Multiple-Text Manuscripts from the Gondarine Age: MSS BL Or. 818 and BnF Éthiopien 146

It would be ungenerous to claim that the Ethiopian manuscript heritage preserved in major western libraries, although identified and catalogued since decades, has no more surprises in store. MSS London, BL Orient. 818 and Paris, BnF Éth. 146 are two skilfully executed multiple-text manu-scripts which share the same combination of texts, although arranged in a different order. Independent philological surveys have recurrently evi-denced a close genetic affinity between the two pieces. Nevertheless, an overall assessment of their history has never been made. A scrutiny of the textual and historical data reveals that the two manuscripts were produced and intended as gifts for the churches of Dabra Ḍaḥāy Qwǝsqwām in Gondar and Nārgā Śǝllāse, both established and patronized in the mid-eighteenth century by ʾƎtege Mǝntǝwwāb, mother of ʾAṣe ʾIyāsu II. The present study aims to demonstrate that the two manuscripts are not only outstanding ex-amples of the Gondarine bookmaking culture, but also witnesses to a delib-erate initiative of production and dissemination of parchment artefacts in favour of ecclesiastical foundations in the area of the lake Ṭānā. Also, in-dependent pieces of evidence from several texts contained in the two codi-ces suggest that MS Paris, BnF Éth. 146 was most likely copied from MS London, BL Orient. 818.