Rare Bites: Ethiopian Magic Scrolls

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Published 2018-05-07
Rare Bites is a series of informal and entertaining 30 minute lunchtime talks showcasing items from Rare Books & Special Collections at the University of Sydney Library. Associate Professor Jay Johnston is an interdisciplinary scholar in the School of Literature, Art and Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She discusses two Ethiopic Coptic Christian magic scrolls and the remarkable images they contain, exploring who may have created them and their context of use. Could these objects have played a role in personal health, relationships and/or protection?

All Comments (21)
  • There r uncountable treasures and books stolen from Ethiopia, but none of them, even combined, could be as valuable as this book! Ethiopian monks could read and understand this in a second, and yet forget the monks even an Ethiopian scientist isn't in the association of the researchers and decoders of this book. I wish to steel it back one day.
  • @empire0787
    give it to the owner ....stolen treasures of Ethiopia .....you can't explain what you don't know
  • @mayahosey8418
    oldest Ethiopian Fathers says "you have to eat a fruit to know what the test is like "and you lady you don't even have a clue of what is you are talking about .
  • @danielnega8789
    Give us back our artifacts, manuscripts, and scrolls you can’t not own or loan what you stole.
  • @GuidetteExpert
    Why is this woman speaking about something she has no idea about?
  • @berhane71
    its great you "discovered" it now give us the stuff you stole
  • @achaml9042
    የአገሪ ሰወች ይህ መፀሀፍ አዉሮፓ ወይም አሜሪካ ኤዥያ ቢሆን አያወሩትም ምክንያት ለምን እና እንዴት አፍሪካ ይህ እዉቀት ኖራት ነው ያጥቁር አገር ዉስጥ ምንም አይነት እዉቀት እንዲፈልቅ አይፈለግም።
  • You are a thief who comes to Ethiopia to steal and you are not ashamed today Standing in front of us and talking about our wisdom
  • @zemeneyohannes
    Ethiopians wouldn't want to speak about their mistery but Europeans do
  • @MrAdal206
    Ethiopian Christianity is older than Egyptian Coptic Christianity. The Ethiopians adopted Coptic Christianity later on. Ethiopia is the first Christian nation before the Coptics and the Europeans. Ethiopia has the oldest Bible, which is unedited and includes the book of Enoch, which the King James Version does not include.
  • @semlal0075
    She is very right , she is talking about “ክታብ” የቡዳ መድሀኒት . We used to have as kids around our necks
  • @tube-lb8mc
    first you stole it then you tried to explain to which you have no idea.
  • @yonylambo
    Bring back our book monuments thief
  • We are alive we ethiopians. 100 million so why she explains like Egyptology. If the owners are alive.
  • Dear UniSydneyLibrary, Please ask her to return back those historical and ancient books and scrolls. Associate Professor Jay Johnston is a criminal. She must return back those resources to their source(Ethiopian Orthodox Church).
  • @aluti21
    This Ethiopian scroll give it back to our country