Hardcover; wooden boards held together with natural twine; small format (10 x 8 x 3 cm). Ge'ez manuscript in a single hand on heavy parchment; 36 leaves with eleven to fifteen lines in black and red ink; with 2 full-page hand-painted miniatures depicting an angel (or cherub) and St George slaying the dragon. Condition: GOOD. Textblock secure, the rear board held by one cord. Interior variously toned with a few small holes, some touching the text. Scarce.
Notes: A wonderful manuscript miniature Bible in the traditional Ethiopian Coptic binding structure of hewn wooden boards, exposed string outside quires, looped and tied back onto the twine itself. The text is hand-written in Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language of the Orthodox Churches of Ethiopia, with two full-page illuminations depicting an angel (or cherub) and St George slaying the dragon. Ethiopian handwritten Coptic Ge’ez Bibles were produced throughout Ethiopia as early as the 14th century until the late 19th century. 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 in composed almost entirely of Christian liturgy, as education was exclusively the responsibility of priests and monks. The books produced typically contain the gospels of the New Testament, recounting the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the foundation of the Christian faith with illuminated miniature paintings depicting the lives of the Saints.
