Roma, SGI 254

Shelfmark	SGI 254
Owning institution	Società Geografica Italiana, Rome
Typology	Notebook
Copying date	Mid-19^th cent.
Title	‘Grammatica Aethiopica-Amharica’
Subject	Aethiopica, Lexicon
Language	Gǝʿǝz, Amharic, Italian.
Short description of the content	Ff. 2r–60v: ‘Grammatica Aethiopica-Amharica’ (Gǝʿǝz-Amharic grammar) F. 2r: Ethiopic syllabary, with separate tables for labiovelars, Amharic palatalized consonants, Amharic labialized consonants, and numerals. Ff. 3r–8v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the active verbs ገብረ፡ and አደረገ፡, called “prima formula” (‘first form’). Ff. 9r–14r: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the passive verbs ተገብረ፡ and ተደረገ፡, called “seconda formula” (‘second form’). Ff. 14v–19v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the causative verbs አግበረ፡ and አስደረገ፡, called “terza formula” (‘third form’). Ff. 20r–25v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the verbs አስተጋበረ፡ and አደራረገ፡, called “4^a formula” (‘first form’). Ff. 26r–31v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the verbs ተጋበረ፡ and ተደራረገ፡, called “quinta formula” (‘fifth form’). Ff. 32r–33r: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic forms of the infinitive ገቢር፡/ገቢሮት and ማድረግ፡. Ff. 33v–34v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic forms of the gerundive ገቢሮ፡ and አድርጎ፡. Ff. 35r–36r: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic forms of the participles ገባሪ፡ and ያሚያደርግ፡/አድራጊ፡. F. 36r–v: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic forms of the imperative ግብር፡ and ሥራ፡. Ff. 37r–42r: Lists of the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic verbal forms of the verbs ይቤ፡ and አለ፡, “to say”. Verbs are conjugated in all tenses. Ff. 42v–45r: Chapter written in Italian, entitled “Radici, osservazioni” (‘Roots, observations’). The text illustrates grammatical principles and remarks related to the Gǝʿǝz verb formation and verbal conjugations. Ff. 46v–47r: General principles of linguistics and grammar, written in Italian. F. 47v: Short Italian-Amharic vocabulary of adverbs. The vocabulary is incomplete: the Amharic meanings have been added at different times and more than half are missing. Ff. 48r–53v: Chapter entitled ደቂቅ። (Gǝʿǝz “small [adjective]”), in which the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic demonstrative pronouns and some prepositions with pronoun suffixes are listed. The chapter is divided into 27 sections called kǝfl. Ff. 54r–60v: Chapter entitled አገባብ። (Amh. “particle”), in which the Gǝʿǝz and Amharic conjunctions and prepositions are listed. The chapter is divided into 13 sections called kǝfl. F. 60v: Explicit note: ተፈጸመ፡ ዘንተ፡ ጽሒፈ፡ ስዋስው፡ ስብሐት፡ ለእግዚአብሔር፡ ዘአስተናሰአነ፡ ለወጢኖቱ፡ ወአብጽሐነ፡ እስከ፡ ተፍጻሜቱ፡ ለዓለም፡ (sic) ዓለም፡ አሜን።
Writing material	Paper
Outer size (included the binding)	343 x 247 x 15 mm
Outer size of the textblock	342 x 240 x 13 mm
Number of folia	62
Blank folia	1v, 2v, 45v–46r, 61r–62r.
Binding	Two burlap sheets.
Sewing	Two S-twisted threads of vegetal origin.
Sewing pattern	–
Quires	5
Quire marks	–
Layout	2 columns (ff. 3r–34v, 37r–39r, 40r–42r, 47v); 1 column (ff. 42v–45r, 46r–47r, 48r–60v).
Number of lines per column	ca. 20–70
Ruling	The manuscript is unruled.
Ruling pattern	–
Scribe	Hand 1: perhaps Padre Giovanni Stella. Hand 2: unknown. Text in Italian (e.g. ff. 42v–45r, 46v–47v) was written by Padre Giovanni Stella.
Colophon	–
Additional notes	–
State of preservation of the binding	Mediocre.
State of preservation of the textblock	Poor.
Provenance and history	The manuscript was written by Padre Giovanni Stella (1822–1869) probably in the 1850s. The writing must be contemporary to that of MS SGI 253, which is dated 1855. The manuscript came into possession of the Società Geografica Italiana at some time between 1869, when P. Stella died, and 1930, when the existence of this material was first reported by Gabrieli (Manoscritti e carte orientali nelle biblioteche e negli archivi d'Italia: dati statistici e bibliografici delle collezioni, loro storia e catalogazione, 1930). The manuscript is also mentioned in Silvio Zanutto’s Bibliografia etiopica (1932).