2. Assemani’s Manuscripts and Documents

After traveling and collecting manuscripts, Assemani’s life work as prefect at the Vatican Library was to catalogue the manuscripts he and others had acquired and to write a history of literature based on the manuscripts he had seen.

Below his primary works, along with some additional documents that show his work process.

Works

• Catalogue of Vatican manuscripts: Assemani, J. S., and S. E. Assemani. Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codicum manuscriptorum catalogus in tres partes distributus  … . 2 parts in 3 vols. Rome: Ex typographia linguarum orientalium, 1758–1759.
  • Part 1, vol. 1 (Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts). On a brief description of this cataloguing effort, see Richler et al., Hebrew Manuscripts.
  • Part 1, vol. 2 (Syriac manuscripts)
  • Part 2, vol. 3 (Syriac manuscripts)
  • See also Hyvernat, Henry. “Vatican Syriac Mss.: Old And New Press Marks.” The Catholic University Bulletin9 (1903): 94–104.

• History of Syriac Literature: Assemani, J. S. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana: In qua Manuscriptos Codices Syriacos, Arabicos, Persicos, Turcicos, Hebraicos, Samaritanos, Armenicos, Aethiopicos, Graecos, Aegypticos, Ibericos et Malabaricos … Ex Oriente Conquisitos … et Bibliothecae Vaticanae Addictos … Recensuit. Rome: Sacra Congreg. de Propaganda Fide, 1719–1728.
  • Vol. 1 („Orthodox“ Syriac writers)
  • Vol. 2 (“Monophysite” Syriac writers)
  • Vol. 3.1 (“Nestorian” Syriac writers)
  • Vol. 3.2 (“Nestorian” Syriac writers)

Documents

• (see the list in Gemayel)
  • Dib, Pierre. Joseph Simon Assémani et Ses Deux Neveux: Leurs Testaments, 1939.
  • Morozov, Dmitry. “Carolus Rali Dadichi and the Bibliotheca orientalis by J.S. Assemani: A letter of an Oriental author on the popularization of Syriac literature in Europe.” Accessed October 20, 2018, 361–370.
  • Vat. Lat. 7262 (not digitized). A collection of documents regarding the Maronite College in Rome, including about J.S. Assemani. See Gemayel, 1115–1116, for a description.
  • Borg. Lat. 486, f. 116r-121r (not digitized). Note regarding books transferred from Maronite College of Ravenna to the library of the Propaganda Fidei College.
  • Vat. Lat. 5528 (digitized). A collection of documents from Sept. 1585 preceding and relating to the founding of the Maronite College.
  • Vat. Sir. 410 (not digitized). Incomplete list of events from founding of Maronite College to 1720.
  • Vat. Cappon.281.pt.2, f. 178r. An example of Assemani’s handwriting.

Exercise

• Read about the background of the collection in Henry Hyvernat, “Vatican Syriac Mss.: Old And New Press Marks,” The Catholic University Bulletin 9 (1903): 94–104 (and optionally the “Postface” to Bibliotheca Orientalis by J.-M. Sauget).
• Find an item of interest to you in vol. 1 or vol. 2 of Assemani’s Bibliotheca Orientalis (BO). Now, using Hyvernat’s index, find the manuscript in Assemani’s catalogue (Part 1, vol. 2, Part 2, vol. 3). (The “old” numbers are from BO, the new ones from the catalogue).
• Using the “new numbers,” i.e., the ones from Assemani’s catalogue, see if you can find your manuscript in the digitized collection: https://digi.vatlib.it/mss/Vat.sir. If it is not one of the digitized ones, choose one that is digitized. Check the flyleaves, first and last page, and foliation. What marks do you see that were added after Assemani or the Vatican Library acquired the manuscript?
• What did you discover about the way Assemani processed Vatican manuscripts?
• How did Assemani acquire manuscripts? We will be returning to Sicard’s account (the letter on pgs. 153-192, as well as any other relevant letters of his you find), and comparing it to Assemani’s own account in the Preface to BO 1. [As a reminder, the English account we read last week was “ART. II.-1. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, on the Theophania, or Divine Manifestation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A Syriac Version Edited from an Ancient Manuscript Recently Discovered,” The Quarterly Review; London 77, no. 153 (December 1845): 39–69, esp. 47–50.]
• What was Assemani’s relationship to the Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts in the Vatican Library? Look at Part 1, vol. 1 of his Catalogue, as well as Richler and Beit-Arié, Hebrew Manuscripts, esp. Proverbio, “Historical Introduction” xix-xxi and the manuscripts mentioned as relating to the Maronite College.

Excursion: The Vatican Library

For a background on the Vatican Library and its History, see the works of Boyle, Library of Congress, Piazzoni, Vatican Library and Vircillofranklin listed in the bibliography below.

• Boyle, Leonard E. 1987. “The Hebrew Collections of the Vatican Library.” In A Visual Testimony: Judaica from the Vatican Library, edited by Philip Hiat, Philip E. Miller, and Michael Alan Signer. Miami, FL; New York, NY: Center for the Fine Arts; Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
• Library of Congress. 1993. “Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture.” Library of Congress. 1993. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/.
• Piazzoni, Ambrogio M., Francesca Manzari, and Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, eds. 2017. Bibbia: immagini e scrittura nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Prima edizione italiana. Milano: Jaca Book. https://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/search?isbn=9788816605473&db=100.
• Vatican Library. n.d. “Publishing.” Vatican Library. Accessed April 19, 2020. https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=sezione_editoria&ling=eng.
• Vircillofranklin, Carmela. 2002. “‘Pro Communi Doctorum Virorum Comodo’: The Vatican Library and Its Service to Scholarship.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146 (4): 363–84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1558312.