Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

[Zena nagaromu and hymns] [manuscript].

[Ethiopia, between 1900 and 1925]

100 leaves : parchment ; 135 x 102 (83 x 80) mm. bound to 140 x 115 mm.

Account of Creation by the Trinity (Zena nagaromu, f. 1r), followed by hymns (f. 20v, 29v, 38r, 47v, 60r, 85v). Notes added in a different hand in the top margin (indications of day of the week for readings) and at the end of some hymns (f. 38v, 59v); some erased rubrics supplied in blue ink by a modern hand (for example, f. 31r, 40v, 51v, 85v). In addition to the brown thread markers in the upper outer corners of 3 illuminations (f. 36r, 71r, 100r), 2 leaves have a bit of magenta fiber threaded through their side margins (f. 76, 85), which may have served as another form of finding tab.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Collation: Parchment, iv + 100 + iv; 1-10¹⁰.

Layout: Written in 2 columns of 14 lines; ruled in drypoint with vertical bounding lines; prickings visible on most leaves.

Script: Written in räqiq script.

Decoration: 4 full-page paintings on erased pages, of the Virgin and Child with archangels Michael and Gabriel (f. 2r); the Crucifixion with Mary and John (f. 36r); Saint George and the dragon (f. 71r); and Christ and the Virgin in majesty (f. 100r), all but the first with thread markers on the upper outer corners of their leaves. Rubrication in red, with twin pairs of red lines separated by 2 or 3 black lines at the beginning of each hymn and significant words in red; rough decorative border (harag) in black and red at the top of the page at the beginning of 2 hymns (f. 1r, 38r).

Binding: 20th-century wood boards with exposed spine.

Origin: Written in Ethiopia in the early 20th century (possible colophon erased and illegible, f. 85v).

UPenn LJS 102.

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 102