Ethiopia, mythically Jewish until it was converted to Christianity in the fourth century, was almost isolated from Europe by the screen of Islam after the seventh century. Thus it has retained many cultural features that disappeared elsewhere, among them a tradition of talismanic art. Talismans are not considered products of human kill but part of a "mystery" reproduced through revelation. Thus the Ethiopian genius translated into pictorial language on "magic scrolls" the antique theory of correspondence between men, animals, stars, demons, sicknesses, etc. The artist saw their work as interlaces filled with eyes in order to protect a man as defined by his astrological sign. These paintings were considered to command spirits. This book provides a commentary on these ancient scrolls.--Publisher's description.

Exhibition catalog, Paper not available, Published for Museum for African Art, New York.

This book explores why Ethiopian kings pursued long-distance diplomatic contacts with Latin Europe in the late Middle Ages. It traces the history of more than a dozen embassies dispatched to the Latin West by the kings of Solomonic Ethiopia, a powerful Christian kingdom in the medieval Horn of Africa. Drawing on sources from Europe, Ethiopia, and Egypt, it examines the Ethiopian kings’ motivations for sending out their missions in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries – and argues that a desire to acquire religious treasures and foreign artisans drove this early intercontinental diplomacy. Moreover, the Ethiopian initiation of contacts with the distant Christian sphere of Latin Europe appears to have been intimately connected to a local political agenda of building monumental ecclesiastical architecture in the North-East African highlands, and asserted the Ethiopian rulers’ claim of universal kingship and rightful descent from the biblical king Solomon. Shedding new light on the self-identity of a late medieval African dynasty at the height of its power, this book challenges conventional narratives of African-European encounters on the eve of the so-called ‘Age of Exploration'.

The series Ethiopic Manuscripts, Texts, and Studies offers, in the first place, catalogues of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project, whose purpose it is to digitize and catalogue collections of Ethiopic manuscripts in North America and around the world. Beyond this, though, the series offers a venue for monographs, revised dissertations, and texts that explore the rich historical, literary, and artistic traditions of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. From the Series Foreword

The Catalog of the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project (EMIP), volume 2, provides a full catalog for EMIP codex numbers 106 through 200, and magic scrolls 135 through 284. Each catalog entry for the codices provides a full physical description, a listingof contents (with incipits), illuminations, varia (known works added later), notes on codicology and scribal practice, as well as a full quire map. Opening articles provide an introduction to the collection and its codicology, and an introduction to thisset of Ethiopian scrolls of spiritual healing. Seven indices (general, works in the codices, names in the codices, miniatures in the codices, scribal practices, works in the scrolls, and names in the scrolls) provide quick access for researchers.

When Jessie and her older sister Kay find a book called The History of Mischief,hidden beneath the floorboards in their grandmother's house, they uncover asecret world. The History chronicles how, since antiquity, mischief-makers haveclandestinely shaped the past &– from an Athenian slave to a Polish salt miner andfrom an advisor to the Ethiopian Queen to a girl escaping the Siege of Paris. Jessiebecomes enthralled by the book and by her own mission to determine its accuracy.Soon the History inspires Jessie to perform her own acts of mischief, unofficiallybecoming mischief-maker number 202 in an effort to cheer up her eccentricneighbour, Mrs Moran, and to comfort her new schoolfriend, Theodore. However, noteverything is as it seems. As Jessie delves deeper into the real story behind theHistory, she becomes convinced her grandmother holds the key to a long-held familysecret.The History of Mischief is about the many things we do to try to escape