Items

• Psalter & Ethiopian canticles

  A codex containing a Psalter, Canticles, the Song of Songs, and Ethiopian hymns. A note of the owner is on f. 2v, over an erasure. 1v-2r
• Psalter & Ethiopian canticles

  A codex containing a Psalter, Canticles, and the Song of Songs. Psalm 150 is followed by doxology with musical notation. 1r
• Psalter & Ethiopian canticles

  A codex containing a Psalter, Canticles, and Ethiopian hymns, with an unfinished drawing of King David and a cross design. 5r-139r
• The Pauline Epistles

  The Pauline Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles, with Introductions.
• The Pauline Epistles

  The codex includes the Pauline Epistles, Acts, Revelation, and the Apostolic Epistles. Modern paper fly-leaves were added at the beginning and end of the codex. The codex is probably comprised of four manuscripts of different dates bound together. 3r-76v
• Gospels

  The codex contains the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The codex begins with, a) ff. 3r-5r Prefatory matter to the Gospels, and b) f. 5v An Introduction Concerning the Concordance of the Four Gospels, f. 5v The Epistle of Eusebius to Carpianus, f. 6r a paragraph about the four evangelists, especially Matthew, f. 6r titles of the chapters in Matthew, and f. 6v-8v Eusebian canons. Folios 1r-2v are blank. 3r-8v.
• The Gospel of John.

  The Gospel of John. The name of the scribe ሲሎንዲስ occurs on ff. 129v and 131r. A prayer for the scribe is included at the end of the manuscript on f. 129r. On f. 129v another scribe Akliä Giyorgis, added the benediction, "Simeon, by name Papas but not in practice." 1r-131r
• (I) Old Testament

  The codex contains the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiates, and The Wisdom of Solomon. Folio 50r contains scribal notes, including the names of two scribes that ordered the book. The first name is illegible, the second name is Fəsḥa S'əyyon. 1r-25r
• Gospel of John

  A personal copy containing Mystagogia [ትምሕርተ ፡ ኅቡዓት], the Gospel of John [ወንጌል ፡ ዘዮሐንስ], and various prayers and hymns. An ownership note is found on f. 4r and contains the name Abbā Walda Kirubēl; the name of the original owner has been erased and replaced with Walda Kirubēl on ff. 5r-112v; prayers for Walda Kirubēl were added in a secondary hand on ff. 26r, 32r, 59r, 76r, 93v, 103v. The following note was found on the inside back cover: "This book was taken from Theodores' camp under Magdala 14 April 1868. Presented to M. Garbios (?), with kind regards, by this finder. 9 Feb 1870."
• fətḥa nägäśt

  The Law of Kings or Fətḥa Nägäśt is a legal code compiled around 1240 CE by the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal in Arabic that was later translated into Ge'ez in Ethiopia and expanded upon with numerous local laws. 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings, and partly from former law codes of the Byzantine rulers. In the centuries since, the Fetḥa Nagaśt has been held in great esteem in Ethiopia, so much so that the prefaces to the country’s modern criminal and civil codes assert the document’s underlying influence. This particular manuscript was copied for Mamher (teacher) Germā Giyorgis and his father Ṣegē Mikā’ēl (ff. 144v, 147r) and was among the trove that fell into the hands of the British at Magdala in 1868. The phrase ‘pillar of faith Tēwodros’ appears on 147r along with the names Habta Giyorgis and Eḫeta Giyorgis.
• Magical Writings

  This manuscript contains a compendium of magical and computational writings with a particular emphasis on astrological matters. Folio 3r contains an illuminated border with the “evil eye”.
• Testament of Patriarchs and a Homily

  This manuscript is comprised of four works, the Testament of Abraham, Testament of Isaac, Testament of Jacob (ገድለ ፡ አብርሃም, ገድለ ፡ ይስሐቅ, ገድለ ፡ ያዕቆብ), and a homily attributed to Ephrem on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt (ድርሳነ ፡ ሳራ), which in the Ethiopian tradition is almost always circulate together as a unit. Both Ethiopian Christians and Jews transmit these writings, and this manuscript, preserving a recension of the texts redacted by the latter, forms a rare example of a Beta Israel scribal work. The Testaments and the accompanying homily are each spuriously ascribed, to Athanasius and Ephrem respectively, attributions that arose in Arabic, the version from which the Ge‘ez was translated. Ultimately, these texts go back to a variety of Vorlagen, the Testaments of Isaac and Jacob originating in Coptic, the homily on Abraham and Sarah in Syriac, and the Testament of Abraham, which was probably composed during the late Second Temple Period, in Greek.
• Gospel Book

  This Ethiopian gospel book (ወንጌል Wangēl) contains colour pictures of the four evangelists. F. 2v: Matthew; f. 51v: Mark; f. 73v: Luke; f. 112v: John. Pen trials are found on ff. 1r, 3r, and 144v. Folio 72v mentions the scribe’s name Ammonius and the owner Zäbanä Krəstos. Folio 142v contains the name ዕዝል፡ዘሆሣዕና፡; ff. 142v-143v contain a chant, recorded in a secondary hand. The beginnings and chapter headings of each Gospel have been rubricated.
• Service Book

  This work is a typical example of a privately-owned Ethiopian service book containing hymns and prayers arranged for the hours. Several coloured images are inserted towards the beginning and end of the codex, with miscellaneous common service texts and other readings in between. Images appear on f. 4r (Daniel in the lion's den, St. George and the dragon, Virgin and child with angels and a priest, and Täklä Haymanot and the dragon) and f. 95v (the Crucifixion). According to a note on the inside front cover, William Simpson, an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, bought it from an Ethiopian during the Napier Expedition as the troops returned to Aden after the defeat of Tewodros II: “This book of Devotion, 350 or 400, years old, I bought from an Abyssinnian [sic], at the tent door, during the return march from Magdala, 1868”. The seller may have been either Waldä Giyorgis or Śarḍa Māryām; both names appear in the manuscript.
• Praise of Mary

  A fragment of Praise of Mary (ውዳሴ ፡ ማርያም Weddāsē Māryām). The hand is dated to the 14th century.
• Praise of Mary

  A fragment from Praise of Mary (ውዳሴ ፡ ማርያም Weddāsē Māryām). The extant texts belongs to the Thursday liturgy.
• Service Book

  Likely a fly-leaf from a service-book. The work contains a list of dates (1508 CE; 1512 CE; 1513 CE) on which various persons died or are to be remembered.
• Old Testament (Add. 1570)

  Though not a pandect, this magisterial codex contains the vast majority of books belonging to the Ethiopian Old Testament canon. It was likely produced at the behest of Empress Māryām Śenā, whose name appears frequently, though often erased. There is evidence of at least ten scribes involved in the work (Feśśeḥa Ṣeyon, Yoḥannes, Takla Hāymānot, Zamikā’ēl, Zakrestos, Kefla Gabre’ēl, Habta Mikā’ēl, Takla Māryām, Takla Abrehām, Fequra Iyasus). The second colophon states that the work was translated by Jacob the Israelite from Hebrew to Ge‘ez, and was copied by the scribe Waldä Giyorgis for Queen Maryam Səna (wife of Sarsa Dengel, Negus of Ethiopia, -1597 ሠርፀ ድንግል). Her name has since been erased in many locations. The codex is fully intact except for the loss of one sheet, the innermost bifolium of its twenty-sixth quire, resulting in the absence of nearly all of Micah and Joel. The date of the work is written in the first colon at the end of 2 Kings: the 27th year of Särs’ä Dəngəl's reign, i.e. 1588-1589 CE. Because of its precise dating--a rarity in the Ethiopian tradition--this manuscript arguably constitutes the most important post-medieval witness to the Old Testament in Ge'ez, clearly demonstrating the ongoing revision of the text on the basis of an Arabic version around that time. Most books open with formulaic scribal pleas invoking ‘God, the merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and full of mercy and justice’ and are divided into numbered chapters, features without significant precedent in Ethiopian culture before this era and likely arising as a result of the direct influence of the Christian Arabic tradition. The concluding leaves of the codex contain records in Amharic of various property sales, probably chiefly from the late-eighteenth century, transacted between members of the Ethiopian nobility. According to a note on the inside front cover, the manuscript was acquired during the Napier expedition: “Abyssinian Bible. Taken from King Theodore at the storming of Magdala by the officers of H.M. Madras engineers and presented by them to Captain Sotham(?) of H.M.H. transport “Middlesex” June 1868”.
• Cyril, ቄርሎስ, Qērellos (Add. 1569)

  This theological work, entitled ‘Cyril’ (ቄርሎስ Qērellos) in the Ethiopian tradition, consists of a standard set of writings by Cyril of Alexandria and his contemporary ecclesiastical counterparts including Theodotus of Ancyra, Severus of Synnada, Acacius of Melitene, Juvenal of Jerusalem, Rheginus of Constantina, Eusebius of Heraclea Pontica, Firmus of Caesarea, John of Antioch, Epiphanius of Salamis, Proclus of Cyzicus, Severian of Gabala, and Gregory of Neocaesarea. The work was translated from Greek in the mid-first millennium, and offers a unique witness to a number of otherwise lost patristic works. Based on a note on a front flyleaf, it is most likely that this particular manuscript came from Egypt, perhaps originally belonging to an Ethiopian monk resident at one of the monasteries there.
• Dalāʼil al-khayrāt - دلائل الخيرات

  A late African copy of the Dalāʼil al-khayrāt, a 'manual' composed of blessings and prayers for everyday life and in particular for the pilgramige to Mecca. Partly composed of selections from the Qur`an and sayings of the prophet, the original work is attributed to the Sufi Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Jazūlī (d. 1465 CE), who lived in in Marrocco . This text has been copied by hand throughout the Islamic world from North West Africa to South East Asia until the last century, with many copies containing illuminations and illustrations. The present manuscript is an example of an originally unbound copy, held together by a string, which is attached to the cardboard cover, probably self made or comissioned by the last owner of the book. The text is clear and in the right order. Not containing illustration, it is an evidently used copy, bearing witness of a tradition of manuscript production common to its region of descent.
• Set of Asante small balance scale, scoop, gold-weights and boxes for storing gold dust, 1880 - 1920

  Gold dust functioned as a universal medium of exchange in West Africa, measured on scales according to a standardised system of weights. The brass weights and boxes for storing gold dust were decorated with geometric and figurative designs. Figurative designs featured a wide range of animate and inanimate objects such as the drummer, crocodile, bird, catfish, antelope, cutlass, cartridge belt, drum and horns featured in the RCS set. The significance of the gold weights as an art form transcends their economic function, sometimes alluding to proverbs and folktales, and reflecting wider Asante spiritual beliefs and cultural practices.
• Work by Jackie Kay arising from a residency at Kettle's Yard. Comprises colour scan printouts of'Helen's room', 'A conversation between the darkness and the light at Kettle's Yard', and a drawing ofa woman. The printouts were made in Cambridge University Library from digital .jpg scans supplied by Kay.

  Drafts and copies of the poems commissioned for the Thresholds Project, together with other poems produced during the residencies, and related items. The participating poets were supplied with 'Thresholds' notebooks, some of which form part of the collection.
• Writers' Club Scripts: introduced by Edward Blishen

  Scripts of programmes fronted by Edward Blishen, comprising interviews with writers and discussions, with the texts of a few poems and short stories. Some of the items featured were written by students of Makere University College. The rest are by writers from countries throughout Africa.
• The formal name of a work, such as a monograph, serial, or painting

  Short description about the contents of the collections. Collections highilghts and unique items and perspectives, gaps in records, research importance, biographical/historical note.