✖Here you can explore some general information about the project. See also Beta maṣāḥəft institutional web page. Select About to meet the project team and our partners. Visit the Guidelines section to learn about our encoding principles. The section Data contains the Linked Open Data information, and API the Application Programming Interface documentation for those who want to exchange data with the Beta maṣāḥǝft project. The Permalinks section documents the versioning and referencing earlier versions of each record.
Click to get back to the home page. Here you can find out more about the project team, the cooperating projects, and the contact information. You can also visit our institutional page. Find out more about our Encoding Guidelines. In this section our Linked Open Data principles are explained. Developers can find our Application Programming Interface documentation here. The page documents the use of permalinks by the project.
✖Descriptions of (predominantly) Christian manuscripts from Ethiopia and Eritrea are the core of the Beta maṣāḥǝft project. We (1) gradually encode descriptions from printed catalogues, beginning from the historical ones, (2) incorporate digital descriptions produced by other projects, adjusting them wherever possible, and (3) produce descriptions of previously unknown and/or uncatalogued manuscripts. The encoding follows the TEI XML standards (check our guidelines).
Shelf marks (full list)Manuscripts (search)List of Digitized ManuscriptsCatalogues EncodedInscriptions
✖We identify each unit of content in every manuscript. We consider any text with an independent circulation a work, with its own identification number within the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe). Parts of texts (e.g. chapters) without independent circulation (univocally identifiable by IDs assigned within the records) or recurrent motifs as well as documentary additional texts (identified as Narrative Units) are not part of the CAe. You can also check the list of different types of text titles or various Indexes available from the top menu.
Clavis Aethiopica (Works)Narrative UnitsStudies
The clavis is a repertory of all known works relevant for the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition; the work being defined as any text with an independent circulation. Each work (as well as known recensions where applicable) receives a unique identifier in the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe). In the filter search offered here one can search for a work by its title, a keyword, a short quotation, but also directly by its CAe identifier - or, wherever known and provided, identifier used by other claves, including Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (BHG), Clavis Patrum Graecorum (CPG), Clavis Coptica (CC), Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti (CAVT), Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti (CANT), etc. The project additionally identifies Narrative Units to refer to text types, where no clavis identification is possible or necessary. Recurring motifs or also frequently documentary additiones are assigned a Narrative Unit ID, or thematically clearly demarkated passages from various recensions of a larger work. This list view shows the documentary collections encoded by the project Ethiopian Manuscript Archives (EMA) and its successor EthioChrisProcess - Christianization and religious interactions in Ethiopia (6th-13th century) : comparative approaches with Nubia and Egypt, which aim to edit the corpus of administrative acts of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, for medieval and modern periods. See also the list of documents contained in the additiones in the manuscripts described by the Beta maṣāḥǝft project . Works of interest to Ethiopian and Eritrean studies.
✖While encoding manuscripts, the project Beta maṣāḥǝft aims at creating an exhaustive repertory of art themes and techniques present in Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian tradition. See our encoding guidelines for details. Two types of searches for aspects of manuscript decoration are possible, the decorations filtered search and the general keyword search.
Index of decorationsArt KeywordsIlluminations
The filtered search for decorations, originally designed with Jacopo Gnisci, looks at decorations and their features only. The filters on the left are relative only to the selected features, reading the legends will help you to figure out what you can filter. For example you can search for all encoded decorations of a specific art theme, or search the encoded legends. If the decorations are present, but not encoded, you will not get them in the results. If an image is available, you will also find a thumbnail linking to the image viewer. [NB: The Index of Decorations currently often times out, we are sorry for the inconvenience.] You can search for particular motifs or aspects, including style, also through the keyword search. Just click on "Art keywords" and "Art themes" on the left to browse through the options. This is a short cut to a search for all those manuscripts which have miniatures of which we have images.
✖We create metadata for all places associated with the manuscript production and circulation as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the project. The encoding of places in Beta maṣāḥǝft will thus result in a Gazetteer of the Ethiopian tradition. We follow the principles established by Pleiades and lined out in the Syriaca.org TEI Manual and Schema for Historical Geography which allow us to distinguish between places, locations, and names of places. See also Help page fore more guidance.
PlacesRepositories
This tab offers a filtrable list of all available places. Geographical references of the type "land inhabited by people XXX" is encoded with the reference to the corresponding Ethnic unit (see below); ethnonyms, even those used in geographical contexts, do not appear in this list. Repositories are those locations where manuscripts encoded by the project are or used to be preserved. While they are encoded in the same way as all places are, the view offered is different, showing a list of manuscripts associated with the repository.
✖We create metadata for all persons (and groups of persons) associated with the manuscript production and circulation (rulers, religious authorities, scribes, donors, and commissioners) as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the project. The result will be a comprehensive Prosopography of the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition. See also Help page for more guidance.
Persons and groupsEthnic units
We encode persons according to our Encoding Guidelines. The initial list was inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix. We consider ethnonyms as a subcategory of personal names, even when many are often used in literary works in the context of the "land inhabited by **". The present list of records has been mostly inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix.
✖This section collects some additional resources offered by the project. Select Bibliography to explore the references cited in the project records. The Indexes list different types of project records (persons, places, titles, keywords, etc). Visit Projects for information on partners that have input data directly in the Beta maṣāḥǝft database. Special ways of exploring the data are offered under Visualizations. Two applications were developed in cooperation with the project TraCES, the Gǝʿǝz Morphological Parser and the Online Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae.
BibliographyIndexesProjectsVisualizationsGǝʿǝz Morphological ParserOnline Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae
Help

You are looking at work in progress version of this website. For questions contact the dev team.

Hover on words to see search options.

Double-click to see morphological parsing.

Click on left pointing hands and arrows to load related items and click once more to view the result in a popup.

Explore this page
Do you want to notify us of an error, please do so by writing an issue in our GitHub repository (click the envelope for a precomiled one).
On small screens, will show a navigation bar on the leftOpen Item Navigation
Edit Not sure how to do this? Have a look at the Beta maṣāḥǝft Guidelines!
Hide pointersClick here to hide or show again the little arrows and small left pointing hands in this page.
Hide relatedClick here to hide or show again the right side of the content area, where related items and keywords are shown.
EntryMain Entry
TEI/XMLDownload an enriched TEI file with explicit URIs bibliography from Zotero API.
SyntaxeSee graphs of the information available. If the manuscript contains relevant information, then you will see visualizations based on La Syntaxe du Codex, by Andrist, Canart and Maniaci.
RelationsFurther visualization of relational information
TranscriptionTranscription (as available). Do you have a transcription you want to contribute? Contact us or click on EDIT and submit your contribution.
Link to imagesLink to images available not on this site

London, British Library, BL Oriental 820

Solomon Gebreyes, Marcin Krawczuk, Dorothea Reule

This manuscript description is based on the catalogues listed in the catalogue bibliography

Work in Progress
https://betamasaheft.eu/BLorient820
British Library[view repository]

Collection: Oriental

Other identifiers: Wright cat. CCCXCI, Wright 391

Places IndexPersons IndexGeneralDescriptionPhysical DescriptionCatalogueAuthors

General description

Chronicle of the Kings of Ethiopia

Number of Text units: 16

Number of Codicological units: 1

For a table of all relations from and to this record, please go to the Relations view. In the Relations boxes on the right of this page, you can also find all available relations grouped by name.

Origin

1808-1833

Provenance

In 1833 , the manuscript was held by the church of Qʷarāṭā Walatta Pēṭros↗ , where it must still have been around 1840 , when it served as Vorlage of Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, BnF Éthiopien 143 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, BnF Éthiopien d'Abbadie 118 (see Kropp 1989). The manuscript is part of the collection looted by the British Napier expedition in 1868 from the church of Madḫāne ʿAlam↗ . Kropp speculates that it might have been looted from Qʷarāṭā Walatta Pēṭros↗ by Goššu Mǝrḉa in 1846 , and then brought to Madḫāne ʿĀlam↗ following Goššu Mǝrḉa 's defeat by Tewodros II .

Contents

check the viewerFols 1ra–61v Ḫāylu Compilation (general record) (CAe 4090) According to Kropp 1989 this manuscript, which preserves only the latter parts of the so-called Ḫāylu Compilation, is a fragment of the autograph, from which all other existing witnesses are descended. The chronicle commences with the history of rās Mikāʾel Sǝḥul , who held the reins of power under the weak kings ʾIyāsu and ʾIyoʾas , the latter of whom he caused to be murdered in May 1769, and set upon the throne the aged Yoḥannǝs II Yoḥannǝs II, who died in October of the same year. Yoḥannǝs was succeeded by his son Takla Hāymānot II , the events of whose reign are told at considerable length. The narrative closes with the death of rās Mikāʾel in the reign of Takla Giyorgis I . On f. 8 commences the history of the reign of Takla Giyorgis, with some account of the rival king Solomon II . On f. 22 we find the history of daǧǧāzmāč Ḫāyla Mikāʾel ʾƎšate Ḫāyla Mikāʾel, the son of daǧǧāzmāč ʾƎšate and wayzaro ʾƎmāya, ending with the elevation to the throne of ʾabeto ʾIyasu . F. 29r - reign of ʾIyasu III. F. 30v - continuation of the history of Haylu down to the breaking out of war between him and rās ʿAli . F. 32r - a history of rās ʿAli , his struggle with Haylu, and the restoration of Takla Giyorgis to the throne. This chapter ends with the death of rās ʿAli and his burial at Lālibalā. F. 39r - history of rās ʿAligāz, brother of rās ʿAli, f. 45v - elevation of Ḥǝzqǝyās to the throne, f. 47r - continuation of the history of Takla Giyorgis, f. 48v - king Baʾǝda Māryām II , f. 50r - king Solomon III, f. 51r - king Yonās, f. 55r - reign of Dǝmeṭros , f. 56r - reign of ʾƎgʷāla Ṣǝyon . The latest date in this volume is 7301 AM i. e. 1807-8 AD. The chapter on f. 60v relates to the religious disputes of Gʷālu's reign, those on f. 61r to the daǧǧāzmāč Zawde, the death of rās ʾAsrāt, and other events of the same period.

Language of text:

check the viewerFols 1ra–3va Ḫāylu Compilation (general record), The deeds of Ḫāyla Mikāʾel ʾƎšate (CAe 4090 RasMikael)

Incipit (Gǝʿǝz ):እዌጥን፡ እምጥንቱ፡ ለግብር፡ ወእነግር፡ ግብሮ፡ ለእግዚአብሔር፡ ዘገብረ፡ በእደ፡ መልአኩ፡ ርእሰ፡ ኃያላን፡ ሚካኤል፡ ኃያል፡ ወመስተዓግሥ፡ ዘይኴንን፡ እምባሕር፡ እስከ፡ የብስ፡ ዘውእቱ፡ እምነ፡ ምጽዋ፡ እስከ፡ አድዋ። ወእምነ፡ ዓድዋ፡ እስከ፡ ዛዋ፡

check the viewerFols 3va–7vb Ḫāylu Compilation (general record), Chronicle of Takla Hāymānot II (CAe 4090 TaklaHaymanotII)

Colophon

check the viewerFol. 7vb

ወአጽሐፎን፡ ለእለ፡ መጻሕፍተ፡ ታሪክ፡ ዘነገሥታት፡ ወመኳንንት፡ እለ፡ ኮኑ፡ እምፍጥረተ፡ አዳም፡ እስከ፡ ንጉሠ፡ ነገሥት፡ አድማስ፡ ሰገድ፡ ተክለ፡ ሃይማኖት። ወአስተጋብኦን፡ ደጃዝማች፡ ኃይሉ፡ እንዘ፡ ሕፃን፡ ልሂቅ፡ በአስተሐምሞ፡ ወፃሕቅ፡ እምኵሎን፡ አድባራት፡ ወእምደሰያት። ወእምቤተ፡ አዛዦች፡ ወእምቤተ፡ ጸሓፍያነ፡ ትእዛዝ። ወእምዝ፡ ኵሉ፡ አስተጋብኦን፡ ለእለ፡ መጻሕፍተ፡ ታሪክ። እምከመ፡ ጠፍአ፡ በብዙኅ፡ መዋዕል። በከመ፡ አስተጋብኦን፡ ዕዝራ፡ ነቢየ፡ ትካት፤ ለኵሎን፡ መጻሕፍተ፡ ነቢያት። እለ፡ ውዕያ፡ ቀዳሚ፡ ከማሁ፡ አስተጋብኦን፡ ደጃዝማች፡ ኃይሉ፡ ርእሰ፡ መኳንንት፡ ለኵሎን፡ መጻሕፍተ፡ ነገሥት፤ እለ፡ ጠፍዓ፡ አመ፡ ውዕየ፡ ቤተ፡ በመዓተ፡ ራስ፡ ሚካኤል፡ ክቡድ፡ መዓት። ወበከመ፡ አስተጋብእዎን፡ ፫፻ለመጻሕፍተ፡ ሐዲሳት፡ ከማሁ፡ አስተጋብኦ ባሕቱ፡ ኢሀሎ፡ ንጉሥ፡ ወመኰንን። ወአስተሐምሞ፡ ወፃሕቅ፡ ዘይሳምዖን፡ ወይሬእዮን፡ ተፈጸመ፡ መጽሐፈ፡ ታሪክ፡ አመ፡ ሰዱሱ፡ ለወርኃ፡ መስከም፡ (!) ቡሩክ። ለዓለመ፡ ዓለም፡ አሜን።

The colophon states that these chronicles from Adam to Takla Haymānot II were transcribed by the care of daǧǧāzmāč Ḫāylu . See also Kropp 1989

check the viewerFols 29ra–30va Ḫāylu Compilation (general record), Chronicle of ʾIyāsu III (CAe 4090 IyasuIII)

Colophon

check the viewerFol. 30v

በ፸፻ወ፪፻፡ ፸ወ፰ዓመት፡ እምፍጥረተ፡ ዓለም፡ ሠረቀ፡ መስከረም፡ ወንጌላዊ፡ ማርቆስ፡ በዕለተ፡ ዓርብ፡ እንዘ፡ አብቄቴ፡ ፳ወ፱፡ ወመጥቅዕ፡ ፩ዱ። ወቦ፡ ዘይቤሉ፡ አልቦ፡ መጥቅዕ፡ ወአልቦ፡ አበቅቴ። ወአመ፡ ፯ለዝ፡ ወርኅ፡ ተፈጸመ፡ ዝንቱ፡ መጽሐፍ፡ ዘውእቱ፡ ታሪክ። እምአመ፡ ተወጥነ፡ አመ፡ ሰዱሱ፡ ለነሐሴ። ወኮነ፡ ጽሕፈቱ፡ እንዘ፡ ሀሎ፡ በማኅደረ፡ ማርያም፡ ደጃዝማች፡ ኃይሉ፡ ልዑል፡ ወክቡር፡ ሠቢብ፡ ወማዕምር። ዘአኅበረ፡ ኵሎ፡ ውርዛዌ፡ ምስለ፡ ቃለ፡ ምሥጢር፡ ወበጽሐ፡ ስሙ፡ እምጽንፈ፡ ምድር፡ እስከ፡ ጽንፈ፡ ምድር። አምባሕር፡ ወእስከ፡ ባሕር። ሀልዎቱኒ፡ ኮነ፡ በተሰዶ። ምክንያተ፡ ተሰዶቱ፡ እንዘ፡ ኢይትአመር። ምንተኒ፡ ነገረ፡ ዓመፃ፡ እንዘ፡ ኢይገብር፡ ለዓለመ፡ ዓለም፡ አሜን።

See also Kropp 1989.

check the viewerFols 60va–60vb Ḫāylu Compilation (general record), Narration of the first three years of the tenure of , composed after the main part of the Hāylu Compilation. (CAe 4090 Salama) This textpart probably constitutes a later addition to this manuscript, and then became part of the transmitted work, see Kropp 1989
check the viewerFols 61r–61v Copist's working note See Kropp 1989. This originally probably loose piece of parchment, now attached to the manuscript on a guard, contains a preliminary sketch for text that has also been incorporated into the main text from check the viewerfol. 57v on.

Additions In this unit there are in total 1 .

  1. check the viewerFol. 62v (Type: Inventory)

    Inventory of lands (ኈልቈ፡ ምድር፡) belonging to Ǝšäte of Qwara , in Amharic.

    Text in Amharic

Catalogue Bibliography

  • Wright, W. 1877. Catalogue of the Ethiopic Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired since the Year 1847 (London: Gilbert and Rivington, 1877). page 314a-315a
    ZoteroOther citations

Secondary Bibliography

  • Kropp, M. 1989. Die äthiopischen Königschroniken in der Sammlung des Däǧǧazmač Ḫaylu: Entstehung und handschriftliche Überlieferung des Werks, Heidelberger orientalische Studien, 13 (Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1989).
    ZoteroOther citations

This manuscript has modern restorations.

Physical Description

Form of support

Parchment Codex

Extent

62 (leaf) .Entered as 62 15.25 11
Outer dimensions
Height 15.25in
Width 11in

Foliation

Foliation in the upper right corner by the library.

Quire Structure Collation

The quire structure is difficult to discern due to the tightness of the binding. In the last part of the manuscript, quires are composed of many single leaves with visible stubs, and possible some folia or bifolia inserted at a later point into the manuscript.

State of preservation

good

Condition

Binding

Two wooden boards. Both inner boards are darkened around the edges, possibly showing traces of a former cover.

Blind-tooled leather quarter cover (with the gilded title and shelfmark on the spine).

Sewing Stations

6

Sewing Stations

Sewing stations are used in an irregular way.

Binding material

wood

leather

Original binding

No

Layout

Layout note 1

Number of columns: 2

Number of lines: 47-50

Ruling
  • (Subtype: pattern)Ruling pattern: 1A-1A-1A1A/0-0/0-0/C.
  • The upper line is written above the ruling.
  • The bottom line is written above the ruling.
Pricking
  • Pricking and ruling are visible.
  • Primary pricks are visible.
  • Ruling pricks are visible.

Palaeography

  • Hand 1

    Script: Ethiopic

    Date: 1800-1850 according to William Wright

    Fairly written by different hands according to Wright. However, Kropp 1989 assumes that the scribe was the same, but that there were several changes of nib as the work was in the lengthy process of composition. 1800-1850 according to William Wright

    • Publication Statement

    authority
    Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum für Äthiopistik
    publisher
    Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft
    pubPlace
    Hamburg
    availability
    This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.
    date
    type=expanded
    19.7.2022 at 15:53:50
    date
    type=lastModified
    5.7.2022
    idno
    type=collection
    manuscripts
    idno
    type=url
    https://betamasaheft.eu/manuscripts/BLorient820/main
    idno
    type=URI
    https://betamasaheft.eu/BLorient820
    idno
    type=filename
    BLorient820.xml
    idno
    type=ID
    BLorient820

    Encoding Description

    Encoded according to TEI P5 Guidelines.

    Encoded according to the Beta maṣāḥǝft Guidelines. These Guidelines detail the TEI format ruled by the Beta maṣāḥǝft Schema. The present TEI file is enriched with an Xquery transformation taking advantage of the exist-db database instance where the data is stored and of the many external resources to which this data points to.

    Definitions of prefixes used.

    info value
    Standard date ፸፻ወ፪፻፡ ፸ወ፰ዓመት፡
    Date in current calendar no *-custom attributes
    Calendar world

    Select one of the keywords listed from the record to see related data

    No keyword selected.
    This page contains RDFa. RDF+XML graph of this resource. Alternate representations available via VoID.
    Permalinks
    Hypothes.is public annotations pointing here

    Use the tag BetMas:BLorient820 in your public hypothes.is annotations which refer to this entity.

    Suggested Citation of this record

    To cite a precise version, please, click on load permalinks and to the desired version (see documentation on permalinks), then import the metadata or copy the below, with the correct link.

    Solomon Gebreyes, Marcin Krawczuk, Dorothea Reule, Alessandro Bausi, ʻLondon, British Library, BL Oriental 820ʼ, in Alessandro Bausi, ed., Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft (Last Modified: 2022-07-05) https://betamasaheft.eu/manuscripts/BLorient820 [Accessed: 2024-05-15]

    Revisions of the data

    • Dorothea Reule Added binding on 5.7.2022
    • Dorothea Reule Continued description from historical catalogue entry with consultation of images on 11.5.2022
    • Marcin Krawczuk Continued description from historical catalogue entry with consultation of images on 6.11.2020
    • Solomon Gebreyes Created catalogue entry on 14.2.2019

    Attributions of the contents

    Alessandro Bausi, general editor

    Solomon Gebreyes, editor

    Marcin Krawczuk, editor

    Dorothea Reule, editor

    This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.