Kidane Gebremairiam, Department of Chemistry, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

A quick look at the pigments in Abba Garima illuminated gospel manuscript using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry as a non-destructive diagnostic tool

The Ethiopian Christian manuscript tradition began in the early medieval period and has persisted until today with numerous parchment codices produced in a number of parish churches and monasteries. Only a few have survived from the medieval period. The oldest illuminated manuscripts in Ethiopia are found in the Enda Abba Garima monastery. They are attributed to Abba Garima, one of the revered Nine Saints who are asserted by the local tradition to come to Aksum in the northern Ethiopia in the fifth century, following the adoption of Christianity as state religion in the third decade of the fourth century. The Nine Saints are credited with the expansion of the Orthodox Christianity through establishment of monasteries and translation of the Bible to the old Ethiopic language, Geez. Art historical studies based on paleographical comparative studies have dated the Abba Garima Four Gospels from 10th to 14th century. Recent radiocarbon dating on leaves of two of the manuscripts, has however, indicated the date of production to 390-570 for Abba Garima Gospel 2 and 530-660 for Abba Garima Gospel 1. According to the current radiocarbon dating, the oldest Abba Garima manuscript even predates the illuminated Rabbula Four Gospels book of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana of Firenze. The illuminated manuscripts are therefore some of the oldest extant not only in Ethiopia but in the world and among the very few world´s oldest complete Gospels.

The paper reports on the preliminary examination of one of the two ancient Abba Garima Four Gospels, Abba Garima Gospel 1, using a portable X-ray analyser (pXRF). pXRF is a quick, non-destructive technique that can be used in-situ to identify particularly mineral and inorganic based pigments. The manuscripts are written and brightly illuminated on parchment. From their appearance, the colours are found in good state of conservation. Organic and inorganic pigments have been implicated to have been used for the illumination of the miniatures of the manuscript. Drawing on the spectroscopic analysis, the colours of the pigments, chemistry of pigments and dyes, history of the materials used in illuminated manuscript in other Christian traditions, the possible nature of the pigments employed in the Abba Garima manuscript are discussed. Future investigations are also indicated.