The spectacular churches of ʿUrā Qirqos/ʿUrā Masqal, located near the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, are known thanks to their rich and valuable collection of manuscripts. This collection—entirely transferred to the church of ʿUrā Qirqos (Gulo Makadā, Tǝgrāy) around the turn of the 21st century—is recognized for its extraordinary literary and documentary value. A challenge for the cataloguing and subsequent study of the oldest manuscripts of the collection arises from the fact that some are severely damaged and incomplete, consisting of membra disiecta of multiple original production units put together at random.This paper results from intensive research aimed at reconstructing, on palaeographic and textual bases, the sequence of leaves that constituted one of the ancient homiliaries of ʿUrā Masqal.

Part 2, with a description of codicological and palaeographical features, will appear shortly.