The Long Voyage of MS Paris, BnF, Éthiopien 32 from Egypt to France (1344/1371–1640s)

Abstract

The study of archival documents inserted in the pages and margins of MS Paris, BnF, Éthiopien 32 uncovers the long voyage of this codex from Egypt to France. It is unclear if it was produced in the thirteenth or in the fourteenth century, in Egypt or in Ethiopia, but it was certainly donated by king Säyfä ʾArʿad (r.1344–1371) to the new Ethiopian community established in a monastery in Middle Egypt, Dayr al-Muḥarraq. From 1388 to 1507/1508, this manuscript was used to store its legal and from Egypt to France (1344/1371 administrative documents. In the 1520s, MS Paris, BnF, Éthiopien 32 was transferred to the Cairene monastery of Dayr ʾAbū Mīnā, where a new Ethiopian church was built next to the Syriac and Armenian communities. In the 1640s, French merchant Jean Magy acquired this manuscript in Cairo, perhaps in Dayr ʾAbū Mīnā itself, on the account of chancellor Pierre Séguier (1588–1672). It is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.