Vatican Syriac Manuscripts: Volume 1
Kristian S.
Heal
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2005
Vol. 8, No. 1
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv8n1prheal2
Kristian S. Heal
Vatican Syriac Manuscripts: Volume 1
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol8/HV8N1PRHeal2.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 8
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
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
[1] This
report marks the publication on DVD-ROM of a collection of
thirty-three electronic facsimiles of Syriac manuscripts from
the Vatican Library. Further details, including how to order
the DVD-ROM are available at the project's website (http://cpart.byu.edu/Vatican).
An interim report for this project was published in
"The Digitizing of Selected Syriac MSS in the Vatican Apostolic
Library," Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
[http://syrcom.cua.edu/syrcom/Hugoye] vol. 3, no. 3 (2000). The
project began under the direction of Dr. E. Jan Wilson.
Background
This project is focused on
the Syriac manuscripts of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, a
collection that extends to over 850 manuscripts, including the
collection of 181 formerly at the Borgian Museum.
For further bibliography on the Vatican Library's
Syriac collection see, A. Desreumaux and F. Briquel-Chantonnet,
Répertoire des Bibliothèques et des
Catalogues de Manuscrits Syriaques (Paris: Editions du
Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1991).
The collection
began to grow significantly in the early 18th century. Pope
Clement XI encouraged a number of successful missions to Egypt
and elsewhere in the Middle East to acquire manuscripts.
Through the efforts of Elias Assemani, his cousin J. S.
Assemani, and Gabriel Eva, some of the most significant of all
surviving Syriac manuscripts were acquired in this period.
[3] In 1999
Mar Bawai Soro, a bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East,
began discussions with the Vatican Library to make their Syriac
collections more accessible both to scholars as well as to the
communities who produced these texts. Mar Bawai approached
Brigham Young University to be a partner in the project, a
proposal that was eagerly received. The idea of a pilot project
was formulated by the parties and a contract between BYU and
the Vatican Library was signed in early 2000. The manuscript
photography was undertaken in two phases, one in June 2000 and
another in April 2002.
Report
The project was formulated
with the kind assistance of academics working in the field of
Syriac studies and was carried out with direction from a small
advisory group (Professor Sidney Griffith, Professor Samir
Khalil and Mar Bawai Soro (Assyrian Church of the East)). Dr.
Sebastian Brock made an initial assessment of the collection,
which resulted in a list of especially significant manuscripts
(Appendix 1 below). From this list, Mar Bawai Soro selected 28
for a pilot project, which was later supplemented by 5
additional manuscripts.
[5] The
project proposal was originally modeled on BYU's Dead Sea
Scrolls database. This database gives precedence to a
searchable transcription of the scrolls and includes both the
images and corresponding translations in the final product.
Plans were therefore made to transcribe the manuscripts, and
two teams were put in place, one for manuscripts written in the
East Syriac script and one for manuscripts written in the
Estrangelo and Serto scripts. This proved to be a not
altogether appropriate model and a new approach was formulated
as will be discussed below.
[6] The
photography was undertaken in two stages. In both stages we
were able to set up a controlled studio environment, including
camera stands, full lighting sets and back-up systems. The
first stage of photography (June 2000) was undertaken using a
Kodak MegaPlus camera with an array of 2x3k, producing 6
megapixal images. These grey-scale images were stored
immediately after capture on Mitsui Gold CDs. The archival
copies are in TIFF format and are approximately 6 megabytes
each. A second set of these CDs was made on returning to BYU.
In the second stage of photography (April 2002) we used a Canon
EOS 1D, which captured full color 4 megapixal images. These
images were also archived in uncompressed TIFF format, with
each image being approximately 25 megabytes in size.
[7] In the
two stages of photography we captured a total of 14,700 images,
which occupy 196 CD-ROMS, with a total archival data size of
117,600 megabytes. One manuscript alone, Vatican Syriac 117,
required 50 CD-ROMS to produce the archival copy.
[8] Further
to the conventional photography we also undertook a series of
tests using Multi-Spectral Imaging on Vatican Syriac 110, 114,
117, 147, 252, and 586. Thus far these tests have produced no
beneficial results, though further analysis of the data is
underway.
[9] All
digital photographs require processing. Furthermore, the
uncompressed images were prohibitively large to view easily, so
some compression was necessary. We opted for JPEG compression
at a rate of 50%. We considered this to be optimal, since it
produced a significantly smaller image with very little
degradation of image quality. An initial stage of processing
was necessary prior to compressing the images. In most cases
the manuscripts were captured in a double page opening. We
therefore cropped all of the images down to a single page and
ran each image through a series of adjustments in Adobe
Photoshop; a process that was successfully automated. The
images were then brought into the Adobe PDF format for
presentation. Further image manipulation is possible, though we
did not consider the necessary expenditure of time to be
prudent. Scholars who wish to undertake more sophisticated
manipulation of particular manuscripts can request copies of
the uncompressed images.
[10]
After a number of meetings with digital projects specialists at
the BYU library, it was determined that the Adobe PDF format
would be the best format to deliver the images. Though initial
plans had pointed towards the use of BYU's own WordCruncher
program as the best finished format, it quickly became clear
that such an approach was impractical. A number of other
image-only solutions were considered, but each of these proved
less desirable than Adobe PDF.
[11] The
advantages of the PDF format are numerous. In particular,
because Adobe PDF was designed to view continuous documents and
books, it reproduces an environment that is familiar to
readers. One can navigate easily between pages, magnify the
images, and arrange the screen in such a way that the images
may be viewed simultaneously with other programs. It is also
becoming a standard document format in both a business and
academic context, with many libraries delivering documents in
this format. Also, the Adobe Reader is freely available and
constantly being improved by the developer.
[12] In
order to make a number of PDF files available on the same DVD,
we designed and developed a simple interface which runs
immediately on inserting the disc. This interface includes an
overview of the project and a table of contents. The table of
contents contains links to thirty-three PDF files. Each of
these files contains an electronic facsimile of a single
Vatican manuscript. The PDF files are identified by the
manuscript number and a brief description. When the file opens,
the first thing shown is an index to the manuscripts prepared
on the basis of the existing catalogs. To these basic entries
we have added references to editions and standard reference
works that have been published subsequent to the original
catalog entry. Each entry in the index also serves as a
hyperlink. Clicking on an entry immediately takes one to the
place in the manuscript to which that index entry refers. Also,
for ease of reference we have included the original catalog
entry immediately after our index.
General Assessment of the Project
This project has been
undertaken over a four year period. During that time the
objectives of the project have shifted and settled. The initial
project description was modeled on our successful Dead Sea
Scrolls project and focused on the utility of searchable
transcribed texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls database contains about
1300 images, many of which contain only fragmentary texts. This
project involves a corpus ten times that size. In addition to
the difference in size and concomitant feasibility of such a
project, there was the question of desirability and optimal
presentation. It soon became clear from consultation with other
scholars that the most needed result from this project was a
usable set of images from the manuscripts. In other words,
scholars wanted electronic facsimiles. There is of course a
great desire for a database of searchable texts, but such a
project needs to be organized along the lines of a discrete
corpus of a single author, and based on critical editions
rather than on an eclectic collection of manuscripts. We have
therefore reconfigured the project to actively meet the needs
of the field, and intend to re-purpose the extensive
transcription work that we have undertaken.
[14] Not
only have our objectives been clarified, but we have also seen
the technological landscape entirely shift. When we began this
project, we used specialist industrial grey-scale digital
cameras. In the intervening years, this equipment has been
thoroughly superceded. The second stage of photography used the
best available professional color digital SLR. This camera has
also been superceded several times over. Though technology will
of course continue to improve, we think we have now reached the
stage where the available technology will produce images of an
optimal quality. It is also clear that we will only want to
take color images in future projects and that it may be
desirable for some of the manuscripts to be re-imaged in color.
Nevertheless, with respect to the necessary technology this is
a highly propitious time to continue this important
project.
Appendix 1
(Items in red are included in Volume 1)
SIGNIFICANT SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS IN THE VATICAN LIBRARY
prepared by Sebastian Brock
Biblical manuscripts
1. Vat. Syr. 1: Pentateuch, 928/9 A.D.
2. Vat. Syr. 12: Gospels, 548
3. Vat. Syr. 13: Gospels, 736
4. Vat. Syr. 14: Gospels, 956
5. Vat. Syr. 16: New Testament, 13th Cent.
6. Vat. Syr. 18: John, Harklean, + Gospel lectionary,
1481
7. Vat. Syr. 19: Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel
lectionary, 1030
8. Vat. Syr. 20: Melkite Gospel lectionary, 1215
9. Vat. Syr. 21: Melkite Lectionary for Acts and Epistles,
1162
10. Vat. Syr. 22: Lectionary for Epistles (written in India),
1301
11. Vat. Syr. 23: Syriac-Arabic Lectionary for Epistles, 12th
century
12. Vat. Syr. 24: OT lectionary, 13th century
13. Vat. Syr. 152: OT, Masora, 979/80
14. Vat. Syr. 266: NT, 7th cent.
15. Vat. Syr. 267: Harklean Gospels, 8th cent.
16. Vat. Syr. 268: Harklean Gospels, 859
17. Vat. Syr. 273: Gospels, 7th cent.
18. Vat. Syr. 274: Gospels, 10th cent.
19. Vat. Syr. 275: Acts, Epistles, 1192
20. Vat. Syr. 278: Melkite lectionary, 9th cent.
21. Vat. Syr. 279: Melkite Gospel lectionary, 1141
22. Vat. Syr. 470: NT, 12th cent.
23. Vat. Syr. 471: NT, 1224
24. Vat. Syr. 510: NT, 11th cent.
25. Vat. Syr. 525: Gospel lectionary, 7th cent.
26. Vat. Syr. 532: Acts, Epistles, 13th cent.
27. Vat. Syr. 556: Gospel lectionary, 13th cent.
28. Vat. Syr. 559: Gospel lectionary, 1220 with
illuminations
29. Vat. Syr. 622: Gospels written in gold letters, 1298
30. Barbarini or. 2: Pentaglot psalter, 14th cent.
31. Barbarini or. 3: Gospel lectionary, 13th cent.
32. Borgia Syr. 14f-k: Gospel lectionary, 1254, with
illuminations
33. Borgia Syr. 169: Gospel lectionary, 16th cent. With
illuminations
34. Borgia Syr. 117: Masora NT, 1014Literary Texts (*
indicates manuscript contains unpublished material)
35. Vat. Syr. 37:
*Lives of Saints
36. Vat. Syr. 93: *John of Apamea, 9th cent.
37.
Vat. Syr. 100: *John of Dara, 19th cent.
38. Vat. Syr. 103: (*)Catena Severi
39. Vat. Syr. 104: Athanasius, 564 (*Timothy Alex.)
40. Vat. Syr. 105: Gregory of Nazianzus, Iambics, 7th
cent.
41. Vat. Syr. 106: *Gregory of Nyssa, 8th cent.
42. Vat. Syr. 107: *John Chrysostom, hom. on John, 8th
cent.
43. Vat. Syr. 108: Peter of Callinicum, 8th cent.
44. Vat. Syr. 109: *Abba Isaiah etc. 692
45. Vat. Syr. 110:
Ephrem, Comm. Genesis, 523
46. Vat. Syr. 111: Ephrem, Hymns on Church etc. 522
47. Vat. Syr. 112: Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise, 551
48. Vat. Syr. 113: Ephrem, Hymns on Faith, 552
49. Vat. Syr. 114: *Jacob of Serugh, verse homilies,
523
50. Vat. Syr. 115: *Jacob of Serugh, verse
homilies, 7th cent.
51. Vat. Syr. 116: (*)Jacob of Serugh, verse homilies,
857
52. Vat. Syr. 117:
*Jacob of Serugh, verse homilies, 12th/13th cent.
53. Vat. Syr. 118: *Jacob of Serugh, verse homilies, pre-12th
cent.
54. Vat. Syr. 119: *Isaac of Antioch, verse homilies,
1210
55. Vat. Syr. 120:
*Isaac of Antioch, verse homilies, 6th cent.
56.
Vat. Syr. 121: *Mark the Hermit
57. Vat. Syr. 122: *Mark the Hermit, Basil, 769
58. Vat. Syr. 123: *Gregory of Cyprus etc. 8th cent.
59. Vat. Syr. 124:
Isaac of Nineveh, 14th cent.
60. Vat. Syr. 125: Isaac of Nineveh
61. Vat. Syr.
126: Paradise of the Fathers, 1223
62. Vat. Syr. 127: Canons of Councils
63. Vat. Syr. 135:
*Philoxenos etc. 7th/8th cent.
64. Vat. Syr. 136:
(*)Philoxenos 6th cent.
65. Vat. Syr. 137: Philoxenos, 564
66. Vat. Syr. 138: Philoxenos, 581
67. Vat. Syr. 139: Severus, Philalethes etc, 8th cent.
68. Vat. Syr. 140:
Severus, against Julian, 528
69. Vat. Syr. 141: Severus, Cathedral homilies (tr. Jacob of
Edessa)
70. Vat. Syr. 142: *Severus, Cathedral
homilies (tr. Paul), 576
71. Vat. Syr. 143: *Severus, Cathedral homilies (tr. Paul),
563
72. Vat. Syr. 144: John, Arbiter etc.
73. Vat. Syr. 145: Elias, *Socrates Eccl. Hist., Zecharias
Rhetor Eccl. Hist. 9th/10th cent.
74. Vat. Syr. 146: (*)John Maro, Liber Fidei, 1392
75. Vat. Syr. 147:
*Moshe bar Kepha etc. 1234
76. Vat. Syr. 148: Ps.
George of Arbela, Liturgical commentary, 1267
77. Vat. Syr. 151:
(*)Timothy II, On Sacraments, 1613
78. Vat. Syr.
152: *Jacob of Edessa, on biblical names, 980
79. Vat. Syr. 154: *George, Com. Matthew, 10th cent.
80. Vat. Syr. 157:
Isho'yahb III, Letters, 10th cent.
81. Vat. Syr.
160: Life of Symeon the Stylite, *Acts of Persian martyrs, 474,
10th cent.
82. Vat. Syr. 161:
*Acts of Persian martyrs
83. Vat. Syr. 162: Ps.
Dionysius of Telmahre, Chronicle, 932
84. Vat. Syr. 163:
Chronicle of Edessa
85. Vat. Syr. 165: Thomas of Marga, Monastic history,
1663
86. Vat. Syr. 189: *John of Dalyatha, 11th cent.
87. Vat. Syr. 191: *Ibn Sina, Syriac tr.
88. Vat.
Syr. 192: *Medical
89. Vat. Syr. 194: *Grammatical works, 1246
90. Vat. Syr. 251: *Jacob of Serugh, homilies, 7th cent.
91. Vat. Syr. 252:
Jacob of Serugh, homilies
92. Vat. Syr. 253:
*Homiliary, 8th cent.
93. Vat. Syr. 254: *Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite, pre-932
94. Vat. Syr. 255: Severus, pre-932
95. Vat. Syr. 256: *Severus, Cathedral homilies, 6th
cent.
96. Vat. Syr. 283:
*Comm. Matthew and John, 860
97. Vat. Syr. 284:
*Comm. Epistles, 9th cent.
98. Vat. Syr. 367:
Isaac of Nineveh, 8th cent.
99. Vat. Syr. 368:
*Homiliary, 8th cent.
100. Vat. Syr. 369: *Homiliary, 7th cent.
101. Vat. Syr. 464: Ephrem, Isaac, Jacob of Serugh, 1234
102. Vat. Syr. 467: *Life of Hoseph Busnaya, 1186
103. Vat. Syr. 506: *Athanasius Abu Ghalib, 1927 (from an old
MS)
104. Vat. Syr. 509: *Monastic texts, 1928 (from an old
MS)
105. Vat. Syr. 560: Canon law, 8th cent.
106. Vat. Syr. 581: *John of Dara, 1917 (from an old MS)
107. Vat. Syr. 586:
*Questions and answers on Aristotle, Categories, 13th
cent.
108. Vat. Syr. 623: *Melkite Monastic texts,
886
109. Vat. Syr. 627: *Fragment of Homiliary, 9th/10th
cent.
110. Vat. Syr. 628: *Fragment (1f) of Lifeof Abraham Qidunaya,
7th cent.
111. Vat. Syr. 629: *Gregory of Cyprus, 12th cent.
Liturgical texts
112. Vat. Syr. 42:
East Syriac Euchologion, 1202
113. Vat. Syr. 51:
West Syriac Pontifical of Michael the Patriarch, 12th
cent.
114. Vat. Syr. 53: Melkite Euchologion
115. Vat. Syr. 59:
West Syriac funeral services, 1266
116. Vat. Syr.
60: West Syriac funeral services, 13th cent.
117. Vat. Syr. 61: East Syriac funeral services, 13th
cent.
118. Vat. Syr. 68:
West Syriac Beth Gazza, 1465
119. Vat. Syr. 78-82:
Melkite Menaia, 12th/13th cent.
120. Vat. Syr. 83:
East Syriac Hudra, 1537/9
121. Vat. Syr. 92:
Funeral services, 823
122. Vat. Syr. 95: Seblatha, 13th cent.
123. Vat. Syr. 539: Husoye, 10th/11th cent.
124. Borgia Syr. 13:
Melkite Euchologion, 12th cent.
125. Borgia Syr. 60: East Syriac Beth Gazza
126.
Borgia Syr. 133 II: Seblatha, 13th cent.
127. Borgia Syr. 159: West Syriac anaphoras, 1295
128. Vat. Syr. 527: Canticles, 6th cent. (2 folios)
_______
Notes