ORIT - OCTATEUCH

MS 1837
MS Short Title ORIT-OCTATEUCH
Text
  1. BIBLE: GENESIS
  2. BIBLE: EXODUS
  3. BIBLE: LEVITICUS
  4. BIBLE: NUMBERS
  5. BIBLE: DEUTERONOMY
  6. BIBLE: JOSHUA
  7. BIBLE: JUDGES
  8. BIBLE: RUTH
Description MS in Ge'ez on vellum, Ethiopia, ca. 1400, 209 ff. (complete), 49x36 cm, 2 columns, (36x25 cm), 38 lines lines in square Ge'ez book script, headings in red, 8 ornamental headpieces and frames (harägs) in red, green and yellow.
Binding Ethiopia, ca. 1400, thick wooden boards, chain stitches on 4 sewing stations
Context Orits are surprisingly uncommon. The majority are 18th c. or later. Only five very early examples are recorded: British Museum, Orient 480 (15th c.), Bibliotheque Nationale Eth. 3 (15th c.) and Eth. 102 (13th/14th c.), Kebran 4 (1413-1430), Ethiopian manuscripts microfilm library, EMML2098 (15th c.).
Provenance 1. Abunä (our father) Zär'a Ent'ones (ca. 1400); 2. Särs'sä Mika'el; 3. Sam Fogg, London.
Commentary Texts 1-5, & 8 close with a blessing, 2 of them with the name Abunä Zär'a Entones, who had the book written. One of the earliest and most monumental Ethiopian MSS extant. After a note on ownership on f. 2v, a curse on whoever steals or mutilates it.
Place of origin Ethiopia
Dates ca 1400 AD