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 2-4 1,300 CE Syriac

See entry at CPART and in Macomber. Baumstark 18.

  • f. 9v-192r Syrian Orthodox Pontifical Ritual
    • f. 9v-15v The Harangue (?) decreed by St. Jacob, Metropolitan of Mayāfāqīn, the city of the martyrs of Mesopotamia
    • f. 17v-22r Exhortation or instructions to priests and deacons, which the Patriarch or Metropolitan delivers before ordaining them
    • f. 22v-49v Rite of ordinations of priests and deacons
    • f. 50r-52v The rite of consecration of the oil with which those being baptized are anointed before their descent into the baptismal font
    • f. 53v-91r The consecration of altars, altar stones and sanctuaries, after the office of matins
    • f. 91v-127r The rite of ordination of high priests, or metropolitans, and bishops
    • f. 127v-169v The rite of consecration of chrism
    • f. 170r-182v Explanation of the consecration of chrism
    • f. 183r-186r Prayers of every sort
      • f. 183r When visiting the sick
      • f. 183r When the priest enters a monastery
      • f. 183v When the priest enters the houses of the faithful
      • f. 183v For youths
      • f. 183v-184r For someone who is baptized by heretics and returns
      • f. 184r For someone who is possessed by demons
      • f. 184rv That a person prays for himself when he is possessed by a demon or by any person
      • f. 184v for someone who is setting out on a journey and asks for prayer
      • f. 184v-185r what the person who is setting forth recites for himself
      • f. 185r For someone who violates his oaths repents
      • f. 185rv For the ordination of an abbot or visitor
      • f. 185v-186r For an altar place that a pagan, or barbarian, or heretic has entered and defiled
    • f. 186v-190r Prayers (of blessing recited) over the people
      • f. 186v-187v In the meter of Mar Ephrem
      • f. 187v-190r In the meter of Mar Jacob of Sarug
    • f. 191v-192r Prayer for someone who returns from captivity and has violated his profession of faith
Sachau 167; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 38 1,496 CE Syriac

See entry for Sachau 167

  • f. 1-34r Prayers of Catholicos Elijah III
  • f. 34r-106v Liturgies for feast days by Elijah of Nisibis
    • f. 34r-76 various feasts
    • f. 77-106r Liturgical text including Anaphora of the apostles
  • f. 106v Order of Baptism, by Isho'yahb III
  • f. 121r Order of absolution, by Isho'yahb III
  • f. 123v Order of the consecration of the waters
  • f. 125r Order of exorcisms
  • f. 126v Order of the renewal of the leaven
  • f. 127v Order of the consecration of the altar without oil
  • f. 133r-138v Prayers at the table
  • f. 139r Colophon
  • f. 139v-140v Blessing
  • f. 140v-150r Ordinal
  • f. 150v Order of consecration of the altar with oil
  • f. 182v Order of the service of Pentecost
Borg. sir. 57 1,686 CE Syriac

Catalog entry here

  • Episcopal Ceremonies according to the West-Syrian Rite
    • Consecration of the oils
    • Consecration of the church
    • Renewal of a church
    • Consecration of the altar
    • Various prayers for the laying on of hands
    • Rite of the laying on of hands upon the Psalter-readers and lectors, sub-deacons, deacons, priests, archdeacons, Chorbishops, patriarchs, metropolitans and Bishops
    • Three rites of baptism
    • Order of the taking up of the monastic habit
    • Homily (Turgama) of Moses bar Kepha
    • Order of the taking up of the monastic habit for women
    • Benediction over the waters for the day of Epiphany
    • Benediction of the palms
    • Various rites to do during holy week, the week of Easter and the Sunday of Pentecost
    • Prayers to recite over the apostate
    • Benediction over sacred linens, on images, on statues, etc.
    • Rite of baptism by Bar 'Ebroyo
    • Rite of extreme unction
    • Funeral rites
Vat. sir. 41 pt. 1 Unknown Syriac

ff. 1-269; See entry in Assemani

  • Liturgicon with Euchologion, translated from Greek into Syriac (Melkite rite)
    • Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
    • Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
    • Pre-sanctified liturgy
    • Lections from the Gospels and Apostles
    • Readings for common days
    • Lections of Gospels and Apostles for the 40-day fast according to the Greek rite
    • Lections from the Acts of the Apostles and Gospels
  • Imposition of hands for the ordination of the priesthood
  • Prayer for a subdeacon
  • Service for the ordination of a deacon
  • The ordination of a presbyter
  • Prayer for an 8-day-old child
  • Presentation of children in the temple
  • Order of Baptism according Bishop Basil the Great, translated from Greek into Syriac
  • Prayer of the blessing of a baptismal crown after seven days
Vat. sir. 296 Unknown Syriac

Catalog entry in Assemani

  • Liturgy (Melkite Rite)
    • Liturgy of John Chrysostom
    • Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
    • Pre-Sanctified Liturgy
    • Prayer over 8-day old children
    • Entry into the temple
    • St. Basil the Great, Order of baptism
    • Prayer over the baptized 7-days after their baptism
    • Ordination of a reader, sub-deacon, and presbyter
    • Order of the tonsure of monastic novitiates
    • Ordination of the holy order of monk
    • Holy order of the oil
    • Prayers for the sick
Vat. sir. 303 1,608 CE Syriac

Catalog entry in Assemani

  • Book of Priests (East Syrian Rite)
    • Order of presbyters (obligations and absolutions found for the presbyter in the office)
    • Liturgy of the blessed apostles
    • Liturgy of Theodore of Mopsuestia
    • Liturgy of Nestorius
    • Order of Baptism (composed by Isho'yahb of Adiabene)
    • Order of the consecration of waters
    • Order of the renewal of the dough
    • Absolutions at the end of the mass recited at the door of the chancel (by 'Abdisho' bar Brīkā)
    • Sanctifying polluted water
    • Order of indulgences or absolutions, composed by Isho'yahb Catholicos
    • Prayers for Dominical feasts
    • Prayers for the dedication of a church by Abul-Azar
    • Absolution at the end of the Mass
    • Other absolutions at the door of the chancel, by Mar Gabriel
    • History of martyrs