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Incunabula

8 Aug, 8 tweets, 4 min read

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…

Here's a map showing the location of Lalibela in relation to Tigray. Worth remembering that this site and these 11 rock-hewn churches are holy to Tigrayans too, and so this recent military occupation by TPLF forces will not necessarily place them in physical danger.

Rather than intentional destruction by Tigrayan forces, the greater danger is that if there is heavy fighting between the TPLF and government forces in and around Lalibela, the churches could very easily become collateral damage due to heavy gunfire or shelling from either side.

This is not a conflict where there's clear right or wrong. Both the TPLF and the Ethiopian government forces have committed atrocities and both have escalated hostilities rather than seeking compromise. The victims are ordinary Ethiopian people now faced with starvation or worse.

The Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares visited Lalibela in the 1520s, and wrote: "I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more... I swear by God, in Whose power I am, that all I have written is the truth."

Watch this extraordinary video of the Christmas Eve service of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, recorded at one of the rock churches in Lalibela on January 6th, 2017.

The Orthodox Church recognises January 7th as the day that Jesus was born.

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Incunabula

@incunabula

7 Aug

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/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

5 Aug

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/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

4 Aug

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/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

2 Aug

Which European language am I reading?

HT Reddit r/geoguessr

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Incunabula

@incunabula

31 Jul

@ChristiesInc

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/

@ChristiesInc

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/

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Incunabula

@incunabula

30 Jul

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