This 18th-century Gospel has reignited a fierce battle over Ethiopia’s looted heritage

By Jacopo Gnisci, Lecturer in Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South, UCL

A high-stakes cultural dispute has erupted over the promoted sale of an important 18th-century Ethiopian manuscript at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

The Magdala Gospel is a large manuscript, probably dating to the second half of the 18th century. It measures approximately 360 x 290 x 100mm and contains the Gospel of Luke and most of the Gospel of John.

The manuscript is written in Ge’ez or ancient Ethiopic, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It would have originally been…

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