[Scriptoris] World's oldest illuminated bible found in Ethiopia...

[Zubeydah Jamilla al-Badawiyyah]

Saw this article mentioned over on the Armour Archive, and wanted to
make sure our scribes were aware of it!

-zubeydah


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1292150/Worlds-illustrated-Christian-bible-discovered-Ethiopian-monastery.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline#ixzz0sumG0rxY

The world's earliest illustrated Christian book has been saved by a
British charity which located it at a remote Ethiopian monastery. The
incredible Garima Gospels are named after a monk who arrived in the
African country in the fifth century and is said to have copied them
out in just one day. Beautifully illustrated, the colours are still
vivid and thanks to the Ethiopian Heritage Fund have been conserved.
Abba Garima arrived from Constantinople in 494 AD and legend has it
that he was able to copy the gospels in a day because God delayed the
sun from setting. The incredible relic has been kept ever since in the
Garima Monastery near Adwa in the north of the country, which is in
the Tigray region at 7,000 feet.  Experts believe it is also the
earliest example of book binding still attached to the original pages.
The survival of the Gospels is incredible considering the country has
been under Muslim invasion, Italian invasion and a fire in the 1930s
destroyed the monastery's church. They were written on goat skin in
the early Ethiopian language of Ge'ez. There are two volumes which
date from the same time, but the second is written in a different hand
from the first. Both contain illustrations and the four Gospels.
Though the texts had been mentioned by the occasional traveller since
the 1950s, it had been thought they dated from the 11th century at the
earliest. Carbon dating, however, gives a date between 330 and 650 -
which tantalisingly overlaps the date Abba Garima arrived in the
country. So the first volume could be in his hand - even if he didn't
complete the task in a day as the oral tradition states.  The charity
Ethiopian Heritage Fund that was set up to help preserve the treasures
in the country has made the stunning discovery. It was also allowed
incredibly rare access to the texts so experts could conserve them on
site.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1292150/Worlds-illustrated-Christian-bible-discovered-Ethiopian-monastery.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline#ixzz0svslTIUg