The Aksumite Collection is a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

written in

Geʽez Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...

containing multiple texts, these being the earliest known canon-law and liturgical texts in the Geʽez language. The manuscript can be dated using

paleography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

to the 13th century at the latest, but represents a collection of translations of texts from Greek into Geʽez that were made during

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, sometime between the fifth and sixth centuries AD, or to the seventh at the latest, during the period of the

Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

. The texts found in the Aksumite Collection cover the areas of canon law, liturgy, the history of Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries, and the history of church councils. It was likely arranged between the mid-5th and mid-6th centuries, and its content shows strong ties to an

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian setting, especially with

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

n archives. Some of its contents are works that have previously been lost, and now are only known from the Aksumite Collection. An example being the ''

Apostolic Tradition The ''Apostolic Tradition'' (or ''Egyptian Church Order'') is an early Christian treatise which belongs to the genre of the ancient Church Orders. It has been described to be of "incomparable importance as a source of information about church lif ...

'', the most important Christian canonico-liturgical document, previously only known from Latin fragments, now known more completely from the Aksumite Collection. Other texts contained in the manuscript include the ''History of the Episcopate of Alexandria'', ''Baptismal Order'', ''

Euchologion The Euchologion (Greek: ; Slavonic: Трeбник, ''Trebnik''; ) is one of the chief liturgical books of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches, containing the portions of the services which are said by the bishop, priest, or ...

'', the ''Canons of Chalcedon'', the treatise ''On the One Judge'', etc. The work of Giyorgis of Sägla in the 15th century reveals that

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

heritage, attested by the Aksumite Collection, continued to be received in Ethiopia's medieval period. The finding of the manuscript in 1999 disrupted the understanding then of the development of the literary history, textual transmission, and translation dynamics during Ethiopia during Late Antiquity. It was discovered by Jacques Mercier who committed its study to Alessandro Bausi, who continues to be its primary researcher and is working on publishing editions and translations of its contents. The latest digitization effort for the manuscript was undertaken by the Ethio-SPaRe project.

Translations

''Apostolic Tradition'' was translated into Italian in 2011 and into English in 2025. The ''History of the Episcopate of Alexandria'' was translated into English in 2016. ''On the One Judge'' was translated into English in 2021. In 2020, the ''Baptismal Ritual'' was translated into German.

Complete list of works in the Aksumite Collection

The manuscript contains three main blocks with a total of 35 texts: Block A: * The Ecclesiastical canons * The History of the Episcopate of Alexandria * The Epistle 70 of Cyprian of Carthage * The Apostolic Tradition * The Parallel section to Apostolic Constitutions VIII * The treatise on the Charisms Block B: * A List of Apostles and disciples * The names of the months * A Baptismal ritual * A Euchologion Block C: * The 81 Apostolic canons * The Council and the names of the fathers of Nicaea * The Canons of the council of Nicaea * The Epistle of Constantine to the Alexandrinians * The Epistle of Constantine on Arius * The Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus * The treatise On the Only Judge * The Council and the names of the fathers of Serdica * The Canons of the council of Serdica * The Antiochean collection of the canons of the councils, composed of: ** The Canons of the council of Neocaesarea ** The Canons of the council of Ancyra ** The Canons of the council of Neocaesarea ** The Council of Gangra ** The Canons of the council of Gangra ** The Council of Antioch ** The Canons of the council of Antioch ** The Canons of the council of Laodicea * The Canons of the council of Chalcedon * The Canons of the council of Constantinople * The Council of Ephesus Sylloge of Timotheus Aelerus, composed of: ** The Epistle to the Alexandrinians ** The Epistle to the Constantinopolitans ** The Twelve chapters of Cyril of Alexandria ** The Refutation of the council of Chalcedon ** The Treatises of Gregory of Nazianzus * The Canonical answers of Peter of Alexandria

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Translations

Complete list of works in the Aksumite Collection

See also

References

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Further reading