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Book of the Nativity / Book of the Trinity

መጽሐፈ፡ ሚላድ፡ / መጽሐፈ፡ ሥላሴ፡ (Maṣḥafa milād / Maṣḥafa śǝllāse) · Zarʾa Yāʿqob (attributed; CSCO edition and Beta Masaheft) · 15th c. (Zarʾa Yāʿqob, 1399-1468) · homily · LIT1955Mashaf

Ethiopic · domain: theology · 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 Masaheft LIT1955Mashaf lists only Wendt's edition/translation (bm:Wendt1963MiladT, bm:Wendt1963MiladT1) - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BetaMasaheft/Works/master/1001-2000/LIT1955Mashaf.xml. Harvard holds 'Das Maṣḥafa Milād (Liber Nativitatis) und Maṣḥafa Sellāsē (Liber Trinitatis)', CSCO, 1962-63, language gez;ger (German) - https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Mashafa%20Milad&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 . HOLLIS 'Liber Nativitatis' returns only the same German CSCO set. archive.org holds the same set as a scan, language gez/ger (https://archive.org/details/dasmasfamildlibe0235zare_t2e3). No English translation of the 14 homilies or of the appended Trinity treatise located. Deliberate check that a recent English Trinity publication is a different work: 'The Ge'ez book of the Trinity: a fifteenth-century homily from monastic Ethiopia' (Spencer, Palgrave 2025, ISBN 9783031939716) translates ʾƎsṭifānos za-Gwǝndāgwǝndo, not this text - https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Ge%27ez%20book%20of%20the%20Trinity&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0

14 homilies, one for the 29th day of each month (plus the 28th of Gǝnbot and Ṭǝqǝmt), most with an appendix on the Trinity (Maṣḥafa śǝllāse / Ḫoḫǝta ḍaḥay). Witnesses recorded by Beta Masaheft: BNF d'Abbadie 62 and 63, EMML 6838, and a BL EAP microfilm (EAP254-1-37). Only German exists in full.

Existing translations recorded

Edition / series
Das Maṣḥafa Milād (Liber Nativitatis) und Maṣḥafa Sellāsē (Liber Trinitatis) · Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Scriptores Aethiopici) · Kurt Wendt · 1963

Electronic text

Source and licence
Beta Masaheft · TEI XML · CC BY-SA 4.0
LIT1955Mashaf
archive.org · PDF scan · public-domain scan (no licence URL recorded)
dasmasfamildlibe0235zare_t2e3

Scanned witnesses

Scan search: not checked. Not searched in the scan pass: this dossier was outside the 121-work scan target set.

Harvard Hollis

Hollis query: Zarʾa Yāʿqob Book of the Nativity Book of the Trinity — 1 record(s); match basis author_title_unquoted.

RecordCitation
Das Maṣḥafa Milād (Liber Nativitatis) und Maṣḥafa Sellāsē (Liber Trinitatis) des Kaisers Zarʼa Yaʻqob
Zar'a Yā'eqob, Emperor of Ethiopia, 1399-1468 · 1962-63 · gez, ger
Zar'a Yā'eqob, Emperor of Ethiopia, 1399-1468. "Das Maṣḥafa Milād (Liber Nativitatis) und Maṣḥafa Sellāsē (Liber Trinitatis) des Kaisers Zarʼa Yaʻqob." Louvain, Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1962-63. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990062033370203941

Sources checked

Cite: Tergwame, “Book of the Nativity / Book of the Trinity” (ethiopic gap dossier), 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/ethiopic-zara-yaqob-mashafa-milad