100% of the Buyer's Premium of all lots sold in this auction will be donated to Community Food Share by Artemis Gallery. $1.00 = 3 meals!

**First Time At Auction**

Eastern Africa, Ethiopia, ca. 17th to 19th century CE. A handwritten, vellum Coptic New Testament in Ge'ez (Ethiopic) with four beautiful color illustrations of key scenes, two at the front and two at the back, painted in a distinctive Ethiopian style. The pages are bound between two thick dark wooden covers and the binding is woven natural string. The names of the Saints in the text are highlighted with red marks. The Ge'ez language is what most of the literature of Christian Abyssinia is written in and comes from the ancient Aksumitic Empire. Ethiopia can lay a claim to being one of the oldest Christian countries and they practice a distinctive form of the religion, embodied in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which has a large and diverse Biblical canon, much of which would not be familiar to other Christians. Books like these are difficult to date; the oldest known are from the 13th century. Size: 3" W x 3.5" H (7.6 cm x 8.9 cm)

Provenance: private Ventura County, California, USA collection, acquired in the 1980s to 1990s

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#139368

Rich patina on wooden surface. The pages have wear on them, including some staining; the edges are stained a dark brown. However, the text is still readable and the paintings are clear. The binding is in nice condition - the string may be somewhat newer than the rest of it (although it is still old).

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