260757 - Rare Antique Ethiopian Coptic bible or manuscript - Ethiopia.

Rare Antique Ethiopian Coptic bible or manuscript from Ethiopia.

This manuscript  measures approximately  17 cm x 11 cm.

This manuscript is dated begin of the 19th century and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Important ancient Ethiopian religious manuscript written in Ge’ez script (traditional liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church).

The manuscript appears likely to date from the late 18th or early 19th century. No modern restoration is visible. The whole has remained in its original state of conservation. 

This ancient manuscript with 146 pages or 73 leaves is written on both sides on goatskin/vellum in black and red all in classical Ethiopian script, known as Ge'ez, which survives today only as a church language. 

Ge'ez dates back to 3000 years BC and in the 5th century the entire Bible was translated from Greek into Ge'ez. The so-called Garima Gospels form the world's oldest illustrated Christian Bible, was written in Ge'ez in the 6th century and is still in an Ethiopian monastery.

The wooden endpapers of the Bible offered here are made of almond wood and for this copy covered with red dyed sheepskin and provided with a handmade blind embossing. The leaves were cut from goatskin and folded in half. 

A rare collector's item, ideal for collectors of Oriental manuscripts, Christian art from Africa, religious ethnography, or ancient bibliophilia.