Digitized Syriac Manuscripts at St. Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem
Catalogs and Digitizations
St. Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem houses hundreds of Syriac manuscripts, which have been digitized twice and cataloged at least four different times. For more on the history of this monastery, see the article in e-GEDSH: “Mark, Monastery of St.”, in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, Electronic., Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2018.
,In the late 19th century, Frédéric Macler visited the Monastery of St. Mark to research the mansucript which contained the life of St. Azazel. While looking at the manuscripts, he published a short catalog of 24 manuscripts in Syriac and Garshuni held at the Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem:
- Notice des Manuscrits Syriaques conservés dans la biblliothèque du Couvent des Syriens Jacobites de Jérusalem. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1920. ,
Nearly a decade later, Anton Baumstark published a larger catalog of just over 80 of the Syriac and Garshuni manuscripts in three parts in Oriens Christianus:
- “Die liturgischen Handschriften des jakobitischen Markusklosters in Jerusalem”, Oriens Christianus, vol. 1, pp. 103–115, 286–314, 1911. ,
- “Die literarischen Handschriften des jakobitischen Markusklosters in Jerusalem (I)”, Oriens Christianus, vol. 2, pp. 120–136, 317–333, 1912. ,
- “Die literarischen Handschriften des jakobitischen Markusklosters in Jerusalem (II)”, Oriens Christianus, vol. 3, pp. 128–134, 311–327, 1913. ,
In 1987/88, as part of an NEH funded project, under the direction of Professor S. Kent Brown, 30 manuscripts were microfilmed. In 1990, W. Macomber created an inventory of microfilmed manuscripts and these digital images have now been placed on the Internet Archive.
- Final Inventory of the Microfilmed Manuscripts of St. Mark's Convent, Jerusalem. Provo: Brigham Young University, 1990. The numeration of the microfilms of these manuscripts, though idiosyncratic, was coordinated in the appendix both with Baumstark's numeration (where applicable) and the actual shelf mark. ,
In 1994 F. Dolabani wrote a handwritten catalog of 289 of the manuscripts. Unfortunately, his catalog has not yet been made available in the public domain. He organizes his catalog by shelf mark:
- Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in St. Mark's Monastery (Dairo dMor Marqos). Damascus: Sidawi Printing House, 1994. ,
- CPART (The Committee for the Promulgation of Ancient Religious Texts) has provided the information to coordinate Macomber's numbers with Dolabani's catalog in list form: “Jerusalem - St. Mark's Monastery”. .
More recently, the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library has digitized and cataloged the 256 manuscripts available in Dolabani's catalog, making the images available through vHMML. Unfortunately, neither Macler nor Baumstark included the shelf marks of the manuscripts they were cataloging. Therefore, as a result, the numbers in Macler, Baumstark, Macomber, and Dolabani do not match. It will still remain a desideratum to have Baumstark's entries matched to Dolabani's, but we have created a helpful relatable table which coordinates the Macomber numbers with the vHMML entries (based on the shelf mark). Where possible we have also attempted to include Baumstark's and Macler's entries. The Digitized Manuscripts page gives a full listing (with contents) of the manuscript images made available online here.
St. Mark's Monastery Table
Click here to use the SMMJ Table. The columns are as follows (left-to-right):
- SMMJ number: This column presents the shelf mark used by Dolabani (and vHMML).
- Syri.ac entry: This column contains links to the specific pages of information for individual manuscripts available at Syri.ac.
- vHMML entry: This column provides the links to the vHMML entry for individual manuscripts.
- Microfilm images: This column links to the 1987/88 microfilm images available at the Internet Archive.
- Macomber entry: This column links to the individual entries available in Macomber's catalog.
- Baumstark entry: This column links to the individual entries available in Baumstark's catalog.
- Macler entry: This column links to the individual entries available in Macler's short catalog.
If you would like to contribute links to Baumstark's and Dolabani's catalog, or to suggest a comment or correction, please contact us.