The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This Ethopian sensul, or "chain" manuscript, was made in the seventeenth century in the Gondarine region. It was created out of a single folded strip of parchment attached to heavy hide "boards" at each end, creating a small book when folded. Comprised solely of inscribed images, this pocket-sized manuscript would have served a devotional function for its owner, who while unidentified, inscribed the first image with a note reminding people under the threat of excommunication not to steal or erase the manuscript. Narrative illuminations, which tell the story of the Virgin Mary, allow for private meditation. The book can also function as something of an icon, for when it is opened to the middle and stood on end, the facing figures of St. George and the Virgin and Child form a small diptych, resembling other icons of this era.
Principal cataloger: Getatchew Haile, .
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Holbert, Kelly, ed. Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 2001, pp. 116-117, cat. no. 18.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Gondar, Ethiopia
Late 17th century CE
album
Unknown Binding
Upper and lower boards made of heavy undecorated hide, stitched to ends of parchment strip; uncertain if original to manuscript
No linguistic content; Not applicable
Produced in the Gondar region of Ethiopia, probably late seventeenth century
Robert and Nancy Nooter collection, Washington, D.C., before 1996
Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 1996
Gondar, Ethiopia
Late 17th century CE
album
No linguistic content; Not applicable
Produced in the Gondar region of Ethiopia, probably late seventeenth century
Robert and Nancy Nooter collection, Washington, D.C., before 1996
Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 1996
This Ethopian sensul, or "chain" manuscript, was made in the seventeenth century in the Gondarine region. It was created out of a single folded strip of parchment attached to heavy hide "boards" at each end, creating a small book when folded. Comprised solely of inscribed images, this pocket-sized manuscript would have served a devotional function for its owner, who while unidentified, inscribed the first image with a note reminding people under the threat of excommunication not to steal or erase the manuscript. Narrative illuminations, which tell the story of the Virgin Mary, allow for private meditation. The book can also function as something of an icon, for when it is opened to the middle and stood on end, the facing figures of St. George and the Virgin and Child form a small diptych, resembling other icons of this era.
Principal cataloger: Getatchew Haile, .
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
Holbert, Kelly, ed. Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 2001, pp. 116-117, cat. no. 18.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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