COPTIC ETHIOPIAN MANUSCRIPT END OF XVIII-XIXTH CENTURY Psalter - Canticles - Praises to Mary Late 18th – 19th century, dated by palaeography

A Coptic Ethiopian manuscript written in ancient Ethiopian (Ge'ez), featuring Psalms, Canticles, and Marian hymns. Manuscript on parchment. 202 folios, written in 1-2 columns, 17-18 lines per page. 20 x 20.5 x 7.5 cm. Wooden boards covered in dark leather, stamped in cold. The decoration features three frames delineated by triple fillets, with a cross-iron motif and four double nodules at each corner. A Latin cross, formed by the same irons, adorns the center. Wooden boards covered with a dark leather binding stamped in cold. Three frames delimited by triple fillets and formed by a cross-iron, with four double nodules at each corner. In the centre, a Latin cross formed by the same irons. Aged manuscript with signs of wear. The lower left triangular corner of the upper wooden board is detached from the spine but held by a stitch. The leather cover is damaged on the first board and missing on the second board except for the filled in one. The first three quires and the eighteenth quire (fol. 155-162) have been rebound and solidified by a seam on the quire endpaper, probably at the time of the sale of the codex in Ethiopia. This restoration was not completed and the last five quires are fragile, the original chain stitching linking the spines of the quires being damaged.