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Illuminated Ethiopian manuscript detail showing three repeated groups of an elder speaking to two seated figures beneath painted arches.
From the manuscript roomIlluminated detail from አብቀለምሲስ — The Revelation of St John, British Library, Or 533.Explore the complete digitised manuscript at the British Library

Places & painted memory

The northern stelae field at Aksum beneath a blue sky.
Ancient landscapeAksumThe stelae field of the Aksumite capital, where carved stone still holds the scale of the ancient kingdom.Photograph by A. Savin · Free Art License 1.3
Painted portrait of Emperor Lebna Dengel in profile, wearing a dark cap and patterned robe.
Royal portraitLəbnä DəngəlA posthumous portrait of Dawit II (Ləbnä Dəngəl), painted for the Giovio portrait series in the sixteenth century.Cristofano dell’Altissimo, after the Giovio prototype · public domain
Stone towers and crenellated walls within Fasil Ghebbi at Gondar.
Royal cityGondarThe palaces of Fasil Ghebbi, the fortified heart of the Gondarine court and its seventeenth-century world.Photograph by A. Savin · Free Art License 1.3
Ethiopian manuscript painting showing a gunman firing at Emperor Iyasu I as he reclines on a bed.
Royal chronicleThe assassination of Iyasu IThe murder of the Gondarine emperor Iyasu I in 1706, painted in a nineteenth-century Ethiopian manuscript from Tigray.Photo: Michael Gervers · courtesy of the DEEDS project
  1. MedievalAmhara

    The Death Of Emperor Iyasu I

    This 19th-century manuscript painting depicts the funeral of Emperor Iyasu I on the island of Čäqla Manzo in Lake Tana, Ethiopia. Remembered as Iyasu the Great, he ruled Solomonic Ethiopia from 1682 until his death in 1706. His reign was marked by relative peace and stability, as well as major achievements in the arts and architecture, including the magnificent church of Däbrä Bərhan Śəllase.

    Source: “Mort de Iyasu I” — The Death of Iyasu I, folio 12, Éthiopien d’Abbadie 248, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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