First book printed in Ge'ez script
Primer libro impreso en escritura ge'ez
- Date
- 1513 · confidence high
- Place
- Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Credited to
- Johannes Potken
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A Ge'ez Psalter printed in Rome by the German priest Johannes Potken with Ge'ez type cut for the purpose. It is the first book printed in an African script.
Potken believed the language was 'Chaldean' and called the book 'Psalterium Chaldaeum'.
What it led to
- European knowledge of Ethiopian Christianity
- Roman editions of the Ethiopic New Testament in 1548
- Ge'ez types in European printing