A catalogue of the Ethiopic Biblical manuscripts in the Royal Library of Paris, and in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society; also some account of those in the Vatican Library at Rome ... To which are added, specimens of versions of the New Testament into the modern languages of Abyssinia / and a grammatical analysis of a chapter in the Amharic dialect. With facsimiles of an Ethiopic and an Amharic manuscript.

  • Bibliothèque nationale (France)
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A catalogue of the Ethiopic Biblical manuscripts in the Royal Library of Paris, and in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society; also some account of those in the Vatican Library at Rome ... To which are added, specimens of versions of the New Testament into the modern languages of Abyssinia / and a grammatical analysis of a chapter in the Amharic dialect. With facsimiles of an Ethiopic and an Amharic manuscript. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPTS, &c. HOSE various inflexions of a common original language, known by the appellation of the Semitic Dialects, have afforded most valuable materials for the purposes of Biblical criticism. Whether they be all derived, immediately or remotely, from the Hebrew, has been matter of controversy; that they all bear a near affinity to it, is certain. The resources that they thus present have been applied with singular ability and success to the elucidation of the Hebrew Text; and the wonderful collection of their remains, to which the works of Walton and Castell have given access, is no less an honourable memorial of its compilers, than a rich field for the exertion of living genius. Of these dialects, the Ethiopic is, in some respects, the farthest removed from the primitive stock. The form of its characters, the direction in which they are written (from right to left), and the syllabic power which each of them possesses, are circumstances of themselves sufficient to give it a distinctive peculiarity. Its derivation from the parent stock is thus traced by Schultens: “ Dialecti linguae Hebraeae sunt tres principes praecipuae, vel compen- diosius, duae; Aramaea et Arabica. Sub Aramaea duo rami, Chaldaica et Syriaca dialectus, quae ambae passae sunt magna damna et non nisi in reli- quiis ad manus nostras pervenerunt. Alter ramus multo copiosissimus et ditissimus, quique etiamnum pristina puritate viget et viret, est dialectus Arabum. Sic ergo quatuor existunt rami majores unius stirpis primaevae, Hebraica nempe dialectus, Chaldaica, Syriaca, et Arabica. Hisce tanquam minus principales a latere accedunt dialecti Samaritana et iEthiopica : Samaritana quidem Hebraeo-Aramaea, iEthiopica etiam B