Walters Ms. W.838, Ethiopian canon tables

W.838

Ethiopian canon tables

Authority name: Eusebius, Caesariensis, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340

This fragmentary manuscript, comprised of four canon tables spread over one bifolium, would originally have been the introductory pages of a fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century Gospel book. Written in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia, the pages contain canons I-V, which relate the concordance of the Gospels through a chart in which each number corresponds to a Gospel passage, a system originally created by Eusebius of Caesarea in the early fourth century. The numbers here, in keeping with a long tradition, are placed within an arcade of brightly decorated columns and arches. Common within Ethiopian canon table decoration are the curtains, which hang from the sides of the columns, and the interlace-filled arches adorned with birds. These pages provide an excellent example of Ethiopian canon table illumination from the early Solomonic period.

Late 14th or early 15th century CE

Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Leaves

Theological

The primary language in this manuscript is Geez.

Parchment

Heavy yellowed parchment

Foliation: i+2+i

It is a bifolium with modern parchment flyleaves

Formula: i, 1(2), i

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments:

25.5 cm wide by 35.0 cm high

23.0 cm wide by 29.5 cm high

1. Dimensions refer to overall decorated surface

1. Title: Canon tables
2. Contents: The extant canons are I-V
3. Decoration note: Four architectural tables comprised of two columns and one large arch with birds above, decorated with geometric and knot patterns in green, yellow, and orange; inscriptions and canon numbers in black ink

fol. 1r:

1. 
2. Title: Canon table
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Eusebian canon I

fol. 1v:

1. 
2. Title: Canon table
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Eusebian canon II

fol. 2r:

1. 
2. Title: Canon table
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Eusebian canons III and IV

fol. 2v:

1. 
2. Title: Canon table
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Eusebian canon V

Inapplicable.

Housed in a modern portfolio of heavy archival paper

Originally created as part of a Gospel book in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia, late fourteenth or early fifteenth century

Joseph and Margaret Knopfelmacher collection, acquired in Addis Ababa ca. 1960

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Knopfelmacher, 1996

Holbert, Kelly, ed. Ethiopian Art: The Walters Art Museum. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 2001, pp. 102-103, cat. no. 13.

"Canon tables," in Siegbert Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol. I. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003, pp. 680-681.

Principal cataloger: Getatchew Haile, .

Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Emery, Doug; Isaac, Ephraim; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.