Description
Book SynopsisManuscripts preserved in a monastery in the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia, and according to legend written and partly illuminated by the Ethiopian missionary Abbu Garima, who arrived in Ethiopia in 494 CE: this is the first book to present all the illuminated pages with comparative materials. 300+ col illus and preface by Michael Gervers.
Trade Review‘The meticulous scholarship in evidence throughout The Garima Gospels is worthy of the series in which it appears. Lavishly illustrated volume, with its 268 colour pictures and fifty-two full-page plates.
J. K. Elliott, TLS 2 June 2017
‘Judith McKenzie (with her colleagues) takes the reader through this scholarly fest with a sure touch and with justified enthusiasm. Here is the evidence for a spread of a late classical art with deep roots in the great Hellenistic cities of the East – most notably Alexandria – for whose existence she has long been a passionate advocate.’
Peter Brown, NYRB May 2017
'It's not every day that scholars discover new Bible Manuscripts from the ancient world. It's ever rarer to discover new ones endowed with luxurious painted images. Yet this is preceisely what has happened over the past decade thanks to groundbreaking research into three ancient codices from Ethiopia.
'To put the discovery in perspective, the Abba Garima manuscripts are among the very oldest illustrated Gospels in the world.
'Although the three manuscripts show abundant parallesl to the arts of the wider late antique world, they also demonstrate in dazzling fashion the vitaility of local culture in Ethiopia itself. In fact, their beauty and sophistication suggest that these were not the first fruits of a traditiona bout to blook, but the mature efforts of a tradition that had already been flowering for generations. We owe McKenzie, Watson, and their team a great debt for making these codices accessible to the general public. Their fine volume will hopefully serve as a stimulus for further research on ancient Ethiopia more broadly, a great crossroads of culture whos significance to world history we are only beginning to appreciate.'
Christian C. Sahner, Research Fellow in History, St John's College, University of Cambridge,
Marginalia March 2017
'A magnificent study.'
Christopher Howse, The Telegraph December 2016
'The group of early Christian illuminated manuscripts known as the Garima Gospels -- written in an old Ethiopic translation of the Bible -- are among the very earliest and most important illustrated Christian books. They have never been published in a properly illustrated edition before, nor with a sound scholarly introduction and discussion such as presented here. Judith McKenzie and Francis Watson's remarkable publication of Michael Gervers' photographs is not only the first fundamental presentation of this immensely important set of visual and textual materials, but it is also a record of the state of the manuscript at the moment of its discovery by contemporary scholarship. The volume is a landmark in early Christian studies and in late antique art history.'
Jas Elsner, Professor of Late Antique Art, University of Oxford
'How many movable objects have been in use ever since late Antiquity, in the same place they were produced? The battered and well-thumbed Garima Gospels may never have left the sequestered Ethiopian monastery where they still reside -- and which no woman may enter. The English artist Beatrice Playne first noticed them in 1948 (they were carried out for her to inspect). She perceptively compared them with the Syriac Rabbula Gospels of 586 in Florence. Now Judith McKenzie has taken the lead in publishing and discussing all the illustrated folios for the first time, while Francis Watson's analysis of the canon tables drives home the point that images should not be studied in isolation from the texts they adorn. This attractive and learned book will at last ignite informed debate about one of the most important manuscripts to have survived from Antiquity.'
Garth Fowden, Professor of Abrahamic Faiths, University of Cambridge
Table of ContentsPreface by Michael Gervers
Acknowledgements by Judith McKenzie
Abbreviations
Maps
GENERAL INTRODUCTION by Judith McKenzie
Translation of Biblical Texts
Illustrated Biblical Manuscripts
The Four Gospel Collection and the Eusebian Canon Tables
The Present Study Summary
PART I THE GARIMA GOSPEL BOOKS
1. THE WORLD OF THE GARIMA GOSPELS by Judith McKenzie and Miranda Williams
Ethiopian Trade and Technological Developments
Arrival of Christianity in Ethiopia
Construction of Churches
The Aksumite Kingdom as a Regional Power
Ethiopians in Jerusalem and Palestine
Alexandria and Late Antique Egyptian Art
Conclusion
2. THE DISCOVERY AND STUDY OF THE GARIMA GOSPELS by Judith McKenzie
The Garima Gospel Codices
The Discovery and Publication of the Illuminated Pages
Documentation and Analysis of the Texts of the Garima Gospels
A Re-evaluation of the Chronology and the Carbon-14 Dates
3. THE MANUSCRIPTS by Judith McKenzie
Bindings
Covers
Determining Which Illuminated Pages Belong to Which Manuscript
Abba Garima I Illuminated Pages
Abba Garima III Position and Order of the Decorated Pages
Distribution of the Canon Tables
Production of the Illuminated Pages and Texts
Place of Production
PART II IMAGES, ORIGINS, AND MEANINGS by Judith McKenzie
4. THE PORTRAITS OF THE EVANGELISTS
Mark
Standing Evangelists (Matthew, Luke, and John) and a Saint (?Eusebius)
Conclusion
5. ILLUMINATED FRAMES
Origins of Canon Table Frames
Abba Garima III Frames
Abba Garima I Frames
Birds, Plants, and Fruit Bowls
Abba Garima I and III: Two Schools of Painting
Abba Garima II: A Third School of Painting
Relationship of the Abba Garima I and III Frames to Other Frames
Later Ethiopian Frames and the Legacy of the Schools of Abba Garima I and III
Conclusions
Additional Note: The Garima Birds by Linda Macaulay
6. BUILDINGS: ORIGINS AND MEANINGS
The Jerusalem Temple Image in Abba Garima III
Circular Pavilion (Tholos) in Abba Garima I
Tholoi in Carolingian, Greek, Armenian, and Georgian Gospel Books
Tholoi in Later Ethiopian Manuscripts and Their Meaning
Meaning of the Decoration on the Frames
Conclusion
Plates
PART III TEXT AND IMAGE by Francis Watson
7. EUSEBIUS TRANSFORMED
The Eusebian Canons
The Eusebius Portrait
The Preface On the Agreement of the Four Gospels
The Letter to Carpianus: Abba Garima I
The Letter to Carpianus: Abba Garima II and III
8. THE CANON TABLE SEQUENCE
Pages One and Two: Canons III
Page Three: Canons IIIIV
Pages Four and Five: Canons VVII
Pages Six to Eight: Canons VIIX
The Four Pillared Structure (Tholos)
The Renewed Temple
The Ring
9. THE FOUR EVANGELISTS: TEXTS AND PORTRAITS
The Enumerated Text
Chapters and Titles
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
10. TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND DATE
The Textual History of the Geez Gospels
On Text-forms and Time-frames
The Textual Milieu
Parallel Translations
Appendix I. The Foliation and Content of the Garima Gospels by Matthew Crawford
Appendix II. John Chrysostom and the Preface of Ps-Ammonius, translations by Francis Watson
Appendix III. Eusebius Letter to Carpianus: Greek and Geez, translations by Francis Watson
Glossary
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
