On the History of the Library of Mäqdäla: New Findings

Abstract

It has been known that only a part of the parchment manuscripts of Mäqdäla library seized by British expeditionary force in 1868 entered European collections. Many of those manuscripts stayed in Ethiopia but not much was known about them. New information on these manuscripts has been recently gathered by the team of the project “Ethio-SPaRe: Cultural Heritage of Christian Ethiopia – Salvation, Preservation and Research”. Among manuscripts registered in monasteries and churches of East Tǝgray, some could have been identified as manuscripts previously coming from Mäqdäla library. The article presents these manuscripts and some of their features.

An Old Amharic poem from northern Ethiopia: one more text on condemning glory

“…The quality of the book and its scribal work might also speak for a place of manufacture outside Tigray. However, better proofs are not available for the moment; direct indications pointing to the Mägdäla Mädḫane ʿAläm collection are missing (such as a number written in a European hand on the guard leaf, or an ownership note mentioning that church; see Ancel and Nosnitsin 2014).…”