Syriac Studies: The Challenges of the Coming Decade
Lucas
Van Rompay
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2007
Vol. 10, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv10n1vanrompay
Lucas Van Rompay
Syriac Studies: The Challenges of the Coming Decade
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol10/HV10N1VanRompay.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 10
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Survey
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
In response to an invitation by the General
Editor, the paper reflects on the present state of Syriac
studies as well as on the opportunities and challenges of the
future. In addition to a brief discussion of the geographical
changes in the worldwide presence of Syriac Christians and
Syriac scholars, some suggestions are offered for work to be
carried out in the coming years. The paper closes with some
thoughts on the academic study of Syriac.
[1] The
Syriac Institute, Beth Mardutho (formerly: The Syriac
Computing Institute), and the web-based journal Hugoye will
forever be remembered as marking the entrance of Syriac studies
into the electronic age. The elegant Meltho fonts produced by
Beth Mardutho and their Unicode application bring Syriac texts
to our computer screens daily; now, it is hard to imagine what
our lives would be like without them. For middle-aged Syriac
scholars — like the present writer — who had to
overcome their initial skepticism and fear of change, these
quite radical developments took place in the last two decades.
What remains to be expected, wished or dreamed for in the
coming decade? Which other advancements does the future have in
store for us? How will the technological progress impact our
scholarship, and, likewise, how will our scholarship impact the
developing technology?
[2] In this
time of rapid change, it is an impossible task to make
predictions about the future. Instead, I would prefer to share
with the Hugoye readers some thoughts about the developments in
our field, and some suggestions about what could be achieved in
the coming years. Once in a while it is useful to look back and
ahead; Hugoye’s tenth anniversary is an excellent
opportunity to do just that.
For earlier overviews, see S. Brock, “Syriac
Studies in the Last Three Decades,” in R. Lavenant (ed.),
VI Symposium Syriacum
1992. Orientalia
Christiana Analecta 247 (Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium
Studiorum, 1994), 13-29; A. de Halleux, “Vingt ans
d’étude critique des Églises
syriaques,” in R. F. Taft (ed.), The Christian East.
Its Institutions and Its Thoughts. A Critical Reflection.
Orientalia Christiana Analecta 252 (Rome: Pont. Institutum
Orientalium Studiorum, 1996), 145-179; H. Teule, “Current
Trends in Syriac Studies,” in J.P. Monferrer-Sala (ed.),
Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian
Legacy (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), 143-156.
I will briefly discuss three
topics. First, the geographical and sociological changes taking
place among Syriac Christians as well as among students and
scholars. Second, I will highlight tools for teaching and
research that need to be created. And third, I will speak in a
more general way about the present state of the academic study
of Syriac Christian culture.
Changing Geography: Changing Experiences and
Changing Interests
[3] There
can be no doubt that geographical changes will further mark the
development of Syriac studies in the coming years. In addition
to a number of universities in Europe, North America, South
Africa, and Australia, important centers of study and culture
have always existed in the Middle East, the home of Syriac
Christianity. Housed in monasteries or institutes of education,
and often having important manuscript collections at their
disposal, these Middle Eastern centers played an important role
in the intellectual and cultural emancipation of Syriac
Christians throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
They also contributed to the development of Syriac studies in
Europe. The names of Ignatius Ephrem Barsom (d. 1957),
Philoxenus Yuhanon Dolobani (d. 1969), Addai Scher (d. 1915),
and Ignatius Ephrem Rahmani (d. 1929) come to mind, among many
others: important leaders and scholars within their respective
communities, they also interacted and collaborated with Western
scholars. Their work, as well as their living example, remains
important today.
[4] While
active centers producing fine scholars and important
publications still exist in the Middle East, there has been a
setback in recent years, mainly for two reasons. First, due to
the political instability in the Middle East, local working
conditions are often far from ideal and contacts with the West
sometimes difficult. Second, Christians from the various Syriac
traditions continue to leave the Middle Eastern countries for
destinations in the West, thus depriving the local communities
of much of their human and intellectual capital. Throughout the
twentieth century, Syriac Christian communities paid a
disproportionate price in turbulent Middle Eastern areas, and
— it is sad to say — they continue to do so in the
first years of the twenty-first century. One hopes that the
centers of Syriac Christian culture in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq
will be able to recover and to regain some of their historical
role; one hopes, too, that the monuments, libraries, and
manuscript collections will be preserved and receive the
attention they badly need. Syriac Christians and scholars alike
will never give up their focus on the historic homelands of
Syriac Christianity, but it has to be admitted that the
presence of Syriac Christianity has significantly weakened.
Quite interestingly, in Turkey there seem to be the first signs
that the tide may be turning. Some Christians who left their
homeland several years ago are beginning to return and to
rebuild their lives there. In many ways there now seem to be
new and better opportunities for Syriac Christianity as well as
for the historical study of the Syriac monuments and manuscript
resources.
For a discussion of some recent publications on
Syriac Christianity by Turkish scholars, see H. Teule,
“Current Trends,” 153-154.
[5] From the
viewpoint of students and scholars, the decline of Syriac
Christianity in the Middle East has been compensated (to a
degree) by developments elsewhere. First, there are the
flourishing communities in Kerala, India. Not only do these
communities fully take up the historic legacy of Syriac
Christianity, but they also have developed a number of
important initiatives for the preservation and study of the
Syriac traditions. The St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute
(SEERI) at Kottayam, Kerala, continues to play a vital role in
these developments. Second, there is much activity in the
Diaspora communities of Europe, North and South America, and
Australia. As some of these communities include people of the
second, third, or fourth generation, patterns of religious and
cultural life are already well-established. In addition,
contacts and fruitful interaction between the Diaspora
communities and the homelands are maintained.3 The hierarchies
of the historic churches have learned to deal with the Diaspora
situation, adjusting their policies in order to improve
communication with their faithful in far-off lands, and to make
full use of the new opportunities. The global landscape of
Syriac Christianity will continue to change in the coming
years. It is to be expected, however, that in the process of
shaping their own religious and cultural identity, the Diaspora
communities will continue to cherish their historic heritage
and to study it. Links between Diaspora communities and
academic centers in Western countries have been forged in the
past — Beth Mardutho and Hugoye are illustrations of this
— and such links are likely to grow in the coming
years.
[6] New
centers of Syriac studies are emerging in some of the countries
of the former Soviet Union: in Russia and in several East
European countries. In some cases, earlier centers of Oriental
or Early Christian studies are being brought to new life,
making use of the existing manuscript and library resources; in
other cases it is just the curiosity and enthusiasm of students
and professors that led to the discovery, or rediscovery, of
Syriac Christianity, and to the modest beginnings of an
appropriate academic infrastructure.
See H. Teule, “Current Trends,”
152-153. Teule mentions the 1999 rebirth of the Russian
periodical (1910-1926) Christianskiy Vostok
(“The Christian East”) and further focuses on new
developments in Moscow and Romania. New initiatives could be
mentioned for other countries as well, esp. Poland, Hungary,
and the Czech Republic.
[7] None of
these new developments — in the Middle East, Turkey,
India, the Diaspora communities, or Russia and Eastern Europe
— will leave the traditional study in Western academic
centers unaffected. New research interests will develop,
hitherto neglected fields will be explored, and, hopefully, new
forms of interaction and international cooperation will be
established. Hugoye, with its easy access to readers and
contributors everywhere on earth, will not only reflect these
changes but help to shape them.
[8] The
potential of Syriac studies, therefore, may be said to be
richer than ever before. New students and new researchers,
having geographic, cultural, and educational backgrounds and
experiences quite different from those of the traditional
mestaryonê, will find their own topics and their
own methodologies, and they will infuse new blood into our
discipline. History will have its course and does not need to
be predicted or guessed at here. Let us only express the wish
that we will find the best possible ways of dealing with the
new challenges and the new opportunities.
To the geographical areas listed above we should
add the growing interest in Syriac and in Syriac Christianity
among students and scholars from Japan and South Korea.
Syriac Studies: The Core Fields, and the Basic
Tools for the Study of Language and Literature
[9] To
whatever new research questions and new methodologies these
recent developments will lead, the core of Syriac scholarship
will remain the study of the language — our only means of
communication with Syriac Christians of earlier days —
and the interpretation of texts. Admittedly, an impressive
number of new texts have been published and translated in
recent decades, but when it comes to the basic tools of
language and literature, it is difficult to argue that the
present-day student is much better off than her or his fellow
students of eighty or hundred years ago. Eighty-five years
after A. Baumstark’s Geschichte der syrischen
Literatur (1922), we still don’t have an updated
history of Syriac literature. And the best we can do in the
fields of grammar and lexicography is to put our hands on the
works of the masters of old, which often exist in beautifully
executed reprints: Theodor Nöldeke’s
grammar,
On the 2001 publication of the reprint of the
English translation of the 1898 second edition of the
Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, see L. Van Rompay, in
Hugoye 4/2 (July 2001).
and the dictionaries by Carl Brockelmann (second
edition, 1928), Robert Payne Smith (1879-1901, with a
Supplement posthumously published in 1927), and Jessie Payne
Smith (first published in 1903). I am not suggesting that no
significant progress has been made. As a matter of fact, we now
have a number of excellent concordances, in particular for the
Old Testament and New Testament Peshitta, to which most
recently A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance of the Old
Syriac Gospels, by J.S. Lund (in collaboration with G.A.
Kiraz), was added (2004). Much more, however, can and should be
done, in particular when we consider the fact that the new
technologies allow the manipulation of large amounts of data.
Here I would like to single out three concrete projects, for
each of which important steps have already been taken. My
suggestions concern the Syriac lexicon, textual
corpora, and an encyclopedic project.
[10] For
some decades, considerable knowledge and experience in Aramaic
and Syriac lexicography have been built up within the
Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon project, presently based
at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is within the
framework of this project that we soon will have at our
disposal a new edition of C. Brockelmann’s Lexicon
Syriacum, translated into English, revised, and slightly
updated by Michael Sokoloff. Along with two other outstanding
dictionaries by Sokoloff, covering the neighboring fields of
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
— both of direct relevance to students of Syriac! —
the new Brockelmann & Sokoloff will pave the way for the
creation of new and up-to-date tools in the field of Syriac
lexicography. Discussions for new projects are also in the
works.
An “International Syriac Language
Project” has been set up by Terry Falla (University of
Melbourne), with the collaboration of several scholars. On the
second ISLIP meeting, see I. Ramelli, “Session on Syriac
Lexicography, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical
Literature, Groningen, The Netherlands, July 25-28,
2004,” Hugoye 7/2 (July 2004). Some papers of an
earlier conference on Aramaic lexicography were published in
Aramaic Studies 1.2 (2003).
[11]
Related to this is the need for searchable textual corpora for
different purposes: lexical, linguistic, and thematic. Would it
not be wonderful to be able to search the writings of Ephrem,
Jacob of Serug, Narsai, Jacob of Edessa, and
Ishoʿdad of Merv? The Leiden Armenian
Lexical Database, created by Jos Weitenberg at Leiden
University, and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, based
at the University of California at Irvine, come to mind as
obvious models.
[12] The
third type of database I would like briefly to mention is of a
quite different nature. For several years students of Syriac
have been talking about the need for a Syriac
Encyclopedia,8 and concrete steps have been taken towards
creating an “Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac
Heritage,” as a publication within the Beth Mardutho
program. Although much work has been done, and a considerable
number of entries have been submitted, final execution of the
work has been delayed. While it is true that the field of
Syriac is partly covered in a number of existing encyclopedias
— dealing with Late Antiquity, Early Christianity,
Eastern Christianity, or Near Eastern studies — none of
these do justice to our field as a whole, and in its own right.
There can be no doubt that an encyclopedia, created by a team
of Syriac scholars, and aimed at students and scholars of
Syriac as well as at a larger readership, will serve as an
indispensable frame of reference, will inspire and guide young
students, and will greatly enhance the visibility of our field.
The existing, though somewhat dormant project, therefore,
should be awakened urgently and forcefully. The encyclopedia
should cover the earlier as well as the later and contemporary
periods, and should include ample references to adjacent fields
and disciplines, as the strength of Syriac studies lies in its
multidisciplinarity and in its interconnectedness with other
fields, rather than in its isolation.
[13] In
order to make the project manageable, short- and long-term
goals should be set. On the one hand, we should work towards
the publication of a modest encyclopedic dictionary containing
between three and four hundred entries. This could be published
within a year or so, as many of the entries already are
available and need only minor updates. On the other hand, we
should keep working on a larger electronic database, in which
many of the existing articles can be introduced as a starting
point, but which should be expanded in the coming years. The
more comprehensive electronic database can be more detailed and
can include discussion of existing scholarship, whereas the
printed dictionary will be more succinct and only provide basic
information.
[14] The
“Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage,”
in its two phases as proposed here, is not one of the many
desiderata in the field of Syriac studies; rather, it is a
concrete project that already has been created and waits to be
carried out. There is no justification for further delay.
Syriac Studies: Texts, Authors, Opportunities and
Limitations
[15] In
1947, the Belgian Syriac scholar Jacques-Marie Vosté,
who then was professor at the Angelicum in Rome, published a
paper, entitled “De la besogne pour les jeunes
syriacisants.”9 In it he listed what he regarded as —
and mainly within his own field of expertise — the most
urgent tasks for young Syriac scholars. This publication turned
out to be Vosté’s spiritual testament, for he died
one year later (at the age of 66). For us, reading it sixty
years later, the paper is an important historical piece. Not
only is it interesting to see which items in
Vosté’s list have received scholarly attention and
which have not, it is also worthwhile to notice the different
conditions that prevailed in Syriac studies in
Vosté’s day. Throughout the paper,
Vosté’s enthusiasm is moving: to the young
scholars he promises a life full of excitement and happiness;
to the universities supporting them, he promises fame, the
whole world’s gratitude, and even some financial gain. I
wish we could share in more of Vosté’s
optimism!
[16]
Given his background in biblical and exegetical studies, it is
no surprise that editions of biblical texts rank high on
Vosté’s wish list. He singled out as most urgent
the need for an edition of the Old Testament Peshitta and of
the New Testament Harklean version. In both areas
Vosté’s suggestions were taken up by later
scholars. The Old Testament Peshitta edition, begun by the
Leiden Peshitta Institute not long after Vosté wrote, is
expected to be completed in the next couple of years. The
project thus will have lasted fifty years, rather than “a
few years” (quelques années), as
Vosté predicted (p. 175). The study of the Harklean New
Testament has been integrated within the work of the Institute
for New Testament Research of the University of Münster.
Here again, the problems turned out to be much more complex
than first could be anticipated.
[17] As
Syriac scholars we may wholeheartedly agree with
Vosté’s prediction that the universities that
would undertake such editions “would cover themselves
with glory” (p. 174), but present-day university
administrators tend to look elsewhere for their glory.
Vosté calculated that the universities would fully
recover their financial investment in the form of the royalties
they would earn from the unique publications that were going to
be produced (p. 175). Experience has taught us otherwise!
Universities no longer want to assume a Maecenas role for the
arts and the humanities; instead, they have become business
enterprises in which Syriac studies are seen as marginal at
best. Projects in Syriac studies, as in the humanities in
general, have to go through cumbersome procedures and heavy
competition in order to get external funding. Successful
projects normally are not limited to Syriac, but are embedded
in much broader, multidisciplinary frameworks.
[18]
Perhaps now even more than in Vosté’s day Syriac
studies owe their strength to the commitment and perseverance
of individuals. Apart from the two aforementioned team
projects, in which the universities of Leiden and Münster
were — and to a certain extent still are — directly
involved, other editions that Vosté suggested were
subsequently carried out by individuals. This is the case for
the edition of the Old Testament Commentary by
Ishoʿdad of Merv, to which Vosté
himself gave much of his last strength. The first volume,
containing the Syriac text of the Genesis Commentary, was
published in 1950, co-authored by Vosté and his much
younger Louvain confrère Ceslas Van den Eynde. Van den
Eynde continued on his own and completed the work in a series
of splendid editions and translations (1955-1981).
Vosté strongly argues that Syriac
texts need to be accompanied with translations. Publishing
texts without translation would be “multiplier
l’inédit” (p. 178). Van den Eynde’s
publications show to what extent his translations and notes are
an integral part of his creative work.
Another East-Syriac exegetical compilation, the Gannat
Bussâmê (“The Garden of
Delights”), arranged according to the periods of the
liturgical year, which Vosté saw as a veritable gold
mine — promising “la plus grande
satisfaction” to those who would study it (p. 180)
— has been meticulously explored by G.J. Reinink
(University of Groningen), who now is in the process of
producing a full edition with translation, the first volume of
which appeared in 1988.
[19]
Other texts recommended by Vosté for publication and
translation have received little attention so far. This is true
for the writings of the Syrian Orthodox author Jacob (Severus)
bar Shakko (p. 183), who worked a few decades before
Barhebraeus, as well as for a number of liturgical texts (pp.
184-185). Other areas referred to by Vosté in a more
general way are hagiographical, ascetical, and mystical
literature. In poetry Vosté singles out Narsai, Jacob of
Serug, and Giwargis Warda: several of Narsai’s
Mêmrê remain unpublished, and, while Jacob
of Serug has fared better than Narsai (especially after the
2006 expanded reprint of Bedjan’s five-volume edition),
Giwargis Warda remains very little studied to this day.
[20]
Vosté’s selection of texts was clearly determined
by his work on the collections of East-Syriac manuscripts in
Iraq, which suffered losses and destruction during and after
World War I. In the course of his work in Iraq, he located and
briefly described a number of manuscripts (namely those of
Alqosh, Kirkuk, and ʿAqra), lamented the
definitive loss of others, and rescued some to the Vatican
Library. Unfortunately, the Syriac manuscripts of Iraq are
still not secure. Their proper documentation and preservation
are badly needed. Moreover, in the last decade of the twentieth
century as well as in the first years of the twenty-first
century new catastrophes do not cease to threaten them.
L’histoire se répète — sadly
and almost unbearably!
[21] The
lack and desirability of editions, translations, and studies
are not limited to the texts listed by Vosté. Each of us
could easily make a list. I would like to single out a few
names. A full edition of the works of John the Solitary of
Apamea, one of the most fascinating authors of the early period
of Syriac Christianity, is still missing. No general studies of
his world of thought or sources exist. This is all the more
surprising as there is a growing interest in asceticism in the
Syriac and late ancient world, and John really brings an
original voice to the world of fifth-century asceticism. The
same is true for Jacob of Edessa, one of the most learned
authors of Syriac literature and probably its best Hellenist.
Here again, there is no lack of interest in his works, but a
number of them remain unpublished and no overall monograph is
available.
A much delayed collective volume, to be
edited by R.B. ter Haar Romeny and K.D. Jenner (Leiden
University) and dealing with several of Jacob’s writings,
is scheduled to appear in 2007.
The works of many of the later authors are
still lingering in manuscripts. What about Moses bar Kepha,
Dionysius bar Salibi, Emmanuel bar Shahhârê,
Yohannan bar Zoʿbi, Khamis bar
Qardâhê, and Gabriel Qamsâ? Some parts of
their works have been published or studied, often long ago, but
no recent progress has been made. How to explain this lack of
initiative, this lack of energy on the part of Syriac
scholars?
[22] It
is true that text editions and translations do not always have
a positive reputation in the academic discourse, and that
doctoral candidates often find it more attractive (or are even
actively encouraged) to study a specific theme of Syriac
Christianity on the basis of already published and translated
texts. This tendency toward the monograph over and against the
text edition and translation is to be regretted. Especially in
the case of previously unedited and unpublished Syriac texts,
there is no substantive academic foundation for the lack of
prestige in executing such studies. The disclosure and the
first interpretation of texts seem to me to be the noblest task
of Syriac scholars, a task we should cherish above anything
else. It is imperative, therefore, that we keep the standards
of Syriac education high — in particular its linguistic
and literary components — in order to allow future
generations of Syriac scholars to carry out their work with the
same rigor as the best editors and translators of the past.
[23]
There may be an additional problem here, as the present-day
requirements of many academic programs are so complex and
wide-ranging that the basic study of languages and literatures
is often given short shrift. This brings us back to the problem
of the marginal position of Syriac in many universities. One
can find students of Syriac in very different academic
departments: religion, history, and art departments, and
programs in Near Eastern Studies, Semitic Studies, and Arabic
or Islamic studies. Though the focus of a dissertation may be
entirely on Syriac, in the preliminary stages of a doctoral
program many other topics, languages, and methodologies will
have to be learned. While I am convinced that Syriac has its
proper place in all these different departments, and that
Syriac studies greatly benefit from these diverse contexts,
there is the possible problem of time pressure, the more so as
university administrators are increasingly eager to abbreviate
the number of years students spend in Ph.D. programs.
[24] Many
of us will have noticed that in recent years symposia and
conferences on Syriac topics are well-attended by a wonderful
crowd of enthusiastic people with very different backgrounds
— reflecting the healthy diversity hinted at above. This
often leads to fascinating discussions and enriching
encounters. One also realizes, however, that many of the
attendees, while enthusiastically dealing with matters Syriac
from a variety of angles, have only a limited knowledge of the
Syriac language or no knowledge at all. We should not complain
too much about this, as it is one of the consequences of the
growing popularity of Syriac studies in recent years. Moreover,
we may learn from the viewpoint of experts in different fields,
even if they are not as strong in the Syriac language as we
would like them to be. But there is a risk that Syriac texts
are used without much precision or are quoted in translations
without being checked against the Syriac original.
Unfortunately there even have been some lamentable examples of
poor, or less than poor, Syriac in recently published
monographs. For several reasons — some of which mentioned
above — it may not always be easy for students to learn
Syriac, or to find experts with whom to discuss the specific
problems posed by the texts with which they are dealing. In
addition, as pointed out above, the tools for learning Syriac
are less than ideal.
[25]
There seems to be a real challenge here, which poses itself
equally to Syriac scholars and to all those who are interested
in Syriac Christian culture. On the one hand, we should let the
Hidden Pearl be revealed to anyone who is interested in
discovering it and learning from it. On the other hand, in
dealing with Syriac texts we should never desist from applying
the highest possible standards. Even though our understanding
and interpretation of ancient texts will always be incomplete
and provisional — every generation of scholars offering
new insights differing from those of the previous generations
— the language should be studied in its full depth and be
taken as the solid starting point for any discussion. Proper
study of language and style should always be an integral part
of our engagement with Syriac texts. May our field further grow
and flourish in the coming ten years and beyond! May Hugoye
bring and keep us together both in the real world and in
cyberspace!
For their help and suggestions while I was
writing this paper I would like to thank Sebastian Brock, Bas
ter Haar Romeny, George Kiraz, Kyle Smith, and Herman Teule.
_______
Notes
3 For an overview of Syriac religious and cultural
life in the Diaspora communities, see S. Brock a.o., The
Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church and Its Ancient
Aramaic Heritage (Rome: Trans World Film Italia, 2001),
esp. III, 99-103 (the focus is on the Syrian Orthodox
presence).
8 If my memory is correct, it was W. Witakowski, of
Uppsala University, who first suggested the idea of a Syriac
encyclopedia to the Business Meeting of the 1988 Syriac
Symposium at Louvain. He referred to the example of the
impressive Coptic Encyclopedia.
9 J.-M. Vosté, “De la besogne pour les
jeunes syriacisants,” Le Muséon 60
(1947), 171-186.
_______
Bibliography
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S. Brock, E. Balicka-Witakowski,
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