Un «atto feudale» del neguś Bakâffâ (1721-30)

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the land charter found in Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Eth. Ms. 28, fol. 1 (fig. 1), as possibly issued by King Bakâffâ (1721-30), not Dâwit III (sc. IV, 1716-21), to the benefit of a Gondarine church of St. Michael that can be identified with ’Attâtâmi, rather than Fit, (Qeddus) Mikâ’êl. Accordingly, the illumination on the reverse of the same fol. (fig. 2), portraying subsequent scenes of a well-known ‘miracle’ of St. Michael for the ‘faithful poor’ (12 yakkâtit), is traced to a lost Dersâna Mikâ’êl volume likely to have been produced in the same atelier as London, British Library, Or. Ms. 533 (before 1730).