Close
Contents
- Illuminated Ethiopic Leaves in Stockholm
- Exhibition Review: Gold
- Ethiopic manuscripts in the Mingana Collection
- Violence and Warfare in the Utrecht Psalter
- Exhibition Spotlight: Hairstyles in Ethiopia
- The Imagined Body in the T’oros Roslin Gospels
- The Image of the Tempietto in Ethiopian Gospel Books
- Project Spotlight: Ethiopian Chronicles
- The Manuscript Culture of the Horn of Africa
Illuminated Ethiopic Leaves in Stockholm
By Christian Etheridge
The Gospel Book NMB 2034 is found in the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm’s collection of manuscripts. It was purchased from H.P. Kraus Inc., New York in 1973. Dated to AD 1340–60 (Gnisci 2020: 70) this Gospel Book is believed to originate from a monastery near Asmara (Nordenfalk 1979: 17). NMB 2034 is fragmentary, and only 32 leaves are owned by the Nationalmuseum. It is written on parchment in black ink with red rubrics and measures 27.5 x 18.5 cm. The manuscript begins with the Ethiopic version of Eusebius’s Letter to Carpianus followed by Eusebian canon tables and the chapter list to the gospels of Matthew and Mark.
Parts of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John survive along with three full-page images of Evangelists (Fig. 1). A leaf now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 2006. 100, 27.8 x 19 cm) has been identified as being part of the NMB 2034 manuscript. A full cycle of four full-page miniatures has been recently reconstructed. This begins with the Met’s Tempietto miniature on recto and the Crucifixion without the Crucified on its verso. Following this image are the depictions of the Holy Women at the Tomb on the NMB 2034 recto and the Ascension on its verso. These miniatures together are often referred to as the short cycle (Gnisci 2020: 69). NMB 2034 has been previously exhibited at the African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia exhibition held at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (1993–1994), and the Sacred: Discover What We Share exhibition held at the British Library, London (2007).
The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm is currently conducting a project on its manuscript collection. This will involve firstly a thorough investigation and conservation of the manuscripts. Secondly, the digitization of the entire collection. And, finally, updating the catalogue. The aim of the project is to have the collection accessible digitally for online research. The NMB 2034 Gospel Book is currently being conservated as it had deteriorated. When the conservation and investigation are complete, NMB 2034 will be fully digitized. The online catalogue will be then updated with the most recent research and hopefully linked with the Met fragment.
Bio
Dr Christian Etheridge works at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm as a researcher on their medieval manuscripts project.
Exhibition Review: Gold, The British Library
By Felix Jones
Gold, showing at the British Library until 2 October, is a small, exquisite exhibition comprising fifty manuscripts. With an immense temporal and geographical scope, the exhibition showcases objects produced from the fifth to twentieth centuries, from England’s northern reaches to the extremities of Southeast Asia. Eschewing a strictly chronological approach, the exhibition takes the visitor through gold’s varied uses on scrolls, maps, manuscripts and bindings, bringing geographically heterogeneous works together thematically.
The strength of this highly atmospheric exhibition lies in its ability to showcase gold’s unique, protean visual characteristics. The display of the objects, the majority of which are placed in low perspex cases, makes you view the glimmering pages from multiple angles, peering at the objects from above and below, side to side. Gold can sometimes hide on a page: if photographed incorrectly or viewed from the wrong angle it appears as a dull, brownish colour. This is certainly not the case in this exhibition, and as you pass through the spot-lit exhibits, the allure of the medium is most apparent. In the gold, checkerboard background of folio 68r of the Queen Mary Psalter (Royal MS 2 B. vii), the saintly backdrop becomes a shimmering mosaic with each gilded tessera refracting the light differently, a dazzling, sculptural effect which could only have been more profound when viewed by flickering candlelight (Fig.1).
This exhibition also foregrounds gold’s physical presence, whether it’s the medium into which words are inscribed (as in the case of a superb two-metre-long gold scroll, containing a Treaty between Calicut and the Dutch, MS Malayalam 12), or whether it simply embellishes a decorative backdrop within a codex. Gold, when applied to parchment, does not always lie flat and frequently stands proud on the page. In the small twelfth-century Psalter of Queen Melisende (Egerton MS 1139, folio 23v) there’s an elaborate historiated ‘B’, beginning the first Beatus vir psalm (Fig.2). Its border, edged in gold, appears to rise up from the page. Not simply an elaborate initial, this page acts as a sort of trompe-l’oeil, inscribed gold bullion, a golden relief sculpture that appears transposed onto the pages of the royal psalter. This notion of gold leaf being used to mimic three-dimensional objects is a theme that crops up throughout this exhibition, not least with the large seventeenth-century Japanese Lotus Sutra (Or 13926), with its fading burnished edges giving the appearance of a solid metal object (Fig.3).
This is not an exhibition, however, that sheds light on the process of gold extraction, on its preparation, nor on how exactly gold and its alloys are applied to parchment, paper, or textiles. While this curatorial lacuna leaves many questions unanswered (the process of unrefined gold reaching the workshops of goldsmiths, for example, is alluded to obliquely only by a handful of maps), it nevertheless has its own advantages. We, like many of these objects’ original viewers, are left unaware of the gold’s origin, and its mystique, therefore, persists. As you pass through the exhibition, the brilliant medium continues to captivate, its arcane provenance remaining unclear. Gold’s ‘backstory’ – that is, its journey from first extraction to final application – is not irrelevant per se, but its omission, I feel, makes the exhibition more focused, centred entirely on the impressive collection of objects, and the thoughts and feelings we have in direct response to them.
This, therefore, is an exhibition that you need to meet half-way. It is not comprehensive, nor does it need to be. Its thematic groupings (gold script in sacred text, gold script in profane text, divinities embellished by gold etc.) allow an excellent geographic range of objects to be placed side by side, and it remains up to the visitor to make note of the broader themes, recurrences and cultural peculiarities.
Bio
Felix Jones has just completed a BA in the History of Art at UCL and received the Zilkha Prize in 2022. He was also awarded the Wittkower Prize in 2021. Felix’s interests include medieval manuscripts and their relationship with sacred space as well as the representation of ageing women in early modern painting.
Ethiopic manuscripts in the Mingana Collection: A digital visit to Birmingham
By Sophia Dege-Müller and Jacopo Gnisci
The Mingana collection, which is housed by the University of Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library, comprises some 3,000 oriental manuscripts. The core of this corpus was assembled in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana – an Assyrian Church of the East priest born in Iraq who decided to become an orientalist scholar. The collection includes some beautiful examples of Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac manuscript illumination, as showcased by an early 14th century Copto-Arabic Ritual for the Consecration of a New Church (MS M. Chr. Arab. 61, Fig. 1) that is decorated with motifs, such as the interlace cross at fol. 3v, that bear comparison with the decorations of near coeval Ethiopic illustrated manuscripts.
Because we were aware of the presence of some Ethiopic materials in the Mingana collection, through our scoping of UK and German collections for ITIESE, we contacted the library to help us determine if it owned any manuscript that could be relevant to the project. Thanks to an online Zoom consultation, which was kindly offered to us by the library’s staff, we were able to quickly and easily inspect their Ethiopic manuscripts in early September 2021 notwithstanding the additional complications generated by the pandemic. The Mingana library owns four Ethiopic manuscripts as well as a scroll. The library’s records contain limited information on how these manuscripts were acquired. We knew that the scroll, which has been described in one of the catalogues of the collection, is relatively recent (Hunt 1997, No 94). However, the four manuscripts were known only through a handlist which proved to be quite inaccurate. The Ethiopic collection consists of two Psalters (MSS M. Eth. 1 and Eth. 2), a scroll (MS M. Eth. 3), a Miracles of Mary (MS M. Eth. 4, Fig. 2), and a Deggwa – that is an Antiphonary (MS M. Eth. 5).
Unfortunately, the collection did not include any examples of manuscript illumination from the early Solomonic period. Nevertheless, through the zoom consultancy we were able to extend the description of the manuscripts, identify some features that were previously unnoticed, such as two niches in the boards of MS M. Eth. 1 (a Psalter - መዝሙረ ዳዊት), which presumably held small mirrors (Fig. 3), and share this information with the library. We also really enjoyed the experience of consulting manuscripts online and found that the service offered by the library was extremely valuable, in that it saved us the time and resources that would have been necessary to travel to Birmingham to consult them in person.
We extend our thanks to the Cadbury library staff for facilitating this wonderful experience!
Violence and Warfare in the Utrecht Psalter
By Sehrish Alikhan
What sets the Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, University Library, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32) apart from most other medieval manuscripts are its sketch-like illustrations. The most intriguing feature of this ninth-century Carolingian manuscripts, which contains 150 Psalms, 16 Biblical Canticles and other texts, are its often humorously literal illuminations (Jaski n.d.). The understanding of the psalms that its artists articulate is unique and implies an in-depth understanding of theology and cognitive interpretation (Chazelle 1997: 1055–56). It is unclear by who, for whom or why this manuscript was made (Benson 1931; Jaski 2016: 71–72). However, the visual rendition of the text suggests that its images were moulded to serve the purposes of its patron(s), a view supported by the rendering of kingly and military figures. In fact, while the images of the Utrecht Psalter lend themselves to different interpretations, its illustrations suggest that its makers were deeply affected by the social and political context in which they operated.
One of the most interesting figures in the psalter is a mysterious man with a sword on fol. 7v who can be seen among the illustrations of Psalm 13: 3 (Fig. 1). The psalmist at the top of a mountain points at this man who is seated under a canopy and has attributes (a throne and a sword settled sideways on his lap) that suggest he is a ruler. The psalmist’s gesture directs God’s and the viewer’s attention to the chaos that surrounds this figure with a sword. Opinions differ as to the identity of this man: is he a bad king or the Antichrist? There is a clear contrast between this figure, who is surrounded by chaos, and the haloed and enthroned Christ, who is surrounded by a mandorla and flanked by six angels. The latter is seated on a globe in a pose that mirrors that of the figure under the canopy: together they represent the difference between good and evil.
The sword motif also calls for interpretation as it does not necessarily only represent kingship, but could also symbolize an omen of death and destruction. Moreover, if the man with the sword embodies a bad king, then this image shows how the misuse of power by royalty leads to violence and disorder in a kingdom. It is possible that tensions between church and state informed this scene. If so, the artist’s interpretation of the psalm is both literal and analytical: the scene draws on the text of Ps. 13 while also subtly adapting it to send a political message about the importance of following Christian precepts.
A company of mounted soldiers to the right of the psalmist are shown in the process of rounding up a group of unarmed men and women with children who represent the people of Israel (Ps. 13: 7). This latter group pleads with an armed figure who leans towards them from a hill to their right (Fig. 1). His identity, like that of the ruler with the sword, is unclear, but his spear and elliptical shield characterize him as a soldier. The solider stands on Mount Zion and his pose and attitude echo that of the angels above him. Unlike, the soldiers holding severed heads to the far left, he epitomizes a good warrior. The Utrecht Psalter’s depiction of soldiers and warfare on fol. 7v is carefully constructed to juxtapose those who follow God’s law with those who do not.
A virtuous solider also appears in the upper register of fol. 8r which illustrates Psalm 14 (Fig. 3). He appears at the centre of the composition and tramples over the body of a wrongdoer that he has defeated whilst holding out a bag of money and a scale to a crippled figure as an act of charity, showing that he “works righteousness” (Ps. 14: 2) and that he “does not put out his money at usury” (Ps. 14: 5). The beam scale he holds is a symbol of justice that indicates his virtuosity; while the hand of God which gestures towards him, can signifying that he is acting under divine direction.
The illustrations of the Utrecht Psalter may be inspired from earlier sources. However, the distinction between good and bad armed figures in this manuscript is testament to a desire to make these images relevant to contemporary viewers by showing that only those rulers and soldiers who “fear the Lord” (Ps. 14: 4) are capable of maintain order and waging just wars (Chazelle 1997; Jaski 2004). As Clelia Chazelle puts it, the manuscripts illumination “were possibly meant to exemplify the behaviour that Carolingian clergy, particularly in the 830’s and later, sought from the rulers and aristocracy who fought so vehemently among themselves” (2004: 348).
References
Benson, Gertrude R. ‘New Light on the Origin of the Utrecht Psalter’. The Art Bulletin 13, no. 1 (1931): 13–79.
Chazelle, Celia. ‘Archbishops Ebo and Hincmar of Reims and the Utrecht Psalter’. Speculum 72/4 (1997): 1055–77.
Chazelle, Celia. ‘Violence and the Virtuous Ruler in the Utrecht Psalter’. In The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of Its Images, edited by Frank O. Büttner, 337–48. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004.
Jaski, Bart. ‘The Ruler with the Sword in the Utrecht Psalter’. In Religious Franks: Religion and Power in the Frankish Kingdoms: Studies in Honour of Mayke de Jong, edited by Rob Meens, Dorine van Espelo, Bram van Genderen, Janneke Raaijmakers, Irene van Renswoude, and Carine van Rhijn, 72–91. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.
Jaski, Bart. The Utrecht Psalter: A unique masterpiece. Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht, n.d. Accessed 7 March 2022.
Acknowledgements: thanks are due to Bart Jaski and Utrecht University Library.
‘The Wax and Gold of Hairstyles in Ethiopia’ Exhibition, Addis Ababa Museum
By Abel Assefa
Contextual Background
The German Frobenius Institute sponsored various scientific expeditions to Southern Ethiopia between 1934/35 and 1974. The output of these expeditions has made the institute’s archive a rich and extraordinary resource. Today it houses various written documents, more than 20,000 photographs and sketches, 83 film reels and around 1200 ethnographic objects from southern Ethiopia (online image database).
The concept and idea for an exhibition on hairstyles in Ethiopia emerged during a study visit to the Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology in Frankfurt, Germany. During this stay, in May 2019, I had the opportunity to access the institute’s photographic archives and the artifacts collected from Southern Ethiopia by German anthropologists. The documentation included various reports, accompanied by photographs, about hair styles from different ethnic groups (Fig. 1). The Wax and Gold of Hairstyle in Ethiopia exhibition is the second collaboration between the Goethe-Institut Äthiopien and the Frobenius Institute since 2019, and the whole project was jointly funded and supported by the two institutes.
Ethiopian Hairstyles
Modern-day Ethiopia is inhabited by a wide range of people and ethnic groups who contribute to the country’s cultural diversity. Although many of the distinctions among these ethnic groups have been blurred over the years by various factors, differences between them can still be observed in various cultural practices, which include traditional costumes and hairstyles. The clothes and jewelry employed for traditional costumes, for example, reflect both ancient customs and modern trends in decoration and beauty, and are as varied and interesting as the ethnic groups who make or use them. Ethiopian hairstyles reflect equally rich and varied cultural practices.
In Ethiopia, as in other African countries, hairstyles may indicate marital status, age, class, ethnic identity, religion, or the wealth and rank of an individual in the social hierarchy of a community. Hair is imbued with cultural and social meaning, but it also has an undeniable aesthetic value. Braiding hair can be seen as a creative artistic activity with sculptural qualities (Fig. 2). Hairstyling can thus also be considered as artistic practice that manifests the artistic creativity and skill of the people who have developed and practiced it.
Unfortunately, the hairdressing customs of many ethnic minorities in Ethiopia are often marginalized by the ‘dominant’ culture or are being supplanted by globalizing trends. Documenting and studying such cultural assets may contribute to their preservation. Unfortunately, aside for some occasional work done by the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH), the subject of hairstyles in Ethiopia has not been extensively studied or documented by Ethiopian institutes. Thus, the documents gathered by researchers from the Frobenius Institute, who described and photographed different social aspects of hairstyles, provide valuable evidence for studying these customs. In addition to photography, sketches were also used for documenting the hairstyles from different ethnic groups of Southern Ethiopia. These materials were later published in the three volumes (see references).
Aim and Objectives of the Exhibition
In view of the above, one key objectives of the exhibition was to assemble and present a broad range of hair styles that have been documented through photographs and sketches. It also aimed to contribute to a dialogue about the significance of hairstyle and the preservation and distribution of the information and knowledge contained in the photographs and films held by archives such as that of the Frobenius Institute. The project was timely in that it aimed to intersect with current discussions in Europe and Africa on topics such as decolonization by presenting an under-studied topic such as hairstyle and by highlighting its artistic and cultural significance. Finally, the exhibition set out to emphasize the Frobenius Institute’s contribution to the field of ethnography in southern Ethiopia.
Title
The phrase ሰምና ወርቅ (samenna warq), or wax and gold, is a fundamental concept in Amharic. Taken literally, it refers to the goldsmith’s technique of casting pieces by making a clay mould around a wax core, draining the wax and then pouring the molten gold into the mould. However, in Amharic poetry, the phrase has come to signify the hidden, often spiritual, meaning (the gold) beneath the apparent meaning (the wax) of the language. Once the wax (sam) is removed, the gold (warq) can be appreciated.
The exhibition title was selected because hair, which can be more easily changed and shaped than other bodily features, has always been used for its aesthetic appeal and imbued with symbolic meanings. It is both wax and gold. As a natural biological signifier, hair is the wax, while its braiding or styling, imbued with cultural and artistic significance, is the gold.
Exhibition Production
As noted above, the photographic collections of the Frobenius Institute includes more than 20,000 items, which made the selection for this exhibition a difficult task. In this regard, the field reports of the expeditions and other three publications were helpful. In the end, sixty-two photographs were selected to showcase the richness and variety of Ethiopian hairstyles traditions: these images were chosen not for their photographic composition or artistic qualities, but for their content and the information they convey on the subject of hairstyle (Figs. 3 and 4).
In addition to the photographs, the exhibition also featured sketches by a young artist called Biniyam Kassahun – a freelance architect, graphics designer and artist based in Addis Ababa. The sketches were produced by copying photographs from the institute’s archive and have been included for two main purposes. First, to better present and emphasize the hairstyles by leaving out other components of the photograph. Second, to include hairstyles that were photographed but could not be part of the exhibition.
The Wax and Gold of Hairstyle in Ethiopia exhibition was on display at Addis Ababa Museum from May 25 to June 6, 2021. During the display the photographs and sketches were arranged to explore five themes: childhood, adolescence, womanhood, leadership and membership of the Hāmar and Sāmākko. The exhibition was well covered in the media, but it also received some heart-warming responses by individual visitors. Preparing a catalogue for the exhibition was also another important task: the 62-page volume contains a curatorial statement for the exhibition, three introductions from the institutes who were involved in the project, and three essays accompanied by 47 figures of photographs and sketches. The catalogue has been distributed to different cultural institutes, research centres and museums in Addis Ababa and also to a selections beauty training centres. A digital version of the catalogue is accessible at the website of the exhibition.
To reach a widespread and diverse audience, the content of the exhibition was digitized. A web-based version of the exhibition, which includes some additional materials, was prepared and is available here.
Conclusion
The exhibition organizers and partner institutes strongly believe that making these photographs accessible at their place of origin is important. The photographs taken by German anthropologists who travelled to the Lower Omo Valley from the 1930s to 1970s are rare testimonies of this time and place. Therefore it was paramount to have Jinka University as one of our partnering institutes, and in 2022 all the content of the exhibition will be donated and displayed at the South Omo Research Center of Jinka University.
References
Abel Assefa, ed. The Wax and Gold of Hairstyle in Ethiopia. Frankfurt am Main: Frobenius Institute, 2021.
Haberland, Eike. Galla Südäthiopiens. Völker Süd-Äthiopiens: Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expeditionen 1950–52 und 1954–56, vol. 2. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1963.
Jensen, Adolf E. Altvölker Süd-Äthiopiens. Völker Süd-Äthiopiens. Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expeditionen 1950–52 und 1954–56, vol. 1. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1959.
Straube, H. Westkuschitische. Völker Süd-Äthiopiens. Völker Süd-Äthiopiens. Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expeditionen 1950–52 und 1954–56, vol. 3. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1963.
The Imagined Body in the T’oros Roslin Gospels
By Farah Saidin
The four gospels have been distributed widely and their accounts have been read and interpreted globally by Christians from different denominations through different textual aids.This article examines one such aid, a cross-referencing created in late antiquity: the Eusebian apparatus (O’Loughlin 2010; Crawford 2019). It explores its history by focusing on the decorations of the prefatory pages of the T’oros Roslin Gospels (The Walters Art Museum, MS W.539) – an Armenian manuscript produced c. AD 1262, wherein the canon tables and Eusebius’ letter to Carpianus, translated into the Armenian language, are decorated with architectural structures, flora and fauna (Figs. 1–6). Drawing on Jaś Elsner characterization of the codex as a “performative technology of liturgy” (2020: 101), I argue that the prefatory pages the T’oros Roslin Gospels can be interpreted as elements that mirror the movement of the body across sacred space. Moreover, as paratexts, that are outside of the main body of the text, the letter to Carpianus and canon tables with their architectural decorations present the viewer with a liminal space that sets the foundations for worship and contemplation.
The canon tables were invented by Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260–340), who divided the four gospels into sections before sorting them into “canons,” ranging from I to X, that indicate parallels amongst their narratives (Crawford 2019: 2–3). Since its creation, this system has been appropriated many times over by different manuscript cultures, including the Armenian, as showcased by the T’oros Roslin Gospels. This manuscript is illustrated throughout with some full-page miniatures and intricate illuminations embellished with gold. The sheer wealth of its decoration suggests that the scriptures within it were not ornamented merely for aesthetic reasons (Mathews and Taylor 2001: 15).
The text of the Eusebian apparatus in the T’oros Roslin Gospels is encased in ornate architectural structures formed by pairs of columns surmounted by a rectangular tympanum-like panels. The first two folios feature a copy of the letter by Eusebius to Carpianus split equally between them (Der Nersessian, Landau and van Lint n.d.). The letter provides instructions for using the canon tables that follow. Two men are pictured in the rectangular panels above the epistle: Eusebius on folio 1v (Fig. 1) and Carpianus on folio 2r (Fig. 2). Eusebius points to a scroll in his hand (his letter) and turns his gaze to the right, whilst Carpianus turns towards the left. Since these two pages are seen side by side when the book is opened, the position of the two figures evokes a pedagogical dialogue between them (Crawford 2019: 27). This visualisation of Eusebius’ explanation to Carpianus mimics the process by which the viewer will comprehend the function of the canon tables through the act of reading the letter itself.
A variety of flowers and birds adorn the prefatory pages of the T’oros Roslin Gospels. For example, the two folios following the epistle to Carpianus, showing Canon I (Fig. 3) and Canon II (Fig. 4), are surrounded by a group of birds that includes two kingfishers; while folios 5v (Fig. 5) and 6r (Fig. 6) are topped with a multitude of grey birds (possibly quails) drinking and bathing in water. The folios are thus arranged as pairs that are united by the use of similar visual motifs. This must have been done so that the spectator in front of the codex would encounter harmonic pairs of images while turning its pages.
As Matthew Crawford notes (2019: 267–68), Gospel books such as this would have typically been placed near the altar of a church. The frames of the T’oros Roslin Gospels evoke this setting to connect the text within them to the architecture of the church. To partake in the liturgy, believers physically enter into the church to temporarily inhabit its sacred space. The use of columns, intricate capitals, and decorative pediments in the canon tables in the T’oros Roslin Gospels evoke the setting and space of the church to guide the viewer towards the work of the Evangelists.
The regular and symmetrical forms of the columns of the canon tables of the T’oros Roslin Gospels bring to mind surviving examples of Armenian architecture from the Middle Ages, such as Zvartnots Cathedral (Fig. 7). Readers who turned the opening pages of the T’oros Roslin Gospels would have recalled the experience of walking past the columns of a church and prepared themselves to contemplate the content of the manuscript. Moreover, as Elsner observes, such architectural forms in manuscript have the power to monumentalise its pages (2020: 108), indicating the eternal value of the materials and content inscribed within and beyond them.
The canon tables of the T’oros Roslin Gospels also bring the viewer’s senses into play: birds of different varieties elicit sound memories, while the colourful plants and flowers stimulate the sense of smell. Readers of this manuscripts would have thus been presented with a multisensory encounter as they tactually moving across their architectural space, hearing birdsongs and smelling sweet fragrances. In stimulating bodily participation, the canon tables offer a multidimensional, transportive and highly engaging experience that evokes the liturgy within the church space, so that the manuscript in which they are found mirrors the context within which they are displayed.
The Eusebian canon tables within T’oros Roslin Gospels are a testament to the ways in which manuscript decoration and organisation can be interpreted beyond mere aesthetic purposes. As shown by this article, this reading aid must have had a profound impact on the viewers by evoking sensual participation that mimicked the physical experience of Armenian liturgical practice.
References
- Crawford, Matthew R. The Eusebian Canon Tables: Ordering Textual Knowledge in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Der Nersessian, Sirapie, Amy Landau, and Theo M. van Lint. ‘Walters Ms. W.539, T’oros Roslin Gospels’. The Digital Walters, n.d.. Accessed 10 December 2021.
- Elsner, Jaś. ‘Beyond Eusebius: Prefatory Images and the Early Book’. In Canones: The Art of Harmony: The Canon Tables of the Four Gospels, edited by Alessandro Bausi, Bruno Reudenbach, and Hanna Wimmer, 99–132. Studies in Manuscript Cultures 18. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
- Mathews, Thomas F., and Alice Taylor. The Armenian Gospels of Gladzor: The Life of Christ Illuminated. Los Angeles, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001.O’Loughlin, Thomas. ‘Harmonizing the Truth: Eusebius and the Problem of the Four Gospels’. Traditio 65 (2010): 1–29.
Bio
Farah Saidin is a UCL HoA alumna. She completed her BA in 2021 and is now studying for an MA in Art History.
The Image of the Tempietto in Ethiopian Gospel Books
By Agnese Sartor, Helena Sinibaldi and Michał Tomczuk
Located in the horn of Africa, Ethiopia is a country with a long tradition of Christian manuscript illustration. This vigorous tradition is strongly intertwined with the introduction of Christianity in the country and draws from a broader heritage that developed in various parts of the Mediterranean world from late Antiquity onward. Indeed, the powerful Ethiopian empire had access to a wide network of book production that included centres such as Alexandria and Jerusalem.
Two illustrated books, which take their name from the monastery of Enda Abba Garima, in northern Ethiopia, where they are located, provide evidence of this tradition. The two manuscripts, known as Garima I (AD 530–660) and Garima III (AD 330–650) offer the earliest surviving witnesses of a translation of the gospel text from Greek into the Ge‘ez language (classical Ethiopian). Garima I and Garima III feature a version of the Canon Tables devised by Eusebius of Caesarea, to give readers an overview of the similarities and differences between each gospel (Fig. 1). They are preceded by a letter that explains their function to a man called Carpianus. The Canon Tables make evident the unity of the separate Gospel accounts, so as to make the general truthfulness of the New Testament more evident.
In the Christian tradition the Canon Tables and preceding epistle are inserted under arches, lavishly decorated with floral and faunal motifs and sometimes also with additional vignettes on the sides of the columns, which depicted important stories from the Bible. Motifs, such as the flowering plants on the vaults of the arches, or the birds perched on top and around them, were meant to evoke paradisiacal connotations (Fig. 2). As evident in the leaf with the Letter to Carpianus in Abba Garima I, ornaments were also employed to convey a more elevated aesthetic effect.
The Eusebian Canon Tables functioned as an analytical pathway to understanding the harmony of the Four Gospels. In parallel, the illustrations which accompanied them helped to express the belief in Christ’s resurrection and eternal life. The arched decorations also acted as pathways towards a Tempietto situated at their end which served as a standalone signifier for the aforementioned beliefs. This building also appears within the illustrated manuscript tradition of Ethiopia from the Christian Aksumite to the early Solomonic period (Fig. 3).
The Tempietto acts as a figurative signifier of the Gospels’ unity. At times a literal formulation of this aim was inserted within the illustration, as in the case of a manuscript fragment in Addis Ababa (National Library, MS 28), where the following text is inserted within the building: “Arrangement of the Order concerning how the saying of the Four Gospels Agree” (Gnisci 2020: 90). By adding new elements to the structure, artists could also transpose the symbols of the garden of Eden onto existing local sacred sites. Thus, for example, in the Latin West the Tempietto could be used to allude to the Lateran baptistery in Rome (Fig. 4). In many traditions, the building must have been also equated to the structure built around the tomb of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The image of the Tempietto is typically located after the Canon Tables. This is also the case with the two Garima Gospels, although the buildings which decorate these two manuscripts present significant iconographical differences. The Tempietto in Garima I (Fig. 1) is a tholos – a circular structure in which four columns support a roof, a motif which suggests that the four gospels are the supporting pillars of the Church and which appears in the majority of illuminated Ethiopian Gospel books from the Early Solomonic Period (Fig. 3).
Unlike the Tempietto in Garima I, the building in Garima III is a solid rectangular building with a pitched roof that features, according to a recent book by Judith McKenzie and Francis Watson (2016), distinctively Ethiopian architectural characteristics (Fig. 5). The absence of natural details such as the birds and flowers that characterise the tholos in Abba Garima I, suggests that the building had a different symbolic meaning. It has a tall podium made of grey bricks and a staircase of nine steps connects the building to the ground. On both sides of the staircase slender white harts poke their heads from two arches. At the top of the staircase, the main door is flanked by marble columns and surmounted by a sharp steep tympanum. A knotted curtain hangs from the doorway, partly covering the entrance. In the centre of the main walls, two small square windows link the building with traditional Ethiopian architectonic elements appearing on Aksumite graves. Along the top of the walls, a row of windows framed by short arches – a motif that reminds viewers of the Canon Tables – reveals seven lamps hanging from the ceiling. An imposing trapezoidal roof surmounts the whole building painted with an alternation of grey circular tiles and lighter long smooth brushstrokes.
No similar versions of this image survive, and its exact signification remains an enigma. McKenzie and Watson (2016) interpret the building as Solomon’s temple of Jerusalem, recognizable for similarities to textual sources from the Old Testament, such as the vision of Ezekiel of a future restored temple and the book of Kingdoms. In their view, there are two streams of water springing from the temple and flowing on the side of the steps that evoke Psalm 42, thus associating the harts approaching the water as faithful quenching their thirst with baptismal water. Another interpretation for the building has been offered by Jacques Mercier (2021), who identifies it as a sanctuary of light in view of the bright colours inside the temple and the seven lamps hanging from the arches. The lamps signal that a liturgy is going on within the sanctuary, which turns out to be the sanctuary of the Light-Verb: light brings knowledge, which makes the Word visible. The first interpretation connects the building with Jerusalem: instead of reproducing the tholos shaped Tempietto that visually recalls the sacred sepulchre, the image refers to Solomon’s temple in Christian terms. The second meaning connects the image with the four Gospels which enlighten the Word to the faithful.
References
Gnisci, Jacopo. ‘Christian Ethiopian Art’. Smarthistory, 22 December 2016.
Gnisci, Jacopo. ‘An Ethiopian Miniature of the Tempietto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notes on Its Relatives and Symbolism’. In Canones: The Art of Harmony: The Canon Tables of the Four Gospels, edited by Alessandro Bausi, Bruno Reudenbach, and Hanna Wimmer, 67–98. Studies in Manuscript Cultures 18. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
McKenzie, Judith S., and Francis Watson. The Garima Gospels: Early Illuminated Gospel Books from Ethiopia. Manar Al-Athar Monograph 3. Oxford: Manar Al-Athar, 2016.
Mercier, Jacques. ‘Les Deux Types d’édicules Associés Aux Canons d’Eusèbe: Apport Des Évangiles d’Abba Gärima (c. 450–650) à Leur Histoire et Leurs Symboliques Byzantines et Latines’. Cahiers Archéologiques: Fin de l’Antiquité et Moyen Âge, 2021, 29–54.
Underwood, Paul A. ‘The Fountain of Life in Manuscripts of the Gospels’. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 5 (1950): 41–138.
Bio
Agnese Sartor is a UCL HoA alumna. She completed her BA in 2021 and is now pursuing MA Medieval History of Art.
Helena Sinibaldi is a UCL HoA alumna.
Michał Tomczuk is a UCL HoA and Philosophy alumnus.
Project Spotlight: Ethiopian Chronicles
An Interview with Solomon Gebreyes Beyene: The Chronicle of King Śarḍa Dǝngǝl (r. 1563‒1597)
The ITIESE team catches up with Dr Solomon Gebreyes Beyene to talk about his latest project The Chronicle of King Śarḍa Dǝngǝl (r.1563‒1597). Dr Solomon Gebreyes Beyene is a research fellow at the University of Hamburg’s Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies (HCLEES) who specializes in Geʿez Philology as well as medieval and modern Ethiopian history. His doctoral thesis focused on The Chronicle of King Galāwdewos (1540–1559): A Critical Edition with Annotated Translation (2016) and he has also published articles on various topics including royal historiography, medieval history of Ethiopia, and digital humanities.
Dear Solomon, first of all thank you for agreeing to this interview. To start things off, could you tell us something about yourself and about how you came to work on Ethiopic manuscripts?
I obtained my BA degree in History (2000) and my master’s degree (2007) in History from Addis Ababa University. I worked as a cultural heritage expert at local cultural and tourism office for three years in Ethiopia. I was also a lecturer, teaching various history courses and Civic and ethical education in government universities and private colleges of Ethiopia for eight years, until 2012.
I have always been very interested in medieval history of Ethiopia, and realized that studying Geʿez philology could allow me to learn more about medieval Ethiopian history, as many medieval Ethiopian historical sources from that period are available in this classical language. So, the desire to study historical texts, especially Ethiopian royal chronicles, inspired me. I got a DAAD scholarship to do a PhD in Germany and I decided to go to the renowned Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies in Hamburg under the supervision of a leading scholar in Ethiopian studies, Professor Dr Alessandro Bausi in 2012. For my PhD I worked on a medieval Ethiopian royal chronicle known as The Chronicle of King Galāwdewos. This work is arguably the most important primary source to study the history of Christian-Muslim relations in the northern Horn of Africa during the turbulent years of the 16th century. After completing my PhD in 2016, I was hired at the same centre as a Research Fellow in the Beta maṣāḥǝft and TraCES projects.
A lot of your research focuses on Ethiopic Chronicles, could you explain to our readers what a chronicle is and talk to us about the history of this particular genre?
Most readers will think that the word “chronicle” refers to daily news reported by journalists. In history, however, the term is associated with records and narratives about the daily activities of kings and their notables. Chronicles may differ in their style, structure, philosophy and content from country to country. However, in most countries, a chronicle is, in a narrow sense, a sort of a panegyrical biography of a king, queen, lord, or pope that glorifies his words and deeds while censuring those of his contenders and enemies. Chronicles may also incorporate legends and facts about the genealogy, upbringing, military success, piety and statesmanship of their protagonist. Chronicles are often one of the few sources of written information about the history of a country or people.
Ethiopia has a long history of chronicle production. The earliest examples date to beginning in the 14th century and chronicles were written for nearly every ruler until the beginning of the 20th century. While we have no evidence of the production of chronicles before the 14th century, in late antiquity some of the Aksumite kings recorded their campaigns and victories on inscription (Fig. 1). As far as we know, chronicles were not produced for member of the Zāgʷe dynasty (ca. 11th cent. to 1270 CE), so, as a genre, chronicle production in Ethiopia may have started with the rise of the Solomonic dynasty in the late 13th century.
Ethiopian royal chronicles were written in Geʿez (classical Ethiopic) till the second half of the 19th century as well as in Amharic from this period onwards. Most were written during the king's lifetime by a chronicler who accompanied the king on his campaigns or took part in the important activities of court life. The first chronicle was written in the 14th century for King ʿAmda Ṣǝyon. Other important examples include, the chronicle of a powerful 15th century Emperor called Zarʾa Yāʿqob (which was written in the early 16th century) and the chronicle of King Galāwdewos (composed two years after the death of the king, in 1561). Also noteworthy, is the Chronicle of Śarḍa Dǝngǝl (r. 1563‒1597) which describes the expansion of the Christian kingdom and a confrontation with the Oromo people. This work also discusses some inter-religious war between Christians and the “Falasha” – a local minority Judaic communities (now more appropriately designated as Beta ʾEsraʾel).
Perhaps the most voluminous of all Ethiopian chronicles is that devoted to the activities of King Susǝnyos (r. 1607‒1632). Many Gondarian kings, who reigned from 17th to 18th centuries, also had a chronicle composed for them (Fig. 2). Finally, in more recent times, chronicles were also composed in Amharic for Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–68) and Emperor Menelik II (r. 1889–1913). All these royal chronicles have been edited and translated into various European languages since the last quarter of the 19th century. However, new editions and translations into English are crucial to make these historically useful works accessible to a wider readership.
In 2019 you published a critical edition and translation of The Chronicle of King Galāwdewos (1540-1559). What led to work on this particular text?
Well, as I have pointed in the above, it is important to re-edit royal chronicles employing all the known manuscripts witnesses, translating them into English accompanied with new annotation. With this aim in mind, I selected the neglected chronicle of Emperor Galāwdewos (r. 1540-1559). This work is a very important primary source to understand the turbulent period of the 16th century, which witnessed huge religious wars and massive population movements that completely changed the ethnic and religious map of Ethiopia and its surrounding regions (Fig. 3).
In fact, this chronicle was first edited in 1895 by William Conzelman on the basis of three manuscripts (Fig. 4). However, he neglected two other manuscripts that were preserved in European libraries at that time, as well as a new manuscript I recently discovered in the royal church of Tadbāba Māryām which was built by Emperor Galāwdewos himself! The new edition is accompanied by an English translation and a detailed annotation and was published in 2019 in two volumes in the CSCO series.
Finally, congratulations on being awarded a 3-year research project by the DFG to work on “The Chronicle of King Śarḍa Dǝngǝl (r.1563‒1597): A Critical Edition with annotated English Translation.” What kind of work are you doing for this project?
Thank you very much! It has long been my dream to work on this chronicle, considering its importance. Thanks to the DFG, I can fulfil this aspiration. For this edition, I will consider five additional manuscripts that were not used by Carlo Conti Rossini who published the first translated edition of this work in 1907.
I started to work on the chronicle in January 2021. My first task was to collate the existing manuscripts (“the process of comparing differing manuscripts or editions of the same work in order to establish a corrected text.”). I have also transcribed the manuscripts using Transkribus (a text-recognition software) and made them available through the Beta maṣāḥǝft platform (Fig. 5). I am currently establishing the critical text by using Classical Text Editor, and I hope to complete the edition by the end of 2022. In the meantime, I will also write articles on the textual tradition and on the contents of the chronicle while attending international conferences. As part of this project, it is also planned to organize an international workshop in collaboration with Beta maṣāḥǝft and other projects engaged in Ethiopian studies on Geʿez text editions and annotation during the third year of the project.
Manuscript Culture in the Horn of Africa
By Sophia Dege-Müller
The Horn of Africa is home to several religious groups and their manuscript cultures. For the project Demarginalizing medieval Africa: Images, texts, and identity in early Solomonic Ethiopia (1270-1527), abbreviated as ITIESE, we focus chiefly, but not exclusively, on Christian manuscripts.
Christianity spread across Ethiopia around the mid-4th century CE thanks to the conversion of a king named Ezana. His kingdom – a power player in the Horn of Africa at that time – soon became a Christian nation, where Bible translations and also manuscripts were produced. Around 40% of the population of modern-day Ethiopia still identifies as Eastern Orthodox Christian. The earliest known Ethiopian manuscripts are the famous Abba Garima Gospels, which have been dated through carbon-14 testing to ca. 390–570 CE. These manuscripts, which are among the oldest surviving complete illuminated Christian manuscript in the world, are decorated in stunningly vivid colours and beautiful designs.
The majority of Christian Ethiopian manuscripts is however much younger, and it is only from the 14th century onwards do we have larger numbers of manuscripts. It is also worth observing that the production of manuscripts in Ethiopia is still ongoing, so we even know samples produced in recent years, and it is possible to watch scribes while they produce a piece. Due to this long-standing tradition the overall number of existing manuscripts is very high and estimated to be more than 200.000 codices (a rough estimate reached by multiplying the number of parishes by the minimum number of books needed to hold church services).
The Ethiopian scribal tradition knows several forms of text carriers. The most used are the manuscripts (codices), while the lay population used to use scrolls with short protective or medical texts. Among the less frequently used types are liturgical fans, or leporello codices (folded like an accordion). Most manuscripts were written on parchment – that is animal (typically goat or sheep) skin – which was locally produced. The pigments for the inks were produced by local scribes by using natural sources such as soot or iron gall ink for black. Paper was only rarely used as writing material and had to be imported.
Traditionally churches and monasteries had their own libraries, which are of different size. Smaller parishes usually own just a couple of necessary books, while some larger, and more famous monasteries such as Dabra Dammo or Dabra Libanos host more than 200 manuscripts. These monasteries were equally famous as centres for book making (scriptoria). In some cases, it is possible to trace manuscripts back to their place of origin thanks to notes or their artistic features. Some monasteries, such as that of Gunda Gunde in the modern-day region of Tigray, created their own distinctive style of manuscript illustration.
In addition to influential places, prominent persons in the Ethiopian past could also have a strong influence on the content and appearance of manuscripts. One outstanding example, in this regard, is surely Emperor Zar’a Ya’eqob (r. 1434–1468 CE). Several manuscripts can be traced back to his royal scriptorium and his patronage. The period investigated by the ITIESE project, which goes from 1270 to 1527 CE, saw the creation of impressively illustrated manuscripts.
One of the most famous collection of Ethiopic manuscripts was gathered by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–1868 CE), who around the 1850s CE established his new capital on a mountain-fortress called Maqdala. For the church of Maqdala, called Medhane Alem (‘Saviour of the World’), Tewodros II commissioned and looted some of the most beautiful and elaborate manuscripts from all over Ethiopia, but mostly from the town of Gondar. In 1868 CE, after Tewodros II was defeated by a British army led by General Napier, a large section of this collection was brought to the United Kingdom, while other manuscripts were given to local monasteries.
The ancient features of Ethiopian manuscripts decoration have not been studied in a sufficient form, and the ITIESE project hopes to shed new light on the art, history, and culture of Ethiopia and on its links with the other Oriental Orthodox traditions of the Armenian, Coptic, and the Syriac worlds.