Explorers in Syriac Literature:

Publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts from the British Library

30 June – 25 July 2025, weekdays

Conducted by: John Elie Semaan, LMO

Learn how to handle manuscripts, transcribe the text, discerning its date and origin, create critical apparatuses and prepare the critical text for publication.

You will handle unedited manuscripts in Syriac from the British Library or other digitalized manuscripts.

You will practice transcribing and translating the Syriac texts into English or French depending on the need of the student.

When a manuscript does not have a colophon, we shall use paeolography and other methods to begin to understand the date and origin of the manuscript.

Create critical apparatuses including one describing the text itself, another of scriptural allusions and a third refeerencing early Christian literature.

Prepare the unedited Syriac texts for publication in our series Ephemerides Syriacae published by St Michael’s Abbey Press, Farnborough, Hampshire, UK.

If you are interested in joining our project, please contact Elie Semaan at this email link.

Elie’s personal web-page is here.

Cost: £300 for two weeks; £500 for four weeks

Hours: After 10:30 AM and afternoons by arrangement.

Progress report 2024

In 2024 Elie worked on three manuscripts of the same text by Isaac of Antioch. Two of the texts are from the Vatican Library and the third is from the British Library. He prepared one apparatus of the manuscripts, another of scriptural references a third of allusions to ancient Christian literature. They will be published in 2025.

Page updated 30 July 2024 by DM.