What: A prayer scroll with three red-tinted pen drawings
Where: The Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL
The catalogue describes: “Prayers, charms and incantations for diseases and evil spirits: Manuscript”.
Label and date:
“Maqdala 1868 display, 5 April 2018 – 30 June 2019″
Museum number:
MSL/1869/187
What: A 19th century Ethiopian prayer scroll with five miniatures, in three strips, with the 1868 campaign mentioned in a note on the back
Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB
A note on the back of the scroll reads: “Thomas William Oliver, Royal Navy, from Colonel John Watts of Gunville, Dorset, and Bombay. -Abyssinia- War 1868. Supposed to a Psalm”
Digital version – http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_12025
Listed as OR 12025 in the British Library catalogue
Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library acquired since the year 1877 / compiled by S. Strelcyn
What: A healing scroll that was very likely taken from Maqdala. Part of a wider collection.
Where: The Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE
The online catalogue calls it MS Ethiopian 14 and says it was taken at Maqdala.
The 1972 print Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine in London says:
“As far as one can tell from the notes preserved in the registers of the Library, the provenance of these scrolls is heterogeneous. As one might expect, some of them certainly come from Magdala, brought back by members of Lord Napier’s expedition in 1867-8 (Nos. I, VII, VIII, XII, XIV). This is probably also true for No. XIII and perhaps for a few others as well. All these MSS were acquired by the Library between 1913 and 1930.”
Catalogue entry:
XIV
Vellum. Scroll. 575 mm. X 65 mm. Poor handwriting.
Black and red ink. No. 14622.
Two coloured magical pictures.
The owner’s name is Yomam.
Taken at Magdala in 1868. Bought in 1913.
What: A healing scroll that was very likely taken from Maqdala. Part of a wider collection.
Where: The Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE
The online catalogue calls it MS Ethiopian 13 and says it was taken at Maqdala.
The 1972 print Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine in London is more cautious. It says:
“As far as one can tell from the notes preserved in the registers of the Library, the provenance of these scrolls is heterogeneous. As one might expect, some of them certainly come from Magdala, brought back by members of Lord Napier’s expedition in 1867-8 (Nos. I, VII, VIII, XII, XIV). This is probably also true for No. XIII and perhaps for a few others as well. All these MSS were acquired by the Library between 1913 and 1930.”
Catalogue entry:
XIII
Nineteenth century. Vellum. 600 mm. X 117 mm. Last strip of a longer scroll. Large, mediocre handwriting. Black and red ink. Preserved in a
cylindrical case of leather. No. 36970.
One magical picture at the end.
The consecutive owners mentioned are : Sabana Giyorgis, Makera Sallase, and Walatta Heywat.
Possibly originally belonging to the same scroll as No. XII. Bought in 1915.
What: “A manuscript charm, on a vellum strip, in the Coptic character, and with rude illustrations of saints, &c.”
Where: Unknown
One of 21 artefacts from the Abyssinian expedition put on show at the National Exhibition of Works of Art in Leeds in 1868
According to the exhibition’s catalogue, it was lent by Private T. Goodwin , 3rd Dragoons, from Leeds. There are no details on what happened to it after the show closed in October that year.
A Private Thomas Goodwin is in the official list of men from the 3rd Dragoons who got an Abyssinian Campaign medal.
National Exhibition of Works of Art, at Leeds, 1868 : official catalogue
What: “A manuscript charm, on a vellum strip, in the Coptic character, and with rude illustrations of saints, &c.”
Where: Unknown
One of 21 artefacts from the Abyssinian expedition put on show at the National Exhibition of Works of Art in Leeds in 1868
According to the exhibition’s catalogue, it was lent by Private T. Goodwin , 3rd Dragoons, from Leeds. There are no details on what happened to it after the show closed in October that year.
A Private Thomas Goodwin is in the official list of men from the 3rd Dragoons who got an Abyssinian Campaign medal.
National Exhibition of Works of Art, at Leeds, 1868 : official catalogue