New Studies of the Structure and the Texts of Abba Garima Ethiopian Gospels

Abstract

The article presents a codicological study of the three ancient Ethiopian Gospels of Abba Garima. The author rearranges the sequence of the disordered folios of the manuscripts in detailed tables, proposes a new foliation system and proceeds to catalogue-like descriptions. Attentive inspection of each folio led to the discovery of original quire numbers as well as original and later liturgical annotations put in folio margins, among which there are liturgical rubrics in rare unvocalized consonantal script. Detailed tables of Gospel pericopes and of dates of their liturgical use accompany the descriptions, as well as a discussion of the lectionary system and of the liturgical terminology as attested by the rubrics. The author also discusses philological characteristics of the two subsidiary texts originally included in the Abba Garima manuscripts, ‘Discourse on the Harmony of Gospels’ and ‘Letter of Carpianus’ of Eusebius of Caesarea. The article contains an edition, an English translation and a succint historical commentary of three hitherto inedited donation notes from the 15th-16th centuries.