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
Vat. sir. 51 pt. 1 1,100 CE Syriac

See entry in Assemani

  • Binding
  • West Syrian Pontifical of Michael the Patriarch
  • Binding

Vat. sir. 51 pt. 2 1,100 CE Syriac

See entry in Assemani

  • Binding
  • West Syrian Pontifical of Michael the Patriarch
  • Binding

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

Mosul, Iraq, Mar Behnam (Monastery) (MBM 00205) 1,771 CE Garshuni, Syriac
  • Ignatius Ya'qub I, Patriarch of Antioch, Examination and guidance for the priesthood

Vat. sir. 45 1,556 CE Syriac

Catalog entry in Assemani

Chaldean Pontifical

  • Consecration of the altar with oil
  • Instruction on the consecration of an altar when it is desecrated
  • Consecration of an altar without oil
  • Sign made over the chalice
  • Order of the ordination of deacons
  • Ordination of presbyters
  • Order of the Habit of monks
  • Order of the tonsure of monks, made by Rabban Pethion, the priest and monk
  • Order of the tonsure of nuns
  • Ordination of deaconesses
  • Ordination of Archdeacons
  • Order of installation of abbots
  • Order of the laying on of hands of a Bishop
  • Order of the perfection of a Bishop to Catholicos
  • Ordination of the Catholicos
  • The 'Onitha for Mar John Sulaqa, Catholicos Patriarch who was ordained in Rome the great by the hands of Pope Julius IV, composed by Mar 'Abdisho', Metropolitan of the tiny Gazarta
  • 'Abdisho (of Gazarta), 7-syllable poem on the Patriarch John
  • 'Abdisho (of Gazarta), A third song (7-syllable meter) mourning the death of Patr. John Sulaqa
  • Dionysius bar Ṣalibi, canons and confessions
  • Prayer for the sick
  • Canons
  • Benedictions for when Bishops leave the city
  • Benedictions the Bishop performs which going to a monastery
  • Prayer of benediction when the Bishop leaves the monastery
  • Prayer for the Archimandrites with a benediction
  • Benediction the Bishop performs for scholars
  • Admonition for ordinations