Ethiopic Psalter. Comprising 151 Psalms of David, fifteen biblical canticles from the Old and New Testaments, Song of Songs of Solomon, Weddase Maryam (Encomium of Mary), the Anqasa Berhan (Porch of Light), etc.

(ETHIOPIA).

18th-century (and later)

Ge’ez manuscript written on vellum. Ink and pigments on heavy, yellow parchment. Includes four full-page (later) illuminations.

Finely composed Ethiopian Psalter, likely commissioned for personal use by a member of the Gonderite royal family, whose reign ended in 1769. The primary text of this manuscript is written in the ecclesiastical language of Ge'ez, while the minor texts are in Amharic and added later. While the colophon and the hand suggest that the original manuscript only contained the 151 Psalms of David, other texts were added in the 19th century to create a more complete volume suitable for personal devotions. Additional texts also appear: the volume opens with a homily admonishing the clergy to conduct themselves in an appropriately spiritual demeanor, and concludes with directions for the undoing of charms. The life of the manuscript can be traced not only in these cumulative texts, but also in prayers supplied for later owners, of which there are at least twelve appended to the ends of the Biblical texts. The illuminations are added later.