From the Selassie scriptorium

[Biblia aethiopica - VT - Psalmi]. [Manuscript Ge'ez Psalter].

€ 6,500.00

A Ge’ez manuscript Psalter from the government scriptorium of Haile Selassie, illustrated with twenty-five hand-painted scenes. Copied on particularly fine vellum, this psalter comprises twenty prayers, canonical texts, and apocrypha, including a very good example of the so-called Hebraic Song of Songs (see Ludolf, Gleave). The harags at the beginning of the first page of text indicate its origin in the Ethiopian government scriptorium during the reign of Haile Selassie.

The manuscript opens with a prayer: "This Psalter is like a garden: it contains all flowers and gives seeds and brings blessing and drives out demons and attracts angels". The twenty-five illustrations, each in excellent condition, show various Biblical scenes, largely from the New Testament and often following the life of Jesus Christ. These include the birth of Jesus, John baptizing Jesus in the River Jordan, Jesus healing the sick and blind, the beheading of Peter, and finally the Madonna and Child, with the patron who commissioned the manuscript depicted below.