments reds yellows and deep charcoals are highly characteristic of Second Gondarine and post-Gondarine art styles. In the upper right corner is Birutawit the maiden of Beirut whom Saint George saved from being sacrificed to the dragon. 2. The Masqalaor the Image of the Virgin and Child with Her Guardians. A foundational piece of art frequently included in highly sacred texts like the Psalter Dawit. The Virgin Mary is holding the Christ Child Maryam and Iyasus flanked by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel wielding drawn swords. Mary is wearing a deep indigo or charcoal-colored maphorion cloak with distinct fold lines a Gondarine art form not developed until the late 1700s adorned with small golden stars. The decorative red and gold borders on her clothing are highly characteristic of styles used late18th century to early 20th century. The inscription written in Ge'ez above Mary's shoulder translates to 'With Her Beloved Son.' 3. The Crucifixion. Jesus is depicted on a dark T-shaped or Latin cross wearing a traditional striped loincloth. His frame is long and thin and his ribs are prominently exposed. His head leans gently to the side representing his death. Jesus is flanked by the two traditional figures from the Gospels. On the left stands the Virgin Mary Maryam and on the right stands Saint John the Evangelist Yohannes holding a book in one hand and offering a blessing with the other. 4. The Resurrection. Rather than showing Christ emerging from a stone tomb like in Western European art Ethiopian icons depict Jesus standing victoriously upon a stylized pedestal platform which represents Hades or the broken gates of Death. He holds a long slender staff capped with a cross Qewami Meskel that serves as a sign of victory over death showing that the tool of his execution has become his instrument of triumph. His multi-layered radiant golden halo indicates his divinity. He is accompanied by witnesses bottom and angels in the sky. HOW THIS MANUSCRIPT WAS MADE Ge'ez calligraphy executed in natural red and black inks with a reed pen in single columns a format unique to psalters for religious texts otherwise two or three columns were used to maximize the use of expensive parchment and rubricated throughout adorns hand-made parchment made from goatskin or sheepskin. The parchment sheets are folded and then bound together using reed with a link chain stitch for the quires and housed in wooden boards made from local trees. Goatskin was tanned dyed and treated and stretched tightly over the wooden boards and then intricately tooled in blind. These same techniques have been consistently used for more than 1000 years and it is this consistency of technique that makes Ethiopian Coptic texts notoriously difficult to exactly date without carbon dating methods. HISTORY OF ETHIOPIAN COPTIC MANUSCRIPTS IN GE'EZ Ethiopian Handwritten Coptic Ge'ez Bibles and liturgical texts were produced as early as the fourteenth century until the early 20th century throughout Ethiopia the first country to become an independent African nation. Christianity was introduced to Ethiopia in the 4th century when Syrian missionaries first translated the Bible into Ge'ez the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The surviving body of Ge'ez literature is composed almost entirely of Christian liturgy as education was exclusively the responsibility of priests and monks. The bibles produced typically contain the gospels of the New Testament recounting the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the foundation of the Christian. The Ethiopian Bible contains a significantly larger canon of books than Western Bibles including texts like the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees which are often found in its broader canon. It is considered one of the oldest and most complete Bibles containing more than 80 books compared to the 66 in the Protestant canon. The world's earliest illustrated Christian book is the Garima Gospels written in Ge'ez found in a remote Ethiopian monastery. It is named after a monk who arrived in Ethiopia in the 5th century and is beautifully illustrated. For perspective it predates the first King James Bible by about 1200 years. CONDITION REPORT Very Good for a hand-made Ethiopian psalter used in religious ceremonies for centuries. 'Good' by antiquarian book standards. Exterior and binding: Firmly bound. Minimal wear beautifully preserved. Some light scratches and areas of light rubbing. Interior: The vellum pages show significant natural aging - internal cracking within the parchment caused by the breakdown of collagen over the centuries and shrinking and yellowing of the vellum - all caused by fluctuating changes in heat and humidity over long periods of time. The page margins are layered in hand-soiling and hand oils as well as soot and residue from wax candles and frankincense censers which burn continuously in monastic buildings. Over decades and centuries this airborne resin and carbon settle directly onto the exposed outer page edges and the first few pages of a book left on a lectern or internally if a book is left open as is the case in several spots in this manuscript. This created the classic gray-black 'church dust' film visible on the first two miniatures while the other two are in FINE condition and exceptionally preserved. The edges of the pages are brittle with age and there are numerous cracks chips creases and marginal tears. There are a few spots of immature marginal art in a child's hand added in more modern times and some examples of later added Ethiopian writing in pen. Other signs of use like stains soiling and water dampening spots. All in all a lovely large example of a late 18th century to early 19th century Ethiopian hand-made psalter used in religious ceremonies for generations with later added masterfully painted religious scenes and bound in luxurious red-brown morocco hand-tooled in blind. Unknown unknown
1953rif. 819991953-54. From the collection of Jazz Hall-of-Famer Junior Mance from his time as house pianist at the Bee Hive in Chicago. None of the leaves are personalized apart from that of Coltrane who has inscribed "Best to Junior John Coltrane." The Coltrane leaf is mounted with a studio printed photograph by Francis Wolff a portrait of 'Trane taken in 1956 at bassist Paul Chambers's Blue Note recording sessions for Whims Of Chambers; Pres with an image by the Dutch jazz photographer Gerrit Schilp; Monk the leaf inscribed "Good luck always" with an original photograph of Monk by Duncan Schiedt; and Bird mounted with a high quality reproduction of the famous James Kriegsmann studio portrait of the young Bird. Junior Mance began playing the piano at the age of five not receiving formal training until the age of eight and starting to play professionally during his early teens. He attended Roosevelt College in Chicago as a music major. In 1947 Mance left Roosevelt College to join Gene Ammons' band and began his recording career with Gene. He joined Lester Young in 1949 for almost two years and rejoined Ammons several months in 1951 before being drafted into the U. S. Army serving in the 36th Army Band at Fort Knox Kentucky along with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. After his discharge from the Army in 1953 he became part of the house rhythm section at the Bee Hive Jazz Club in Chicago for a year accompanying musicians such as Charlie Parker Coleman Hawkins Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Sonny Stitt. In 1954 Mance joined and toured with Dinah Washington later working with Dizzy Gillespie before forming his own trio. Junior Mance was inducted into the International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997 he continues to work in NYC and Japan. A really lovely group of important and uncommon signatures with a most excellent provenance. Four individual autograph album leaves from an album kept by pianist Junior Mance each archivally mounted framed and glazed together with a photographic portrait of subject accompanied by a similarly presented image of Mance himself with signature. Very good condition. unknown
2021rif. SBBIH-NQWMQB4JPTLOAACHE Ediciones 2021. paperback. Good. Our good condition books are generally good for reading but not for gifting or collecting. They could have imperfections such as creasing fanning inscriptions margin notes yellowing staining on edge or cover or pages bumps scuffs etc etc sometimes multiple of these. It's a wide category that encompasses anything that isn't almost-new down to anything that is slightly better than poor. We would NOT recommend gifting Good books - these should be considered reading copies. Our books are dispatched from a Yorkshire former cotton mill. We list via barcode/ISBN so please note that the images are stock images and may not be the exact copy you receive furthermore the details about edition and year might not be accurate as many publishers reuse the same ISBN for multiple editions and as we simply scan a barcode or enter an ISBN we do not check the validity of the edition data when listing. If you're looking for an exact edition please don't order at least not without checking with us first although we don't always have time to check. We aim to dispatch prompty the service used will depend on order value and book size. We can ship to most countries see our shipping policies. Payment is via Abe only. AACHE Ediciones paperback
rif. 108192various places various publishers 1810-1841. . 11 vols in all comprising: I Fisica de' Corpi Ponderabili: first edition; 4 vols thick 8vo; 18 folding plates scattered light foxing slight toning to leaves; II Opuscoli Matematici e Fisici: first edition; 2 vols in one 4to; 2 folding plates scattered light foxing; III Mémoire sur la Dispersion de la Lumière: first edition; 4to; numerous tables to text many full-page some browning to leaves; IV Traité des fonctions elliptiques et des intégrales eulériennes: first edition; 3 vols 4to; 4 folding plates lacking portrait of Euler in volume 2 some leaves browned scattered light foxing; V Géométrie Descriptive: fifth edition; 4to; 28 folding plates light dampstaining to prelims scattered light foxing; VI Mécanique Analytique: first edition; 4to; 4 folding plates scattered light foxing light dampstaining to plates; contemporary half vellum 7 vols and full vellum 4 vols bound to match red and green morocco title labels with gilt lettering gilt tooling to spines light wear to extremities overall an attractive set. I First edition of Avogadro's magnum opus containing the first announcement of 'Avogadro's Number'. A major treatise containing Avogadro's famous hypothesis that the number of integral molecules in any gas is always the same for equal volumes or always proportional to the volumes. This was of great importance for nineteenth-century chemistry in effectively distinguishing between atoms and molecules. Avogadro first published this hypothesis in 1811 but it was largely ignored for another half century partly because it was published first in Italian when Italy was at the periphery of scientific research and subsequently only in minor French German and English scientific journals. II First edition of this rare publication considered an important scientific journal above all for being the means of dissemination of the mathematical theories of A.L. Cauchy in Italy. The second volume contains some of Cauchy's fundamental works translated into Italian including Sulla meccanica celeste. III First publication of Cauchy's equation which determined the relationship between the wavelength of light and the refractive index of a material the light passes through. Cauchy produced this publication which consisted of his own papers in 1835 and 1836. This memoir was issued as eight parts of his periodical Nouveaux Exercices de Mathématiques and was a successor to his earlier Exercices de Mathématiques published from 1826 to 1830. A prolific and rigourous mathematician Cauchy's works covered refraction and polarisation of light mechanics elasticity number theory and complex functions. IV The rare first edition of Legendre's great work on the theory of elliptic functions its application to geometry and mechanics methods of constructing elliptical tables Eulerian integrals etc. This copy is complete with the three supplements published successively in 1828 1829 and 1832. 'Legendre's research covers all areas of mathematics including celestial mechanics but his favourite subjects are elliptic functions and number theory. From 1786 he worked with elliptic integrals. His Exercices de calcul intégral 1811-1816 and the three volumes of his monumental Traité des fonctions elliptiques et des intégrales eulériennes 1825-1828 followed by three supplements in which he expounded the work of Abel and Jacobi made him the undisputed specialist' from the French text. V Fifth edition of this classic work on geometry. 'Monge should be considered the true creator of descriptive geometry for it was he who elegantly and methodically converted the group of graphical procedures used by practitioners into a general uniform technique based on simple and rigourous geometric reasoning and methods. Within a few years this new discipline was being taught in French scientific and technical schools and had spread to several other Continental countries' DSB. VI First edition of this apparently unfinished work on analytical mechanics. Statics and dynamics were to have been augmented with hydrostatics and hydrodynamics and possibly a fifth part giving applications. Scarce - the two parts are not often found bound together. Norman 89; Honeyman 168 for Avogadro. [various places], [various publishers], 1810-1841. hardcover
