Book of the Compilation: a versified retelling of the Old Testament, the Little Gospel (Nagara Māryām) and the New Testament
መጽሐፈ፡ መድበል፡ (Mäṣḥafä Madbal)
· Anonymous (versified Bible retelling, commissioned at the court of ʾIyāsu II)
· 18th century (the two volumes were donated by King ʾIyāsu II, r. 1730-1755)
· other
· LIT5188MashafaMadbal
Ethiopic · domain: bible · researched 2026-11-13
no English translation located. No published English translation of this text was located in the catalogues and series checked. Where only a non-English rendering or a translation of a daughter version exists, it is recorded below and does not close the gap. Treat this as a gap candidate, not as proof that no translation exists; the evidence names every source checked.
Why this is in the register
Beta maṣāḥǝft LIT5188MashafaMadbal has no bibliography div at all - no edition, no translation - and describes a work preserved in two lavishly illustrated volumes donated by ʾIyāsu II to the church of Dabra Bǝrhān Śǝllāse; only the prose incipit (about 2,450 Ge'ez characters) is transcribed (https://betamasaheft.eu/LIT5188MashafaMadbal). HOLLIS Primo 'Mashafa Madbal' returns 0 records (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Mashafa%20Madbal&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 The only external identifier in the record is a Malke project authority link (https://w3id.org/malke/5188/), not an edition.
Preserved, as far as the Beta maṣāḥǝft record states, in two deluxe illustrated volumes (one for the Old Testament and Nagara Māryām, one for the New Testament), which makes it both a text and an art-historical object; no digitized images were located from the Beta maṣāḥǝft record. Beta maṣāḥǝft links it by 'hasUsed' to the Old Testament (LIT3530OldTes), the New Testament (LIT2072NewTes), the Four Gospels, the Mäṣḥafä Temhert and the Nagara Māryām, so it is a versified digest of the whole Bible.
Existing translations recorded
None recorded in English. Non-English versions, where they exist, are named in the evidence above.
Electronic text
No open electronic text was verified for this work. The Greek/Coptic/Geʿez may exist only in a print or subscription edition (Migne, CSCO, TLG, CMCL).
Scanned witnesses
Scan search: no scan located. Checks run 2026-11-13. (1) Beta maṣāḥǝft LIT5188MashafaMadbal work page (https://betamasaheft.eu/works/LIT5188MashafaMadbal/main, HTTP 200) has no 'Witnesses' section and no bibliography: the only targets in the TEI are a Malkǝʾa gubāʾe link and the licence, and no manuscript id is given for the two ʾIyāsu II volumes. The related record LIT5130MestiraH (Mǝśṭira zaman ḥaddis) likewise has no witnesses. (2) The local Beta maṣāḥǝft Works corpus (grep for 'Mǝśṭira zaman', 'Madbal', 'Mestira') contains only LIT5188 and LIT5130 — no third record naming a repository or shelfmark. (3) HMML holds 53 catalogued manuscripts from Dabra Berhān Śellāsē Church, the church the record names as the owner, but none is the Madbal: the only 'Madbal' hit in the whole HMML catalogue is EMML 1751 'Madbal chants' (https://w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/203581), an unrelated chant book. (4) Internet Archive: title:(mashafa madbal) and title:(mashmedbal) = 0 hits. No scan of this work was located; it is not a question of rights, no digitised copy surfaced.
Besamusca, Bart. "The book of Lancelot : the Middle Dutch Lancelot compilation and the medieval tradition of narrative cycles." Cambridge : D.S. Brewer, 2003. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990095183670203941
"The Christian hymn book : compilation of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, original and selected." Melbourne : T. Smith, 1874. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99159501393903941
"Patents : being a text-book compilation of the patent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States." Charlottesville, Va. : Michie Co., 1939. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990032311920203941
"Style book ; a compilation of rules governing the style used in setting the publications." New York : H.W. Wilson Co., 1917. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99159965546803941
"Unauthorized practice statute book; a compilation of statutes on the unauthorized practice of law." Chicago, American Bar Foundation, 1961. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990031442140203941
Cite: Tergwame, “Book of the Compilation: a versified retelling of the Old Testament, the Little Gospel (Nagara Māryām) and the New Testament”
(ethiopic gap dossier), 2026.
https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/ethiopic-anonymous-mashafa-madbal