"Senkessar ""Synaxarion"" (for the first half of the year, months Mäskäräm - Pagwemen) [16th century]"

The manuscript appears to be an early copy of the current version of the Synaxarion (so-called "vulgata"; thought to have been created in the second half of the 16th cent). It contains the first part of the Synaxarion, with lessons for the sanctoral cycle of the year (months Mäskäräm - Yäkkatit). Apart from the Synaxarion, the manuscript contains folios added later (158r-167v, 19th or 20th century?) with a hymn praising St. Mary. The manuscript contains many marginal notes occupying fly- and end-leaves, as well as empty space on fol. 157v. The manuscript was commissioned by Queen Sellus Hayla, most probably the wife of King Minas (r. 1559-63); also known as Sellus Hayle or Admas Mogäsa (s. Encyclopaedia Aethiopica I, 97). Throughout the manuscript the word 'negest' (queen) is in many places crudely corrected to 'negus' (king), and name 'Yohannes' is added interleneally. Palaeographic features of the manuscript support the dating into the 16th century (but fols. 158-167 were added much later). Scribe unknown.