Digitized Manuscripts: Faceted Search

About This Table

This table searches all collections of Syriac and Garshuni manuscripts that are freely available online by key terms. Click any of the categorized menu items to narrow down your search. If you would like to sort the manuscripts by shelf-mark or date, or search by general keyword, see our other table here, which includes all the same manuscript data.

*The Approximate Date column is derived from the best available information for the manuscript. This is not asserted as a scholarly position on the dating of the manuscript. Instead, it is merely used here for the convenience of being able to sort all manuscripts by numerical date. The user should keep in mind that there may be considerable debate over the precise dating of the manuscript and should consult the manuscript repository and relevant scholarly literature for details.

Manuscript Name / Shelf Mark / Project Number Approximate Date Language The main body text Link to Digitized Manuscript
Mardin, Turkey Chaldean Cathedral (CCM 00411) 1,545 CE Syriac

See Scher's note on Diyarbakir 76

  • f. 2v-76r Homily on Rabban Hormizd
  • f. 76v-93v Homily on Mār Aḥā, brother of Mar John the Egyptian
  • f. 94v-176r Ephrem Syrus, Twelve Homilies on Joseph the Righteous
Sachau 165; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 201 1,300 CE Syriac

See entry for Sachau 165

  • Lives and sayings for famous ascetics and church Fathers
    • f. 1-8v Biographical notes about church fathers and Citations of their works
    • f. 8v, 13-25 fragments of a writing about the monastic call
    • f. 9r-9v, 17 fragments of a legend of St. Pior (Identified with Lausaic history ch. 87)
    • f. 9v-12v Admonition of the Apostle Peter
    • f. 12v-16v From the legend of Abba Bishoi about the Isaac who became a Jew
    • f. 16v-18v part of the life of Alexander of Rome
    • f. 18r-19r Patristic citations
    • f. 19r-22r Conversation between teachers and students
    • f. 23r-26v Legends
    • f. 27r-32v Biographical notes about the prophets of the Old Testament
    • f. 32v-36v Notes on the New Testament
Sachau 302; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 27 600 CE Syriac

See entry for Sachau 27

  • f. 1-9r Selections of the work of Mark the Monk (Includes the tractate against the Melchizedekians)
  • f. 9r-11v Another work of Mark the Monk, on Malchus
  • f. 11v-13v Letter of St. Anthony to the monks of all the East
  • f. 13v-16r Letter of John of Thebes
  • f. 16r-19v Letter of Jacob the Seer
  • f. 19v-21v Memra of John Chrysostom on Repentance
  • f. 21v-22r Ephrem Syrus, from the Memra against Bardaisan
  • f. 22r-29v Evagrius Ponticus, Teaching and correction for the solitary brothers in the wilderness
  • f. 30r-41v Evagrius Ponticus, On the perfection of Disciplines
  • f. 41v-42v Evagrius Ponticus, Asceticon
  • f. 42v-54v Evagrius Ponticus, Antirhetikos
Tur Abdin, Turkey, Churches in Enhil (CET 00055) 1,700 CE Garshuni, Syriac
  • Ephrem Syrus, Lives of Saints; Homilies
Diyarbakir, Turkey Meryem Ana Kilisesi 135; 241 (DIYR 00241) 1,907 CE Garshuni, Syriac
  • Readings from the Gospels and Pauline Epistles
  • Jacob of Sarug, on the Destruction of Amid
  • The Life of Ephrem
  • Book of the Fox
  • Summary of the Garden of the Monks
  • Testimonies on behalf of the old Syrians concerning the faith in Christ
Diyarbakir, Turkey Meryem Ana Kilisesi 242; 7/13; 279 (DIYR 00242) 1,707 CE Garshuni, Syriac
  • Homily
  • John Chrysostom, On repentance
  • On repentance
  • Story of the Forty Martyrs
  • On repentance
  • John Chrysostom, On mercy
  • Ephrem Syrus, On repentance
  • Homily on the Holy Lent that is recited every day in the church
  • George, Bishop of the Arabs, Homily on Dying, the world and the soul's exit from the body
  • Story of St. Gregory
  • Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, About a swimmer in springs and streams
  • Moses' conversation on Mt. Sinai
  • Letter that fell from heaven
  • Story of John of the Golden Gospel
  • Jacob of Sarug, Homily on repentance that is recited during the days of the Lent
  • Story of St. Gregory
  • Martyrdom of Barbara and Juliana
  • Story of righteous Job
  • Story of Anba Cyrus
  • Story of St. Michael
Harvard MS Syr 36 1,500 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • 1. Part of the story of Bar Sauma (ff. 1-9, 82-117, the leaves being disordered)
  • 2. 1 Thes. 4:12-18 and John 5:24-9, from a lectionary (f. 11)
  • 3. Part of the History of the Virgin (10, 12-61r; disordered, and with one leaf missing)
  • 4. Memra of Jacob on the passing, that is the obsequies, of the Virgin (61v-69r)
  • 5. Another memra on Mary and Joseph and the envy of the Jews, in the meter of Mar Ephrem (69r-78v)
  • 6. A wonder done by the Virgin Mary (78v-81; breaking off before the end).
  • 7. F. 10v has a geometric design incorporating a prayer
Vat. sir. 126 pt. 2 1,253 CE Syriac

Catalog entry in Assemani

pp. 397-end (Begins with Abba Isaiah the Monk)

  • 'Enanisho', Paradise of the Fathers
    • Book 1: Palladius, Bishop of Heleopolis
    • Book 2: Palladius (Begins in this section)
    • ​Lives of the Fathers according to St. Jerome
    • Book 4: Apophthegmata Patrum 
    • Doctrine and Admonitions of the Fathers on the monastic institution
    • Abba Evagrius, Sermons
    • Abba Anthony, Letters to the monastic brothers 
    • St. Macarius of Egypt, sermons
    • St. Macarius of Egypt, epistles
    • St. Macarius the Alexandrian, Sermons
    • Abraham Nathpar, sermons
    • Ammon the monk and Bishop of Oxyrinchus, letters
    • St. Xystus of Rome, sermons
    • John of Dalyatha, sermons
    • Gregory the Monk on the isle of Cyprus, sermons
    • John of Thebes, sermons
    • St. Basil the Great, Monstaic institutions, Questions and answers from the brethren
      • Letter to his brother Gregory of Nyssa
      • Paranaetic Chapter
      • Ascetic Chatper
    • Jacob of Sarug, letter on the ascetic way
      • Letter to an abbot on the soul
      • Letter about the virtuous men
    • Philoxenus of Mabbug, on the one whose desire is changed toward refraining from the priesthood
      • Letter to the monks of Amid
    • St. Ephrem, sermon
    • St. Mark the hermit, paranaetic sermon
Vat. sir. 199 1,545 CE Garshuni

Catalog entry in Assemani

  • Life of St. Maron
  • Homily on Penitence
  • Story of the three holy Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
  • Death of Isaac the patriarch
  • Death of Jacob the patriarch
  • Jacob of Sarug, Homily on the thief
  • Life of St. Alexei
  • History of St. Abdulmasih
  • Lives of Ss. Sergius and Bacchus
  • Life of St. Marina
  • Life of St. Susanna
  • On Isaac, the son of Abraham the Patriarch
  • Life of St. John
  • Life of Paul
  • On St. Abba Ammon
  • On the Seven children of Ephesus
  • Life of St. Cyril
  • Life of St. Martinianus the Anchorite
  • Life of St. Archelidos
  • History of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul
  • Homily on Penitence
  • Life of St. Dionysius the Aereopagite
  • Jacob of Sarug, Homily on Constantine the great
  • Life of St. Simon
  • Life of Ahiqar the sage
  • Fables of Shaddad, son of 'Addi and Solomon, son of David
  • Letter from heaven given by Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria
  • History of the conception and nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary by her mother Anna
  • Narration of bribery
  • Fable of a certain prince
  • Homily of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria
  • Questions and answers
  • History of Pontius Pilate
  • Apostolic Constitutions
  • Homily of St. John Chrysostom
  • Ephrem Syrus, On wrestling with the Devil
  • Prayer for the sick and penitential
Sinai Syr. 27 1,300 CE Syriac

See entry in Lewis

  • Troparion followed by a few leaves of St. Ephrem and a life of St. Barbara

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