Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project

Robert (Bob) McCarthy Collection, Private Library, Manuscript No. 1574

This Geʿez language manuscript was created between 1450 and 1549. This date is estimated, based on paleography, a study of the manuscript's letter shapes, by Jeremy Brown and Stephen Delamarter.

This manuscript is held in the repository of Robert (Bob) McCarthy Collection in their Private Library in London, UK. This manuscript's last known location in Ethiopia was Ethiopia (probably).

This manuscript is digitized but not publicly available online as of September 2022.

This manuscript has a high number of Marian miracle stories: 115. Also, we are uncertain about the identification of 1 stories, marked with a [?] in the table below, under Other Aspects.

This manuscript has no paintings of Marian miracle stories, but it does have 7 paintings of Mary and events in her life. To see the paintings in this manuscript, go to its PEMM Paintings by Manuscript page.

This manuscript has a total of 218 folios and 219 scans. It has 2 columns per page and approximately 19–22 lines per column.

The stories in this manuscript were cataloged by Jeremy R. Brown.

The PEMM abbreviation for this manuscript is B-Mc (McCarthy) 1574.

The Beta Maṣāḥǝft abbreviation for this manuscript is McCarthy1574. Other shelfmarks and/or abbreviations for this manuscript include Bob McCarthy 1574; BM 1574; EMIP 3689; Schøyen 2005.

NOTE: This unusual manuscript has two parts. It has 10 full-page illuminations that are contemporaneous with the Miracles of Mary part of the manuscript and appear together near the beginning. Interspersed right before and after those illuminations are another 12 full-page illuminations that date much earlier, to the 1300s. They are taken from an entirely different manuscript, one of the Gospels, as one can see the opening page of it on 5r. For a full catalog entry, see the Schøyen Collection. There used to be an article on the manuscript, but the link is now broken.

Regarding this manuscript's repository:

Bob McCarthy has acquired a private collection of Ethiopian/Eritrean manuscripts. It is not publicly known how many manuscripts are contained in the collection and it has yet to be cataloged.

For more information about understanding this table, see Using This Site. If you think any of the information on this page is incorrect (e.g., the location, date, folios, story IDs), please use our PEMM Feedback Form to let us know. We depend on users like you to improve the site.

B-Mc (McCarthy) 1574

Order in MS	Story Title	Location in MS	Story Recension	Incipit	Other Aspects	Story ID
1	Bishop Ildefonsus (Daqseyos) of Toledo who collected stories and compiled them into the Book of the Miracles of the Virgin Mary	f. 19r-20v, col. 2	-	-	-	13
2	The sinful deacon who was healed from his illness by a drop of the Virgin Mary's breast milk	f. 20v-22r, col. 2	EMML (HMML) 2059	-	-	135
3	The thief whom the king's soldiers could not kill by hanging because he prayed to the Virgin Mary	f. 22r-22v, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 1573	-	-	136
4	Sybil the prophetess saw a vision of the Virgin Mary holding her child within a circle around the sun and the Emperor of Rome erected an altar in his palace	f. 23r-24r, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 1573	-	-	137
5	A sinful deacon assassinated by his enemies receives a Christian burial and is found with a flower growing out of his mouth	f. 24r-25r, col. 2	-	-	-	138
6	The repentant knight who could only learn to pray the prayer of the Hail Mary	f. 25r-25v, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 1573	-	-	139
7	The sinful deacon whom his enemies could not kill until he had confessed himself to a priest.	f. 25v-26r, col. 2	EMML (HMML) 1573	-	-	140
8	Pilgrim to Santiago: Part 1: The bishop for whom the Virgin Mary tailored a new sackcloth sends a penitent pilgrim to Santiago (whole or opening)	f. 26v-27r, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 1573	-	-	141-A
9	A deacon prayed the prayer that contained the word 'rejoice' five times for the five joys of the Virgin Mary	f. 27v-28r, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 4618	-	-	142
10	The priest who could only memorize one mass, the Anaphora of the Virgin Mary, and was prevented from performing mass by the bishop	f. 28r-29r, col. 2	-	-	-	145
11	The pilgrim [to Santiago] whom Satan persuaded to mutilate himself after falling into a sexual sin	f. 29r-30r, col. 1	-	-	-	144
12	The knight who plotted to seduce the shoemaker's daughter, who had pledged her virginity to the Virgin Mary	f. 30r-32v, col. 1	-	-	-	146
13	The Jewish boy who was thrown into the furnace by his father after he received Holy Communion with his Christian companions	f. 32v-33v, col. 1	-	-	-	147
14	The pregnant woman who was caught by a wave while going to the church of Saint Michael (Mont Saint Michel) and gives birth underwater protected by the Virgin Mary's cloak	f. 33v-34v, col. 1	-	-	-	148
15	A man who drowned when a pilgrim ship sank and was delivered unharmed to their destination	f. 34v-35v, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 2275	-	-	149
16	A divorced wife who prayed for revenge against her husband's new wife but was refused because the new wife was devoted to the Virgin Mary	f. 35v-36v, col. 1	-	-	-	150
17	A woman from Rome whose daughter returns to life for a day on the anniversary of her death	f. 37r-38r, col. 1	-	-	-	151
18	A widow who saved her only son from execution by hanging when she prayed to the Virgin Mary	f. 38r-39r, col. 1	-	-	-	152
19	A young man who used to crown the icon of the Virgin Mary with roses	f. 39r-40r, col. 1	-	-	-	153
20	The two women who were attacked by robbers on their way to church	f. 40v-40v, col. 1	EMML (HMML) 5105	-	-	154

of 6

pricenton ethiopian eritrean & egyptian miracles of marry project

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories written about and the 2,500+ images painted of the Virgin Mary in these African countries, and preserved in Geʿez between 1300 and the present.

Princeton Department of Comparative Literature 133 East Pyne, Princeton, NJ 08540

Princeton Department of African American Studies Morrison Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540

Explore

Research Tools

About

pemm@princeton.edu