260762 - Rare Antique Ethiopian double Coptic bible or manuscript leaf Ethiopia.

Rare Antique Ethiopian Coptic double bible or manuscript leaf from Ethiopia.

This manuscript  measures approximately  17 cm x 21.5 cm.

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

The manuscript leaf 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 double leaf 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 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.