Within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, hand-painted pictures and decorative borders inside sacred texts help light the divine truth and allow a text to shine from within. This example shows both a hand-painted text in Ge’ez, the official language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and an image of St. George slaying a dragon. A common figure in Ethiopian Orthodox art, St. George symbolizes the triumph of good over evil thanks to his mythical defeat of a dragon demanding human sacrifices. The vibrant color palette seen here is characteristic of Ethiopia’s dynamic illuminatedmanuscript tradition, which dates to the beginnings of the Church in the 4th century CE. -Kevin Tervala, June 2022 Collection Rotation Within the Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church, hand-painted pictures and decorative borders inside sacred texts help light the divine truth and allow a text to shine from within. This example shows both a hand-painted text in Ge’ez, the official language of the Church, along with images of Jesus’ crucifixion. The vibrant color palette seen here is characteristic of Ethiopia’s dynamic illuminated manuscript tradition, which dates to the beginnings of the Church in the 4th century CE. -Kevin Tervala, December 2022 Collection Rotation