Moine

1890 · Best.-Nr. 518 — Ethiopia: Unknown 1890. First edition. Hand-tooled full red morocco over wood boards. `. Ethiopian Monk. ANTIQUE ETHIOPIAN-HANDMADE HANDWRITTEN AND HAND-PAINTED- COPTIC CHRISTIAN MANUSCRIPT PRIEST MISSAL ON PARCHMENT. This is a small monastic handmade Christian missal Maṣḥafa Qeddase made for a priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church when leading masses/religious ceremonies. It contains the divine liturgy of the church and is comprised of prayers and psalms handwritten at an Ethiopian monastery by a talented scribe circa 1890 - 1920 during the imperialistic revival period ushered in during the reign of Emperor Menelik II 1844-1913 of Ethiopia or his successor. This is evident through careful analysis of paint pigments used artistic style natural aging of the vellum signs of antiquarian wear and the distinct paleography of the period. Its four hand-painted full-page miniatures show an exceptional artistry influenced by European schools of art typical of the period. They show greater technical achievement and refinement than typically seen showing more proficient training in color balance perspective and proportionalism aside from curious uneven eye placement at times. The beautiful red morocco is later circa latter part of the 20th century and is exceptionally well-crafted and tooled in blind using traditional Ethiopian religious iconography. 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 of a typical size used for an Ethiopian Coptic manuscript: 5.5 in. x 4.25 in. and features 116 total unnumbered pages written in Ge'ez - the ancient liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Unlike most examples this missal was designed for use by a priest: there are rubrics in red ink-instructions and also horizontal red-and-black cross-shaped marks indicating when the priest should perform a specific action cantillation marks called melekket. Melekket guide the priest's movements gestures and timing and his leading of the congregation throughout the ceremony. The Ge'ez script is written in a confident highly practiced monastic hand. The letters are bold sharp and tightly spaced which is characteristic of the late- to post-Gondarine literary renaissance. The alternating black and red ink red being used for sacred names section headers or priest instructions utilizes traditional organic soot for the black ink and an imported material like cinnabar or vermillion for the red pigment. There are also harags rectangular horizontal headers with geometric patterns which signal the opening page of a new chapter or major liturgical section within the Maṣḥafa Qeddas. Some are contemporary to the text and others are more modern using ballpoint ink. The missal is bound in a later 20th century luxurious red morocco karta stretched tightly over wooden boards with exceptional tooling in blind comprised of traditional Ethiopian Christian religious symbols and motifs framing a large centralized cross. There is uniform precision in the blind-tooled geometric stamps crisp overlapping corner turn-ins and tight structural integrity of the binding. The boards and binding cords are original to the work. Interlaced within the text are four full-page miniatures in the imperialistic revival style at its height between 1890-1929. The paintings use more modern pigments made accessible through the burgeoning trade with Europe at this time. The four paintings showcase famous healing miracles performed by Jesus: 1. The Healing of the Man Born Blind from the Gospel of John Chapter 9. Jesus stands on the left adorned with a cruciform halo. He is extending his hand to touch the eyes of a blind man who is leaning forward respectfully with closed eyes. A disciple stands closely behind the blind man looking on to witness the miracle. The Ge'ez script in the top-right corner explicitly labels the scene: Wa-aḥyawo əgzi əna la- əwur which translates directly to 'And our Lord healed the blind man. 2. The Commissioning or Healing of the Apostles. Christ stands with a radiant cruciform halo raising His right hand in a classic gesture of blessing and instruction. He extends His left hand angles toward Saint Peter who stands directly at the front of the group of disciples touching his face or gesturing toward him in dialogue. Behind Saint Peter a dense layered cluster of disciples looks onward. Their highly structured stacked halo-like head shapes behind them represent the larger group of the Twelve Apostles. The Ge'ez script in the top-right corner translates to 'And our Lord taught the Apostles' - a symbolic healing of their minds and spirits. 3. The Healing of the Paralytic Man from the Gospel of Mark 2:1-12 or John 5:1-9. Jesus stands with a golden cruciform halo dressed in red and green vestments. He extends His right hand to touch the shoulder of a man dressed in a patterned dark blue robe. The healed man is walking away while carrying his bed/cot strapped to his back directly illustrating Jesus's famous scriptural command: 'Rise take up your bed and walk.' Behind Jesus Saint Peter distinguished by his white hair and beard watches the miracle with a hand extended in reverence. The Ge'ez script in the top-right corner translates directly to 'And our Lord healed the paralytic.' 4. The Raising of Lazarus from the Gospel of John Chapter 11. Jesus has His right hand raised in a gesture of divine authority and blessing commanding the dead man to arise. On the left Lazarus is shown wrapped tightly in white burial shrouds mummy-like bindings standard for Orthodox icons of this scene. He is rising vertically directly out of his open block-like wooden tomb box. Behind Jesus Saint Peter looks on closely witnessing the miraculous return to life. The painting inscription translation: 'And our Lord raised Lazarus.' HOW THIS MANUSCRIPT WAS MADE Ge'ez calligraphy executed in natural red and black inks with a reed pen in single column a format unique to psalters and missals for where many lines end in verse; 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 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. Time periods of construction can be narrowed down with knowledge of period artistic styles pigments and materials used analysis of vellum aging and wear and the distinct changes in Ethiopian paleography over time and setting. 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 Exterior and binding are NEAR FINE. Interior is Poor. The missal has been subjected to severe natural weathering. The sacred manuscript was salvaged and rebound in its current beautiful modern fine goatskin binding over its original wooden boards. Exterior and binding: Firmly bound. Minimal wear beautifully preserved. Some light scratches and areas of light rubbing. Vellum page edges heavily darkened with soot sun and natural aging. Interior: The vellum leaves show significant wear soiling warping and water damage. It appears as if the entire manuscript was water-logged at some point perhaps caught up a torrential East-African downpour during the rainy season. Many of the leaves are heavily water-browned and there are many areas where the text is obscured. There are also multiple areas of text loss from rips tears fading holes and heavy soiling/vellum darkening. Fortunately the exceptional paintings avoided most of the condition issues and are still colorful though darkened with age and a thin film of dust. The first painting has a large area of loss to the gutter margin fortunately only affecting the border and not the painted figural scene. There are multiple instances of modern ink marginalia and a few text corrections and insertions of harags divisional borders. All in all a scarce heavily weathered surviving example of a priest's missal rebound in modern fine goatskin leather over its original wood boards with four high-quality hand-painted miniatures. Most of the value is retained in the beautiful art fine binding and scarcity as a priest missal. Unknown unknown