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
Harvard MS Syr 4 1,199 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • New Testament (Peshitta Version)
Harvard MS Syr 35 1,500 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • Histories of the Virgin Mary: The Histories of the Virgin are in five books, all but no. 4 having lacunae in their text. Ff. 135-140 (disordered) contain a memra of Mar Aprim "on Mary and Joseph and on the scorn they endured from the Jews."
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
Harvard MS Syr 37 1,554 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • Bar 'Ebroyo, Book of Splendors
Harvard MS Syr 38 1,448 CE Arabic, Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • 1. Story of Mar Shaliṭa (ff. 83r-111v; beginning in the middle of chapter 4)
  • 2. The triumph, that is a small part of the story of Mar Aksenaya who is Mar Philoxenus (111v-121v)
  • 3. Story of the chosen apostle Mar Thoma who evangelized India (122r-174r)
  • 4. Triumph of Mar Yoḥanan Daylamaya whose monastery is in Persia near the city of Reʼgan (175r-186v)
  • 5. Story of Mar Eulogios of the lion (ʼAryaya) from the company of Mar Awgen (187r-236v)
  • 6. Story of Mar Yoḥanan of Kpane which is above the town of Zaʼz (236v; breaking off after this leaf).
Harvard MS Syr 40 1,559 CE Arabic, Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • Ps. 1-150 (f. 3r-228r)
  • Ps. 151 (229r-v)
  • Canticles, beatitudes, Gloria in excelsis, trishagion, Nicene creed (229v-244r)
  • Memra attributed to Ephrem (ff. 244r-249v, incomplete at the end)
  • Colophon (250r).
Harvard MS Syr 42 1,400 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • Homilies of John Saba (ff. 1r-30v)
  • Chapter of knowledge by John Saba (30v-33r)
  • Fifty-one letters of John Saba (33r-67v)
  • Chapters of knowledge, nos. 2-6 (67v-86r)
  • Maxims by John bar Penkaye (86r-87v)
  • Discourse on What is man, by John bar Penkaye (87r-93v)
  • "Letters not found in the monastery copy" (93v-94v)
  • Selected sayings of Saba (94v-96r)
  • Short section by Bar Penkaye (96r-v)
  • Madrashe by the saint (96v-97v)
  • Memra on the trisagion by John Bar Penkaye (98r-101v)
  • Life of John bar Penkaye (101v-102v)
  • Selections from Evagrius, Gregory the Monk, Simeon the Monk, Basil, Philoxenus and John Chrysostom (102v-116v)
  • Apocalypse of Daniel (117r-122v)
  • Discourse of John of Mount Sinai on repentance (122v-125r), with a lacuna on f. 124v
  • unidentified memre (125r-v).
Harvard MS Syr 46 800 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • St. Gregory of Nazianzus
    • Table of contents (f. 1v, fragmentary)
    • Oration no. 31 on moderation in speech (1v-4, 5r-8v, incomplete)
    • Oration no. 32 on theology and the status of bishops (8v-12; incomplete).
Harvard MS Syr 47 1,400 CE Syriac

​Catalog Entry

  • Bound at an early date with a manuscript of theological texts (ff. 1-160)
  • Canons by Mar Yoḥanan the bishop on the holy mysteries (ff.161r-162r)
  • Scholion of Jacob of Edessa on the communion (162r-163v)
  • Commentary on the creed and baptism by Dionysius bar Ṣalibi (163v-168v)
  • An account of the faith and the cross and the other mysteries one by one (168v-177r)
  • The holy and life-giving mysteries of the holy chrism (177r-187r)
  • The hidden mystery concerning baptism (187r-203v)
  • On the making of olive oil for chrism (203v-204v)
  • Various short sections in different hands (205-207)
Harvard MS Syr 85 1,100 CE Syriac

Catalog Entry

  • Order for the burial of priests, including eight services, and lections and memre of Ephrem and Jacob (f. 10-59r, incomplete at the beginning)
  • Order of burial for laymen (4 services), women (4), nuns (2) and children (4) (58r-114v)
  • Memre in the names of Ephrem, Isaac, and Jacob (114v-146, incomplete at the end). The other leaves come from at least three mss.: two of burial services (4-5 and 6-9, all paper) and the other of unidentified services (1-3, 147-150, all vellum).

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