British Library, Add MS 12150 is the second oldest extant

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

F. S. Jones (1992), "Evaluating the Latin and Syriac Translations of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions", ''Apocrypha'', 3, 237–258. There is a "dated Syriac deed of sale found at

Dura-Europus Dura-Europos, ; la, Dūra Eurōpus, ( el, Δούρα Ευρωπός, Doúra Evropós, ) was a Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman border city built on an escarpment above the southwestern bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the vil ...

, which was evidently written in Edessa in the year 243". and the oldest codex bearing a date in any language. According to the original partially damaged colophon, the manuscript was copied in Edessa in the year 723 of the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic civilizations. It is sometimes r ...

, that is, AD 411. In AD 1086 (Seleucid 1398), the colophon was copied onto a different folio. This copy preserves the name of scribe, Jacob. The manuscript was brought at some point to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

and from there in 931 to the Deir al-Suryani in Egypt among some 250 manuscripts collected by

Moses of Nisibis Moses (or Mushe) of Nisibis ( 904–943) was a West Syriac monk and scribe. He was the abbot (''riš dayro'') of Dayr al-Suryan, the Syrian monastery in the Wadi al-Natrun in Egypt, from 914 at the latest. He brought together and helped preserve ...

.Oliver Nicholson (2018), "Martyrology of 411, Syriac", in Oliver Nicholson (ed.), '' The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity'', Vol. 2 (Oxford University Press), p. 976, and Christopher Kelly, "Deir al-Suryani", in ''op. cit.'', pp. 470–471. It was among the manuscripts sent to Britain from Deir al-Suryani by

Paul de Lagarde Paul Anton de Lagarde (2 November 1827 – 22 December 1891) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest orientalists of the 19th century. Lagarde's strong support of anti-Semitism, vocal opposition ...

in 1838 and 1843. The codex is currently housed at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, catalogued as number 12150 in the

additional manuscripts The Additional manuscripts are a collection of manuscripts stored at the British Library. The collection was started at the British Museum in 1756, and passed to the British Library on its establishment in 1973. They form by far the largest collecti ...

collection. The codex contains text of

Pseudo-Clement Clementine literature (also called Clementina, Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Kerygmata Petrou, Clementine Romance) is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement (whom the narrative identifies as ...

's ''Recognitiones''; Titus of Bostra's ''Four Discources Against the Manichaeans''; Eusebius of Caesarea's ''On the Theophany'', ''On the Confessors of Palestine'' and ''Eulogy of the Confessors' Virtue''; and an anonymous martyrology. It has 255 parchment leaves (). The writing is in three columns per page, in 38–42 lines per column, in ''ʾesṭrangēlā'' script. The ink is black and brown. Hatch, William (1946). ''An album of dated Syriac manuscripts''. Boston: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, reprinted in 2002 by Gorgias Press. p. 52. .

References

{{Portal, Bible Syriac manuscripts 5th-century manuscripts Add. 12150