Collecting Ethiopia

I first became aware of Ethiopia for the high regard in which Haile Selassie was held by many of my parents’ generation for his resistance to Mussolini’s invasion of the country. Later it was the prominence of their long-distance athletes, and then of course there was Rasta culture which had its spiritual home in that far off land.

Eventually I became aware of Ethiopia’s important place in the Western imagination. Prominent were the legends of the Queen of Sheba, a figure renowned in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic culture, who was reputedly the founding mother of the Solomonic dynasty which ruled Ethiopia until modern times; and Prester John, the great wished-for ally that the Christian crusaders hoped would help them in their efforts against the Saracens in the Holy Land.

Apart from legends, there are many reasons that Europe looked to Ethiopia. A very ancient civilisation, a cradle of mankind, it had never been conquered or colonized, thus its traditions were well preserved. It was the first country to produce coffee (the name coming from the Ethiopian region of Kaffa), and it had a unique branch of Orthodox Christian religion, having converted in the fourth century CE, but had been cut off from other branches as Islam increasingly spread around it. In the nineteenth, Ethiopia was something of a paradise for big-game hunters, with an equable climate and an abundance of prey.

There have been many books written on Ethiopia and at this moment we have four of the finest illustrated works on this wondrous country. A New History of Ethiopia (1684), by the German scholar Hiob Ludolf, is an excellent starting point. Ludolf never actually went to Ethiopia but studied in Rome where he befriended the Ethiopian monk, Abba Gorgoyos. With his help he translated many Amharic texts, thus giving us much information for the first time. The book is illustrated with wonderfully naïve plates, quite unlike anything else. Our copy is a fine example in original calf.

At the end of the eighteenth century, possibly the most renowned explorer was not James Cook but James Bruce. A larger-than-life character (literally so, something of a giant at the time at 6’4” or 193 cm) and with flowing red hair, his narrative, Travels to discover the source of the Nile (1790), was the first expedition mounted with that aim in mind. He didn’t manage to discover the source of the White Nile, but did discover that of the Blue Nile, originating in Lake Tana, Ethiopia. Beautifully illustrated by the Italian artist, Luigi Balugani, the book caused a sensation and marks the beginning of the Nile Quest. Its popularity means it is not the rarest of books but being published in five large volumes means that its survival in fine contemporary bindings is rare. Ours is one such, and a particularly handsome example. 

Henry Salt, an accomplished artist, had first visited Ethiopia in 1805 as part of Viscount Valentia’s Mission. He returned in 1809 on a government mission to visit the emperor but owing to unrest in the country could not carry out his task. Instead, he spent two years travelling, recording the natural history, geography, and people of the region, as well as making a series of important maps. His account, A Voyage to Abyssinia, was published in 1814 and is the best record of the country at that time.

The finest illustrated book on Ethiopia is Scenes in Ethiopia (1852), by the German artist, Johann Bernatz. Bernatz was the official artist on the two missions by Cornwallis Harris to open trade routes to the Ethiopian kingdom of Shoa. The work gives a wonderful record of mid-century life in Ethiopia, with depiction of dancing, domestic life and architecture, on a large scale in its 47 colour tinted plates (some with hand colour). The book is scarce and ours is an exceptional example.