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Syriac fragments in the Wellcome Institute Library

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Nigel Allan
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Extract

The collections of oriental material in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine have been described in a previous issue of this journal. They include, among the Semitic language material, a few Syriac manuscript fragments which comprise nine leaves from the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates and a XlXth century letter.

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates commences with the accession of Constantine in 306, following the cessation of Diocletian's persecution of Christians, and traces the history of the church through the reigns of the seven following eastern emperors, the seventh and final book covering the years of Theodosius the Younger (408–450) between his accession and his 17th consulate (439).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 119 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 43 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1987

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References

Notes

1 Allan, N., “The oriental collections in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. London”, JRAS, 1981, pp. 10–25.Google Scholar

2 Socrates, , Ecclesiastical History, VII, 48.Google Scholar

3 For a description of this codex see Wright, W. and McLean, N.. The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius in Syriac, Cambridge, 1898, pp. vf.Google Scholar

4 See Wright, W., Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1870–1872, Pt. II, pp. 631 ff.Google Scholar (no. DCCXXVI). The date is incorrectly given here as 412 A.D. but corrected to 411 A.D. on p. 1236 of Pt. III.

5 The ecclesiastical histories written by Philippus Sidetes, Philostorgius and Hesychius are either in part or wholly lost. The remaining three are the histories of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret.

6 Baumstark, A., Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinensischen Texte, Bonn, 1922, p. 107.Google Scholar

7 S.E., & Assemani, J.S., Biblioihecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codicum manuscriptorum catalogus in tres partes distributus … partis primae, tomus tertius, Rome. 1759. (Reprint Paris 1926), pp. 255–257Google Scholar (no. 145ii).

8 See A. Baumstark, ibid, and p. 274 as a source of the so-called pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahrē. See also Wright, W., A short history of Syriac literature, London. 1894. p. 202,Google Scholar and Duval, R.. La littérature syriaque, Amsterdam, 1970, pp. 187f & 195.Google Scholar

9 See for example, Wright, W., Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, op. cit., pp. 333Google Scholar C. 2 (no. 421. 23. d.); 439 C. 2 (no. 561. 28); 442 C. 2f (no. 563); 553 C. 2 (no. 688); 714 C. 2 (no. 754. 42); 937 C. 1 (no. 857 vii, 5); 987 C. 2 (no. 860. 35. d).

10 By Badger, G. P., The Nestorians and their Rituals with the narrative of a mission to Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842 and 1844, London, 1852, vol. 2. especially p. 360.Google Scholar Badger ascribes the work to the year 1298, probably on the authority of his manuscript.

11 See Eusebius, , Devita Constantini Imperatoris, 1. 21;Google ScholarLactantius, , De mortibus persecutorum, 25.Google Scholar

12 Zosimus, , Historia Nova, 2. 9.Google Scholar See also Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumwissenschaft, Stuttgart, 1958, Bd. IV; pp. 1014f.Google Scholar

13 Assemani, , op. cit., p. 256.Google Scholar

14 Assemani. ibid., concerning the Synod of Nicaea.

15 See Combaluzier, M., “Les missions des Balkans et du proche orient”, Histoire universelle des Missions Catholiques, in Vol. 1:Google ScholarLes Missions Contemporaires (1880–1957), pp. 386–397, published under the direction of Delacroix, S., Paris, 1957.Google Scholar

16 See Badger, , op. cit., vol. 1, p. 172.Google Scholar However. Fiey, J. M., Assyrie Chrétienne: contribution à l'étude de l'histoire et de la géographie ecclésiastiques et monastiques du nord de l'Iraq, Beyrouth, 1965,Google Scholar gives the dates of Joseph's patriarchate as 1848–1878 although on p. 549 of vol. 2 he states “Il fut patriarche de 1847 à 1878”.

17 See Badger, G. P., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 104Google Scholar who states that although the Metropolitan Joseph resided at al-Qōš it was not under his jurisdiction but together with Mosul and the surrounding villages formed part of the diocese of the Nestorian Patriarch. For further information on Joseph see Attwater, D., The Christian Churches of the East, vol. 1, Churches in Communion with Rome, London, 1961, p. 191.Google Scholar

18 The various appellations and their significance with reference to the East Syrian Church are explained by Joseph, J., The Nestorians and their Muslim neighbours, Princeton, N. J., 1961, pp. 3–21.Google Scholar