Ethiopian Coptic Ge’ez Bible.

Item Number: 33018

Ethiopia:, 18th Century.

18th century Ethiopian Coptic Ge’ez Bible. 150 vellum leaves bound in hand-stitched leather over wooden boards. Handwritten in black and red ink and illuminated with three full-page miniature paintings in vivid full color depicting St. George slaying the dragon, the Virgin and Child flanked by two angels, and the Crucifixion.

Ethiopian Handwritten Coptic Ge’ez Bibles were produced as early as the fourteenth century until the late 19th century throughout Ethiopia, the first country to become an independent African nation. Christianity was introduced to Ethiopia in the 4th century when Syrian missionaries first translated the Bible into Ge’ez, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The surviving body of Ge’ez literature in composed almost entirely of Christian liturgy, as education was exclusively the responsibility of priests and monks. The bibles produced typically contain the gospels of the New Testament, recounting the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the foundation of the Christian faith with illuminated miniature paintings depicting the lives of the Saints.