Digitized Manuscripts: Faceted Search

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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
St. Mark's Convent, Jerusalem 2-11 1,554 CE Syriac

See entry at CPART and in Macomber

  • Church of the East (Chaldean) Pontifical Ritual
    • f. 1v-137v Pontifical Ritual
      • f. 1v-2r Gospel lection for the ordination of a bishop or of a catholicos
      • f. 3r Instruction concerning the wood from the which the tablitha is made
      • f. 3v-26r Catholicos Mar Isho'yahb of Adiabene, Consecration of the altar place with oil
      • f. 26v-28r Consecration of the altar place without oil
      • f. 28v Signing of the chalice before it goes up to the altar, when they are compelled to consecrate an additional chalice) on a day of great concourse.
      • f. 29rv Instruction concerning ordinations
      • f. 29v-38r Ordinations of lectors, subdeacons, and deacons
      • f. 38v-44v Rite of the ordination of priests
      • f. 44v-46v Rite of the clothing of monks
      • f. 46v-66v Rite of the tonsure of monks
      • f. 66v-77r Rite of the tonsure of women who are nuns
      • f. 77r-78v Rite of the institution of abbots
      • f. 79v-89v Rite of the ordination of bishops
      • f. 90r-93r The rite of the perfection of bishops by catholicoi. In the Church of the East (Nestorian), a bishop could be ordained by a metropolitan, but he could not exercise his full powers until he had gone to the catholicos and been perfected
      • f. 93r-106r Rite of the ordination of catholicoi
      • f. 106r-107r Rite of the ordination of the archdeacon
      • f. 107r-108r Rite when a chorbishop is appointed for a district to act like the archdeacon, who is the visitor of the villages
      • f. 108r-109v Rite of the ordination of women deaconesses
      • f. 110r-111r Rite of the ordination of a Shaharā priest
      • f. 111r-113r Mar 'Abdisho', Catholicos, Prayer that is recited, likewise a prayer of inclination, over a bishop that is translated from one see to another see
      • f. 113rv Summary of the contents of the manuscript
      • f. 115v-137r Mar Isho'yahb of Nisibis, also known as Bar Malkon, Canons of ordination
      • f. 137rv Four prayers for the reconciliation of penitent excommunicated persons: 1) For a bishop who has been degraded, 2) for seculars, 3 and 4) For anyone
Mardin, Turkey Chaldean Cathedral (CCM 00020) 1,458 CE Syriac
  • f. 1r-7r Elijah of Nisibis, Grammar
  • f. 7v-182r John bar Zo'bi, Grammar
  • f. 182v-191v John bar Zo'bi, Brief Metrical Grammar
  • f. 191v-199v On the difference between the terms kyānāi and qnomā, and between parṣopā and appē
  • f. 199v-200r Metrical treatise on points
  • f. 200r-211r Isho'yahb bar Malkon, Metrical treatise on points, in the meter of Jacob
  • f. 211r-212v On the composition of causes: naturally, logically, and grammatically
  • f. 212v-219r Homily on the divisions of philosophy, in the meter of Ephrem
  • f. 219r-220r John bar Zo'bi, Homily on Philosophy, in the meter of Jacob
  • f. 220r Metrical list of Syriac particles, in the meter of Ephrem
  • f. 220v-234r John bar Zo'bi, Homily on four philosophical problems, in the meter of Ephrem
  • f. 235r-235v On the years from Adam to the present time
  • f. 235v-242r Calendrical text
Mardin, Turkey Chaldean Cathedral (CCM 00398) 1,583 CE Arabic, Latin, Persian, Syriac

See Scher's note on Diyarbakir 95

  • f. 1v-5v Homily for the blessed brethren (Syriac)
  • f. 5v-13v Homily on Repentance (Syriac)
  • f. 15v Story about a monk from Najran (Arabic)
  • f. 16v-53r Gregory bar Hebraeus, On Perfection with additions and commentaries by Khamis bar Qardahe and Īsho'yahb bar Mqaddam (Syriac)
  • f. 53v-55v Ode on the soul, with commentary by Khamis bar Qardahe (Syriac)
  • f. 56r-75r Khamis bar Qardahe, Homilies (Syriac)
  • f. 76v-77r Isho'yahb bar Malkon, Book of Instruction (Syriac) 
  • f. 78v-144v Homily on Rabban Hormizd (Syriac)
  • f. 147v-160v 'Onitha: Pearl of Knowledge (Syriac)
  • f. 172v-182v 'Onitha for the commemoration of Yuliṭa and her son (Syriac)
  • f. 183v-197v 'Abdishō' of Gazarta, Homily on the homonyms (Syriac)
  • f. 198r-203v Riddles (Syriac)
  • f. 204r-204v 'Abdisho' of Gazarta, Turgama of Cyriacus (Syriac)
  • f. 205r-208v Homily of Rogation (Syriac)
  • f. 208v-212v 'Abdisho' of Gazarta, Dismissal prayers in strophes  (Syriac)
  • f. 212v-216v 'Abdisho' of Gazarta, Poems (Syriac)
  • f. 216v-217v Homily about bad time (Syriac)
  • f. 218r-222r Ephrem Syrus, Sermon on Reprehension V (Syriac)
  • f. 223r-227r Jacob of Sarug, Homily on the mysteries of our Lord in the Old Testament (Syriac)
  • f. 227v-232v Credo of the true Orthodox (Syriac)
  • f. 232v-233v Credo of Isho'panaḥ, who was accused of drinking the poison of paganism (Syriac)
  • f. 234v-243r Excerprs from various canonical texts on the election of a patriarch and his rights (Syriac)
  • f. 243v-245r Khamis bar Qardahe, Brief note on heresies and on the pagan gods that were abolished through the coming of Christ (Latin, Persian, Syriac)
  • f. 245v-246v Homily that awakens and exhorts and incites penitents (Syriac)
  • f. 247r-248r Homily about a Syrian Orthodox Patriarch (Syriac)
  • f. 248r-256r 'Abdisho' of Gazarta, Poems (Syriac)
  • f. 256r-258r Riddles (Syriac)
  • f. 258r-266v Poems (Syriac)
  • f. 267r-274v Disputation between a monk of Bet Ḥale and an Arab notable (Syriac)
  • f. 274v-277v On the Trinity (in questions and answers) and other liturgical matters (Syriac)
  • f. 278r-280r Names of the prophets (Syriac)
  • f. 280r-281r On the cities of pagan kingdoms (Syriac)
  • f. 281v-299r Isho'dad of Merv, Excerpts from the Commentary on the New Testament (Syriac)
  • f. 299r-310v Questions on the Pentateuch (Syriac)
  • f. 310v-312v On the barbarious nations that do not know writing and god (Syriac)
  • f. 313r-334v Computus and other astronomical and historical reckonings (Syriac)
  • f. 335v-344v Rite of reception of an ordained bishop
Vat. sir. 217 1,585 CE Garshuni, Syriac

Catalog entry in Assemani

  • Gabriel Barclay, Maronite Bishop of Nicosa, On the Sphere
  • Daniel the sage, On the Zodiac Signs
  • Berozi the teacher, to Theo
  • Astrologia & Lunarium
  • Gabriel Barclay, Metrical exposition on the Apocalypse of John
  • Prayers, benedictions, and absolutions (Syriac and Arabic)
  • Order of the benediction for the great Sunday
  • Jacob of Sarug, Memra on Joseph
  • On the discovery of the body of Joseph under Arcadius and Honorius
  • On the children of Ephesus
  • Various memre
  • Calendar
  • History of animals
  • Hunayn of Hirta, excerpt on medicine
  • Ishō' bar 'Alī, Explination of exotic words
  • Utilizing plants, planets and herbs
  • Michael the Maronite Patriarch, Epistle to the king of the Franks (dated 1575)
  • 'Abdisho' the Catholicos, syriac memre
  • 'Abdisho' the patriarch of the Chaldeans
  • Creed of St. Athanasius
  • Isho'yahb of Nisibis (Bar Malkon), profession of the faith
  • Epistle of formularies
  • Profession of the faith
  • College rules of the Maronites
  • Mass for the Nativity
  • David bar Pawlos, Syriac Memre
  • On the seven climates, Syriac memre