An Ethiopian miniature of the Tempietto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: its relatives and symbolism

This study offers the first comprehensive review of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was an indispensable feature in illustrated Ethiopic Gospel books, appearing systematically as an explicit to the Eusebian apparatus in manuscripts from the Christian Aksumite to the early Solomonic Period. While the Ethiopic version of Eusebius’s Letter to Carpianus and the canon tables have attracted considerable scholarly interest, the Ethiopian iconography of the Tempietto has not yet received the attention it deserves. By analysing the iconography of the Tempietto in Ethiopic gospel books this work shows how it is possible to offer a partial reconstruction of the practices of illuminators in Ethiopia in the century following the rise of the Solomonic dynasty, providing important insights into the elusive question of the development of manuscript illumination in Ethiopia