Patriarchal Collection of Manuscripts

The collection of the historical manuscripts of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch can be found today in: Mardin – Turkey (Church of the Forty Martyrs; Deyr Al-Zafaran), Charfet – Lebanon (Syriac Catholic Patriarchate) and Damascus – Syria (Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate).

The manuscripts of Mardin (ca 1400 mss) were digitized by Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. Those of Charfet (ca 2200 mss) are in the process of being digitized by the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate.

The collection of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus which includes about 500 manuscripts was partially digitized in the year 2000, by Fr. Hazail Soumi (today Bishop Mor Severius Hazail).

Since December 2014, a new project of digitizing the patriarchal collection in Damascus and Atchaneh (Lebanon), according to high digital imaging standards, is being undertaken by the Department of Syriac Studies at the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate.

The next step of this project will be the publication of the new cataloging of the collection. For the time being, one may refer to the old catalogue prepared by Patriarch Aphrem Barsom, edited in Syriac by Filoxinus Youhanon Dolabani, and in Arabic by Gregorios Boulos Behnam, of which a French translation by Lavenant – Brock– Khalil is given in Parole de l’Orient 19 (1994), pp. 555-661 (available online here: http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/35239).

Digital images of manuscripts of the Patriarchal collection in Damascus can be ordered by addressing an email to:

 

Fr Joseph Bali:  josephbali@hotmail.com

Your email shall include the following information:

–  Your personal details (name, address, email and phone number)

– The title of the item you want

–  The shelfmark of the manuscript you want, from Lavenant catalogue (see above), with the page or folio numbers

 

For any question regarding the manuscripts shelfmarks or contents, please contact:

Fr Roger Akhrass

Director of the Department of Syriac Studies

dss@syriacpatriarchate.org

dayroger2002@hotmail.com

 

Staff of the digitization project:

Seminarian Deacon Elia Zouki

Sister Saydeh Elias

Sister Philoxena Bahho