It's fascinating the way PRINTED 20th century Ethiopian liturgical books so closely follow the style and layout of the still living Ge'ez manuscript tradition, in the same way that the first Western incunables in the 15th century mirrored their manuscript predecessors. 1/
Orit - Octateuch - Ge'ez & Amharic, 1970. 2/
The Liturgy - Anaphora of the Ethiopian Church - Ge'ez & Amharic. 3/
The Acts & Miracles of St George - Ge'ez & Amharic. 4/
The Miracles of Mary - Ge'ez & Amharic. 5/
The Life & Miracles of St Gabra Marfas Qeddus - Ge'ez & Amharic. 6/
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The Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] has seized control of Lalibela, a holy site for millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, and home to 11 of the famed medieval rock churches that were carved out of solid bedrock 9 centuries ago. edition.cnn.com/2021/08/06/afr…
"Fighters from Ethiopia’s Tigray region have seized control of Lalibela, a Unesco World Heritage site and home to famous rock-hewn churches, as the nine-month conflict spreads beyond the north of the country." ft.com/content/0dcd8b…
"The deputy mayor of Lalibela, Mandefro Tadesse, told the BBC that the town was under the control of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), residents were fleeing and he was concerned about the safety of the historic churches." theartnewspaper.com/news/tigray-fo…
An Ottoman engraved brass stamp in the shape of a hand, for talismanic printing, circa 18th century. The face of the stamp is engraved with Qur'anic verses and prayers in mirror image. The negative image on the right shows the script correctly orientated. 1/
A round metal flange by which to hold the stamp and impress it, is soldered to the back. Such stamps were used to print paper and fabric with motifs and Qur'anic verses that would provide the possessor with talismanic or amuletic protection. 2/
The script on the stamp includes the names of various prophets: Moses, Jonah, Noah, Jesus, Isaac, Solomon, Elias etc. The prophets are described in terms of their relationship with God, eg ‘Moses the speaker with Godʼ, ‘Jesus, the Soul of Godʼ, ‘Abraham, the ‘khalilʼ of Godʼ. 3/
The earliest printing for the blind was the embossed lettering system developed by Valentin Haüy, the founder, in 1784, of the first school for the blind in Paris. In 1819 Louis Braille entered this school. This is an 1806 French grammar by Lhomand, printed in Haüy's lettters. 1/
"Elémens de la grammaire française, adoptés par le Gouvernement, pour les lycées et pour les écoles secondaires. Nouvelle édition [...], par un chef de lycée. Ces Elémens ont été imprimés par les aveugles et à leur usage, en l’hospice impérial des Quinze- Vingts." Paris 1806. 2/
A bibliographic mystery is the rarity today of early imprints in Louis Braille's dot system. While books in predecessor systems like Haüy's turn up now & then and books in the Moon system are found frequently, one almost never sees a 19th cent. example of actual Braille printing.
Yiddish, as some have noticed, is written backwards in error here - it should of course be ייִדיש. As anyone who has struggled with formatting Hebrew and English text together in a Word doc will know, this is an all too frequent type of software glitch.
This heartstoppingly beautiful 15th century Timurid Qur'an copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted colored paper, was sold to an unknown buyer by @ChristiesInc in London in July 2020 for just over £7 million. Only 4 similar Qur'ans written on Chinese paper like this are known. 1/
The @ChristiesInc hammer price was over twelve times the estimate: £6 million pounds. This equates to £7,016,250 after buyers fees, which is about $9.76 million - the highest price ever reached by a Qur'an. Christies has not released the name of the buyer. 2/
Although coloured paper was used in the Islamic world for many centuries, Chinese paper had a particular appeal with its luscious finish, vibrant colours and exotic designs. The silky texture is achieved through the technique of permeating the paper with lead white. 3/
Collecting 18th century Basque books (books printed in Basque for a Basque readership, not bilingual grammars etc) is a low cost hobby - not because the books are cheap, but because one comes along only every 10 years or so, so you can really spread the cost out...😎 1/
This "Testamen çaharreco eta berrico historoa" - a collection of historical stories from the Bible - was printed in Bayonne, in the French Basque country, in 1777. 2/
Until the 19th century, Basque was primarily a spoken language only, and although a number of dictionaries and grammars were published by Spanish philologists, books printed entirely in the Basque language for a local Basque readership are few and far between. 3/