The Senodos is one of the largest works in the Ethiopic literature.
Probably translated in different times from more Arabic "Vorlagen" and
partially arranged according to the Pseudo-apostolic literary gender, it
is one of the big canon law collections of the Christian Oriental
Churches. In Ethiopia it was the main source of Canon Law and the most
authoritative work in ecclesiastical matter since the end of the XIII up
to the middle of the XVII century. The Senodos strongly affected the
religious history of the early Solomonic Ethiopia and played a
particular role in the birth of new religious trends in the crucial
centuries from its first appearing (XIII century) up to king Zar'a
Ya'qob's age (1434-1468). The present book presents the first critical
edition of ten of the eleven texts of the Pseudo-apostolic section of
the work (about 90 % of the text is inedited). The critical edition is
based on a total average of more than 30 mss. and tries to restore the
oldest text and to provide rich evidence of its history. The translation
is furnished with references to quotations of the Senodos in other
Ethiopic works as well as comparison with the Arabic text.