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London, British Library, BL Oriental 501

Eugenia Sokolinski

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

Work in Progress
https://betamasaheft.eu/BLorient501
British Library[view repository]

Collection: Oriental

Other identifiers: Wright cat. XXV, Wright 25

Places IndexPersons IndexGeneralDescriptionPhysical DescriptionCatalogueAuthors

General description

Old Testament books

Number of Text units: 18

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

(dating on palaeographic grounds)

Provenance

The manuscript had very probably belonged to a church in the Gondar↗ area, from where it was taken by Tewodros II and brought to Madḫāne ʿĀlam↗ . It was then looted by the British Napier expedition in 1868.

Summary

Contents

check the viewerFols 62r–69v Ascension of Isaiah (CAe 1671)

Incipit (Gǝʿǝz ):ዕርገተ፡ ኢሳይያስ፡

check the viewerFols 70r–122v Daqiqa nabiyāt (CAe 1315)

Additions In this unit there are in total 2 , 2 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 .

  1. check the viewerFol. 194vb (Type: ProtectivePrayer)

    Erased and partially illegible text by a poorly trained hand with magical and protective content: + + + + + + + + + + + + +ommission by ታዝዕግ፡ እኩይ፡ የግ፡ አምሐልኩከ፡ በእግዚአብሔር፡ አብ፡ ወክርስቶስ፡ ወልድ፡ ሣልሳዊ፡ መንፈስ፡ ቅዱስ፡ ሥርናይየ፡ ውስተ፡ ከሉ፡ አካልየ፡ ኢትባዕ።

  2. check the viewerFols 194vb–195ra (Type: ProtectivePrayer)

    Text by a poorly trained hand with magical and protective content: ስቡሕመደልው፡ ተደለው፡ ካፈር፡ ልውያንተድይንተምያን፡ በጊዚአምናት፡ እምለባውዝ፡ ልበ፡ በረዛዝ፡ ኡግጹግ፡ (…)ommission by ዋላሰብእ፡ እኪተ፡ ሚካኤልበእንአነ፡

    ሰአልምሕርብ፡ ብርያል፡ ያመጽዕ፡ ዋግ፡ በሰብእ፡ እኪተ፡ በሰአብኤሎስ። ኤጊጊዚ፡ በል፡ ዋግ፡ ዋግ፡ ዋግ፡ (…)ommission by ወልድ፡ ሣልሳዊ፡ መንፈሰቅዱስ፡ ሥርናይየ፡ ውስተኲሉ፡ ኀበእክልየ፡ ኢትባዕ፡

Extras

  1. check the viewerFols. 1r, 195v (Type: StampExlibris)

    Small round stamp with coat of arms, lion, unicorn and inscription: 'British Museum'.

  2. check the viewerFols. 5v, 9v, 15v, 21v, 27v (Type: StampExlibris)

    Small round stamp with crown and inscription: 'British Museum' on every fourth to every sixth folio.

  3. check the viewerFol. 2r (Type: OwnershipNote)

    Note by a later Ethiopian hand: ኢሳይያስ፡ ዘቅዱስ፡ መድኃኒ፡ ዓለም↗ ።

  4. check the viewerFol. 22r (Type: findingAid)

    Note by a later European hand indicating the main text: "Old Testament, Prop".

  5. (Type: MixedNote)

    Various pen trials and a few scratchy characters from a later hand.

  6. check the viewerFol. 194va (Type: Unclear)

    Short note by a later hand with incomprehensible text: ዝንቱ፡ መጽሕፍ፡ ዘጕፈ[c. 1 chars lost]ommission by ኲት፡ ቀዳሚ፡ ሰማ፡ ክክበ+ommission by

Decoration In this unit there are in total 1 , 1 , 2 .

Frame notes

  1. frame: check the viewerFols. 1r, 62r, 70r, 79v, 97r, 123r, 177r

    The commencements of Biblical books are decorated with a frame in the usual 15th century style.

Other Decorations

  1. ornamentation:

    Most pages are decorated with several crux ansata with coronis.

  2. band: check the viewerFols. 86vb, 92rb, 99rb, 101va, 104rb, 109rb, 119va

    The commencements of Biblical books are decorated with a band in the usual 15th century style.

  3. band: check the viewerFol. 194va

    Humble band by a later hand.

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 19b-20a
    ZoteroOther citations

Secondary Bibliography

  • Knibb, M. A. 2015. The Ethiopic Text of the Book of Ezekiel: A Critical Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). page 12-13
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Uhlig, S. 1988. Äthiopische Paläographie, Äthiopistische Forschungen, 22 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, 1988). page 383-386
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Knibb, M. A. 1980. ‘The Ethiopic Version of the Lives of the Prophets: Ezekiel and Daniel’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 43/2 (1980), 197–206 (DOI: 10.2307/616038). page 198-199
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Wright, W. 1870. ‘List of the Magdala collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum’, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 24 (1870), 599–616.
    page 600
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Charles, R. H. 1900. The ascension of Isaiah : translated from the Ethiopic version, which, together with the new Greek fragment, the Latin versions and the Latin translation of the Slavonic, is here published in full (London: Black, 1900).
    page XV
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Perrone, L. and E. Norelli 1995. ‘ʿƎrgata ʾIsāyǝyās nabiy. Ascensione di Isaia profeta. Versione etiopica. Introduzione ed edizione critica, L.P., Traduzione, E.N.’, in B. Paolo, K. G. Alda, L. Claudio, N. Enrico, and P. Lorenzo, eds, Ascensio Isaiae. Textus, Corpus Christianorum, 7th, Corpus Christianorum. Series apocryphorum (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 7, 1995), 16–41.
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Löfgren, O. 1930. Das äthiopische Dodekapropheton. Jona, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanja, Haggai, Sacharja und Maleachi. Unter Zugrundelegung des Oxforder MS. Huntington 625 nach mehreren Handschriften herausgegeben von O.L. (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1930).
    ZoteroOther citations
  • Löfgren, O. 1927. Die äthiopische Übersetzung des Propheten Daniel (Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1927).
    page XV, XXV-XXVI
    ZoteroOther citations

This manuscript has modern restorations.

Physical Description

Form of support

Parchment Codex

Extent

195 (leaf) .Entered as 195 14.5 10.25
Outer dimensions
Height 14.5in
Width 10.25in

Foliation

Foliation by the library in the upper right corner, partly faded.

Quire Structure Collation

Position Number Leaves Quires Description
1 1 8 Fols 1r–8v
2 2 8 Fols 9r–16v
3 3 8 Fols 17r–24v
4 4 8 Fols 25r–32v
5 5 8 Fols 33r–40v
6 6 8 Fols 41r–48v
7 7 8 Fols 49r–56v
8 8 8 Fols 57r–64v
9 9 5 Fols 65r–69v 1, stub after 5
10 10 8 Fols 70r–77v
11 11 8 Fols 78r–85v
12 12 8 Fols 86r–93v
13 13 8 Fols 94r–101v
14 14 8 Fols 102r–109v
15 15 8 Fols 110r–117v
16 16 7 Fols 118r–124v 3, stub after 5
17 17 8 Fols 125r–132v
18 18 8 Fols 133r–140v
19 19 8 Fols 141r–148v
20 20 8 Fols 149r–156v
21 21 8 Fols 157r–164v
22 22 8 Fols 165r–172v
23 23 8 Fols 173r–180v
24 24 8 Fols 181r–188v
25 25 6 Fols 189r–194v 3, stub after 6 4, stub after 6
26 I 1 Fol. 195 s.l., no stub

It is unfortunately not possible with the information provided to print the collation diagrams and formula.

  • Quire with id:q26 and n I is made of 1 leaves, but there is no futher information about the reason this number is odd.

State of preservation

good

Condition

Water stains and other minor damage. Repaired with thread on check the viewerfols. 26, 55 . Some words or single characters erased and corrected. Previous text erased and partially still visible.

Binding

Two wooden boards.

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

Sewing Stations

4

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: 28-40

Ruling
  • (Subtype: pattern)1A-1A-1A1A/0-0/0-0/C
  • The upper line is written above the ruling, the lower line is written above the ruling.
Pricking
  • Pricking and ruling are visible.
  • Primary pricks are visible, horizontal pricks are visible.
Other
  • Most pages are decorated with several crux ansata with coronis.
  • Most pages are decorated with several crux ansata with coronis.

CruxAnsata

Yes

CruxAnsata: Most pages are decorated with several crux ansata with coronis.

coronis

Yes

coronis: Most pages are decorated with several crux ansata with coronis.

Palaeography

  • Hand 1

    Script: Ethiopic

    Ink: Black, red

    Rubrication: Crux ansata, incipits, sacred names, numbers and punctuation marks

    Date: 1400-1500

    Fine hand of the 15th century. 1400-1500

    • Publication Statement

    authority
    Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum für Äthiopistik
    pubPlace
    Hamburg
    publisher
    Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft
    availability

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

    date
    2017-01-19
    date
    type=expanded
    7.11.2023 at 15:24:07
    date
    type=lastModified
    23.10.2023
    idno
    type=collection
    manuscripts
    idno
    type=url
    https://betamasaheft.eu/manuscripts/BLorient501/main
    idno
    type=URI
    https://betamasaheft.eu/BLorient501
    idno
    type=filename
    BLorient501.xml
    idno
    type=ID
    BLorient501

    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.

    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:BLorient501 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.

    Eugenia Sokolinski, Alessandro Bausi, Dorothea Reule, Carsten Hoffmann, ʻLondon, British Library, BL Oriental 501ʼ, in Alessandro Bausi, ed., Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft (Last Modified: 2023-10-23) https://betamasaheft.eu/manuscripts/BLorient501 [Accessed: 2024-05-21]

    Revisions of the data

    • Carsten Hoffmann Added additions and extras, updated decoration, updated secondary bibliography, updated collation on 23.10.2023
    • Dorothea Reule Added binding on 29.6.2022
    • Dorothea Reule Added layout and collation on 1.6.2022
    • Dorothea Reule Added link to images on 26.11.2020
    • Eugenia Sokolinski Created catalogue entry on 1.2.2017

    Attributions of the contents

    Alessandro Bausi, general editor

    Eugenia Sokolinski, editor

    Dorothea Reule, contributor

    Carsten Hoffmann, contributor

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