The Gospels
Ethiopia, eighteenth century

A manuscript translation of the Gospels into Ethiopic, written on parchment and containing a coloured painting of each of the Evangelists. Ethiopic is an ancient language originating in the northern region of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today it survives only as the language used in the liturgy of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Churches. The manuscript was gifted to Cambridge by the widow of C.H. Armbruster (1874–1957), a civil servant in the Anglo-Sudan government and a linguist specializing in African languages.

MS Or.1802, ff. 73v–74r