Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Other related names

• Tasfa Seyyon, former owner
• Girata Sellase, former owner
• Walatta Haymanot, former owner
• Block, Gordon A., Jr., 1914-1973, former owner
• Tewolde Berhan, former owner

Call number

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9977997304203681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1258924250

Publisher

Origin

Date

1700s

Summary

Parchment roll with numerous prayers against barya, legewon, evil spirits, demons, magical cunning and sorcery, and a variety of illnesses and conditions caused by these forces, such as smallpox, cough and sore throat, migraine, colic, and malaria. Texts are written in black and red ink in two columns, in decorative frames of red, blue, and black. Four illuminated miniatures in color, spanning both columns of text (incorrectly identified in the dealer description housed with the manuscript): a seated woman flanked by two umbrella-holding attendants; the cupola of a church with a cross flanked by two saints or priests with heads and upper part of body wrapped in a shamma cloth above a crowned, seated figure flanked by two evil demons holding a chain across the crowned head; a crowned, standing person (identified as Alexander in the same script as the prayers) wearing a white robe, flanked by two blue demons; and a magical cross with the round head of a person inside a diamond figure at the center and a brown square containing a blue fleur-de-lis for each arm of the cross. (From the description by Professor Ephraim Isaac).

Extent

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Gordon A. Block, Jr. (manuscript number Block 35).
   
• Gift of Gordon A. Block, Jr., in memory of his mother Reba Fleisher Block (bookplate inside housing), 1966.
   
• Early ownership inscriptions: Tasfa Seyyon (original owner?), Girata (?) Sellase, Walatta Haymanot, Tawalda Berhan (from the description by Professor Ephraim Isaac).
   

Subjects topical

• Traditional medicine--Ethiopia
• Christianity--Ethiopia--Prayers and devotions

Genres

• prayer scrolls
• Prayers
• Manuscripts, Ethiopic--18th century

Keywords

• 18th century
• Ethiopia
• Ethiopian
• Protective scroll
• Magic

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Roll 2059: Ge'ez protective roll are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is ©2023 University of Pennsylvania Libraries and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Decorations

• Section 1 — Miniature, Seated woman flanked by two umbrella-holding attendants
• Section 3 — Miniature, Cupola of a church flanked by two saints or priests above a crowned, seated figure flanked by two evil demons
• Section 5 — Miniature, Alexander standing between two blue demons
• Section 6 — Miniature, Magical cross with a head at center