Scroll or pinch to deep-zoom · powered by IIIF

Manuscript page

Ethiopian Orthodox

This image of King David playing a harp would have been bound in a Bible with the Psalms. In general, this museum does not acquire individual manuscript pages so as not to encourage the dismemberment of books, but this old fragment is an exception. Scribes in an Ethiopian monastery obviously used the back as a practice sheet for calligraphy.

Date

15th century

Type

Book and Manuscript

Medium

Parchment, pigment

Department

NMAfA

Institution

National Museum of African Art

Object number

nmafa_2004-7-7

Credit

Gift of Joseph and Patricia Brumit