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 Homiliary was created in Gondar, Ethiopia, during a period of artistic flowering in the late seventeenth century. The Imperial court and its accompanying aristocracy took up permanent residence in Gondar at this time, and the taste of these wealthy patrons for paintings and extensive image cycles is exemplified by this richly illuminated manuscript. The text, a Homiliary focused on the Miracles of the Archangel Michael, combines liturgical readings with forty-nine brightly colored renderings of God, St. Michael, and the miracles related in the text. Sections of the manuscript would have been read aloud on monthly feast days of the Archangel, and the images would have punctuated the readings. The artists were likely trained as painters, rather than solely as manuscript illuminators, and their art can therefore be linked stylistically to contemporary mural painting.
Second column of fol. 9v copied by a different hand
Principal cataloger: Getatchew Haile, .
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Isaac, Ephraim
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Pizzinato, Riccardo
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
African Zion: the sacred art of Ethiopia. Catalogue by Marilyn Heldman with Stuart C. Munro-Hay; edited by Roderick Grierson. New Haven; London: Yale University Press in association with InterCultura Fort Worth, Walters Art Gallery Baltimore, Institute of Ethiopian Studies Addis Ababa, 1993.
The Homiliary is one of the most widely copied texts. As such, many European libraries and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library have many copies of it. Also it has been printed in Ethiopia several times, e.g. ድርሳነ፡ ሚካኤል፡ ወድርሳነ፡ ሩፋኤል፡ መልክአ፡ ሚካኤል፡ ወመልክአ፡ ሩፋኤል Artistic Press, Addis Ababa 1940 EC (= 1947/8AD)
Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum. Lingfield, Surrey: Third Millennium Publishing, 2001, pp. 108-111, cat. no. 15 (fols. 10v-11r, 59r, 89v-90r).
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
book
Unknown Binding
Fabric-covered wooden end boards
The primary language in this manuscript is Geez.
Name of original owner erased and replaced at an unknown date by Gäbrä Śǝllase ገብረ፡ ሥላሴ፡ and his wife [. . .] Giyorgis [. . . ] ጊዮርጊስ፡
Later owned by Kidanä Maryam ኪዳነ፡ ማርያም፡, whose wife was Śählä Maryam ሣህለ፡ ማርያም፡, and whose father was Wäldä Tǝnśa’e ወልደ፡ ትንሣኤ፡
Joseph Knopfelmacher Collection, New York, no. 2; collection sold by the Wright Gallery, New York, in 1995-1996
Museum purchase, the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 1996
Gondar, Ethiopia
Late 17th century CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Geez.
Name of original owner erased and replaced at an unknown date by Gäbrä Śǝllase ገብረ፡ ሥላሴ፡ and his wife [. . .] Giyorgis [. . . ] ጊዮርጊስ፡
Later owned by Kidanä Maryam ኪዳነ፡ ማርያም፡, whose wife was Śählä Maryam ሣህለ፡ ማርያም፡, and whose father was Wäldä Tǝnśa’e ወልደ፡ ትንሣኤ፡
Joseph Knopfelmacher Collection, New York, no. 2; collection sold by the Wright Gallery, New York, in 1995-1996
Museum purchase, the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 1996
This Homiliary was created in Gondar, Ethiopia, during a period of artistic flowering in the late seventeenth century. The Imperial court and its accompanying aristocracy took up permanent residence in Gondar at this time, and the taste of these wealthy patrons for paintings and extensive image cycles is exemplified by this richly illuminated manuscript. The text, a Homiliary focused on the Miracles of the Archangel Michael, combines liturgical readings with forty-nine brightly colored renderings of God, St. Michael, and the miracles related in the text. Sections of the manuscript would have been read aloud on monthly feast days of the Archangel, and the images would have punctuated the readings. The artists were likely trained as painters, rather than solely as manuscript illuminators, and their art can therefore be linked stylistically to contemporary mural painting.
Second column of fol. 9v copied by a different hand
Principal cataloger: Getatchew Haile, .
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Isaac, Ephraim
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Pizzinato, Riccardo
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
African Zion: the sacred art of Ethiopia. Catalogue by Marilyn Heldman with Stuart C. Munro-Hay; edited by Roderick Grierson. New Haven; London: Yale University Press in association with InterCultura Fort Worth, Walters Art Gallery Baltimore, Institute of Ethiopian Studies Addis Ababa, 1993.
The Homiliary is one of the most widely copied texts. As such, many European libraries and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library have many copies of it. Also it has been printed in Ethiopia several times, e.g. ድርሳነ፡ ሚካኤል፡ ወድርሳነ፡ ሩፋኤል፡ መልክአ፡ ሚካኤል፡ ወመልክአ፡ ሩፋኤል Artistic Press, Addis Ababa 1940 EC (= 1947/8AD)
Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum. Lingfield, Surrey: Third Millennium Publishing, 2001, pp. 108-111, cat. no. 15 (fols. 10v-11r, 59r, 89v-90r).
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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