Psalter with Praise of Mary (Wəddase Maryam) and the Canticles of the Prophets

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Psalter with Praise of Mary (Wəddase Maryam) and the Canticles of the Prophets

Place of OriginEthiopia, Africa

Dateabout 1400-1500

DimensionsOpen: 8 7/8 × 6 11/16 × 3 15/16 in. (22.5 × 17 × 10 cm)

MediumInk and pigments on parchment with wooden boards

ClassificationManuscripts

Credit LineMrs. George W. Stevens Fund

Object number

2021.37

Not on View

DescriptionEthiopian manuscript on parchment, written in Ge’ez; 141 folios. Contains the Book of Psalms, the Praise of Mary (Wəddase Maryam), the Canticles of the Prophets, and part of the Song of Solomon. This Psalter combines portions from two different manuscripts, rebound together at some point in the book’s history. The first part of the volume, dates to the first decades of the 16th century, while most of the text and all the illuminations are slightly earlier, probably from the second half of the 15th century. The manuscript has been illuminated with 10 full-page illuminations of saints and the Virgin and Child, as well as 16 colored harags. Rubrics in red and original pricking and ruling can be seen throughout the manuscript. As is fairly typical of early Ethiopian manuscripts, the edges of the leaves are damaged, probably from rats and humidity. 143 leaves.

Label TextThis psalter, a codex containing the Book of Psalms from the Bible, is written in Ge`ez (Ethiopic), an ancient Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic. Unlike other Semitic languages, Ge`ez script is read from left to right, most likely due to the influence of Greek, which was for centuries the predominant trade language along the Red Sea and in the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, whose King Ezana adopted Christianity in 330 CE. Manuscript production flourished in Ethiopia from the 14th through 16th centuries, with artists and scribes, typically from Christian monastic communities, producing illuminated manuscripts by hand. This psalter contains 10 full-page paintings depicting Mary, Jesus, and various saints alone and in pairs. These images display bold colors and outlines embellished with vibrant patterns characteristic of Ethiopian painting. Framing devices known as harag, Ge`ez for “tendril,” also ornament the text. The distinctive character of Ethiopian art combined Judeo-Christian influences with sub-Saharan African, and later, Islamic, cultural traditions.Exhibition HistoryBaltimore, MD, Walters Art Museum; Salem, MA, Peabody Essex Museum; Toledo, OH, Toledo Museum of Art, Ethiopia at the Crossroads, Dec. 3, 2023 - Nov. 10, 2024.Comparative ReferencesSee also Dege-Müller, Sophia. “The Ethiopian Psalter: An Introduction to its Codicological Tradition.: The Anglo-Ethiopian Society News File (Winter 2014): 16–22. See also Gnisci, Jacopo., ed. Treasures of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Manar Al-Athar Monograph 5. Oxford: Manar al-Athar, University of Oxford, 2019. See also Gnisci, Jacopo. “Constructing Kingship in Early Solomonic Ethiopia: The David and Solomon Miniatures in the Juel-Jensen Psalter.” The Art Bulletin 102, no. 4 (2020): 7–36. See also Grierson, Roderick, ed., African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. See also Heldman, Marilyn. “Psalter” in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 4 (2010), pp. 231-233. See also Mann, C. Griffith, et. al, Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum, Lingfield, Surrey: Third Millennium Publishing, 2001.