The Garima Gospels in - Bodleian Libraries - University of Oxford

The Garima Gospels and Their Significance
The Ethiopian monastery of Abuna Garima preserves two ancient Gospel books that local Christians
still venerate as sacred relics. Previously dated to the turn of the first millennium, they have recently
been securely assigned to the late 5th-early 7th centuries by radiocarbon analysis. This dating applied
to both their illustrations and their text, and puts them among the very earliest extant manuscripts
illustrated with Christian images.
Garima 1 contains a complete cycle of ten decorated pages comparable to those in the famous
Rabbula Codex of AD 586. The illustrations of Garima 2 have affinities with Coptic painting and may
provide the only testimony of Coptic canon table decoration. This volume also contain evangelist
portraits. Their metal covers are ancient; one may well be contemporary to the manuscript itself and
thus figure amongst the oldest known book bindings.
The two Garima Gospels contains 400 pages of text each, which makes them unique testimonies of
the Aksumite Ethiopic language, until now only attested by a few inscriptions on coins or stelae. The
texts of the two books are quite different from each other, showing that the translation on which
they are based had already been revised at the time of their copying. Thus, their early date suggests
that the Ethiopian Gospel translation may be older than commonly believed. Their texts deserve extensive
analysis, which should extend beyond the Ethiopic and Greek versions of the Bible.
The aim of the Oxford conference is, firstly, to make the Garima Gospels better known to scholars
working on Late Antiquity and, secondly, to stimulate the study of the two manuscripts in a broad
perspective.
Jacques Mercier

Ethiopia and the Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity: The Garima Gospels in Context
A two-day conference sponsored by the Ethiopian Heritage Fund
Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies,
University of Oxford
2-3 November 2013
Organisers:
Baye Yimam (Addis Ababa),
Jacques Mercier (Paris),
Georgi Parpulov (Oxford)
2 November
Chair: Jacques Mercier
Dame Averil Cameron (Oxford)
Philipp Booth (Oxford)
Antonella Brita (Hamburg)
Getatchew Haile (New York)
Baye Yimam (Addis Ababa)
Alessandro Bausi (Hamburg)
Mersha Allehegn (Addis Ababa)
Lester Capon (Gloucester)
Shiferaw Bekele (Addis Ababa)
David W. Phillipson (Cambridge)
Opening Remarks
Ethiopia and the Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity
The Hagiography of Garima
The Historical Notes in the Garima Gospels
Linguistic Perspectives on the Garima Gospels
The Language of the Garima Gospels and the Synod of Qefrya’
Orature on Literature: the Case of Abba Gerima and His Gospel
Conservation Work on the Garima Gospels
Ethiopian Heritage Policy and the Garima Gospels
Concluding Remarks
3 November
Chair: Baye Yimam
Marlia Mango (Oxford)
Jeffrey Spier (Tucson)
Thomas Mathews (Paris)
Judith McKenzie (Oxford)
John Lowden (London)
Marilyn Heldman (Washington)
Daniel Seifemicahel (Addis Ababa)
Claude Lepage (Paris)
Jacques Mercier (Paris)
Cristopher de Hamel (Cambridge)
Opening Remarks
The Garima Gospel Covers
The Painting Technique of the Garima Gospels
Late Antique Architecture and the Garima Canon Tables
Peculiarities of the Garima Canon Tables
The Iconography of the Garima Gospels
Pages from the Book of Isaiah in the Garima Gospels
Palestinian and Sasanian Iconography in the Garima Gospels
The Legacy of the Garima Gospels in Ethiopian Art
Concluding Remarks
Attending the conference is free of charge and no prior registration is necessary. If you have questions, please, e-mail
georgi.parpulov@lincoln.ox.ac.uk