Cataloging is complete for 803 manuscripts of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad (CPB), digitized by our partners at the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO). The collection is primarily in Syriac and Arabic, but also includes European languages and modern Neo-Aramaic dialects. The collection contains some of HMML's earliest Syriac manuscripts, including two dated to 794 and 822 CE (CPB 00464 and CPB 00440, respectively), but tragically, several of these ancient treasures were severely damaged during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, before they were digitized. The library also includes the private collections of the late Chaldean clergymen Buṭrus Ḥaddād (1937-2010, project code CPB PH) and Yūsuf Gūgī (1886-1971, project code CPB YG), ranging from private notebooks to family heirlooms. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of the Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany, which was microfilmed by HMML in 1987-1988. The collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts is largely written in Latin, with just over a quarter of the texts in German. 29 manuscripts written in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Aramaic, and Coptic were cataloged by Dr. Joshua Mugler.

The majority of the manuscripts—which are comprised of liturgical and devotional texts, theological and scientific treatises, and legal works—fall within the years 1200 CE and 1550. The earliest manuscript is a 7th-century fragment, and the latest manuscript is an index written in 1934-1946 that accompanies a 16th-century German manuscript. By featuring manuscripts gathered from local secularized monasteries and lectures of university figures, the collection offers a glimpse into the spiritual and intellectual history of the sociolinguistic region of the Upper Rhineland that spans Germany, France, and Switzerland. Out of the 608 manuscripts, 46 are clearly identifiable as originally copied for or by a woman or a female community, including two of the most beautiful manuscripts in the collection, Hs. 283. The university library of Freiburg im Breisgau boasts online facsimiles and a robust catalog; by digitizing this catalog in Reading Room, HMML presents the data in an integrated format, allowing for more comprehensive analysis both within the collection and across other collections. View now

The manuscripts in the Bibliothek Bischöfliches Priesterseminar in Trier largely come from the Benediktinerabtei St. Matthias in Trier, with others coming from the Kartause Sankt Alban in Trier, the Stiftskirche Sankt Paulin in Trier, the Benediktinerkloster St. Maximin in Trier, and Kartause Sankt Beatusberg and Stift St. Florin in Koblenz. The collection is rich in devotional material from the High and Late Middle Ages, with some interesting miscellanies containing parts of the Imitatio Christi. Works by Hildegard of Bingen and other religious writings for the women's Augustiner-Chorherrenabtei Springiersbach stand out. The manuscripts from the Benediktinerabtei St. Matthias have largely been digitized and are linked to the records via the Virtuelles Skriptorium St. Matthias project. The collection is largely in Latin with one online and two printed catalogs linked to the records. View now

Cataloging is complete for 359 manuscripts from the Near East School of Theology (NEST), a Protestant seminary in Beirut, Lebanon. The collection includes valuable works on theology, history, and science from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish traditions. The vast majority of the collection is in Arabic, but it also includes significant amounts of Armenian and Syriac and small portions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, English, and Kurdish. This includes HMML's first ever manuscript of Kurdish in Armenian characters, a 20th-century hymnal (NEST B 00022), which complements examples from other collections of Kurdish in Syriac, Arabic, and Roman characters.

The collection dates back to the 13th century, including early manuscripts of rare Arabic works on Sufism (NEST AB 00044), mathematics (NEST AP 00015, NEST AP 00025), history (NEST AH 00008), and grammar (NEST AB 00027), and an Armenian hymnal (NEST B 00014) from 1270. The collection also includes the original 19th-century drafts of the Old Testament from the so-called Van Dyck Bible, the most important Arabic Bible translation of the modern era (69 manuscripts grouped under project number NEST AC 00036, starting with NEST AC 00036 01). Cataloging of this collection was begun by former HMML cataloger Salam Rassi some years ago and has now been completed. View now

The Lebanese Armenian Red Cross Collection in Beirut, Lebanon, is now fully cataloged and available in Reading Room. These 26 manuscripts represent the Armenian liturgical traditions, Gospels, homilies, Psalters, hymnals with musical notations, mathematical works, philosophical discourse, and works on astrology. The collection ranges from the 15th century to the mid-20th century.

One highlight in the collection is a Kʻatsʻurdaran (LARC 00023), a special hymnal, copied in Aghtʻamar island in the Lake Van region, in the year 1430, providing interesting details about the historical context which survives in a damaged colophon. View now

The patriarch's collection of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul (Constantinople) is now fully cataloged and available in Reading Room. The collection consists of 223 manuscripts, most of which are in Classical Armenian, some in Arabic and Ottoman-Turkish. There are multiple texts in Armeno-Turkish (Turkish written in Armenian script), mostly romance novels, and one interlinear Bible in Classical Armenian and Armeno-Turkish (APIP 00067). Among these manuscripts are beautifully illuminated Gospels, illuminated liturgical books, Synaxaria/Menologia, two illuminated prayer scrolls, homilies, commentaries, hymnals (Sharagnots‘) with musical notations, Psalters, philosophical works, and interesting collections of astrological writings and calendars, suggesting peoples’ preoccupation with horoscopes.

Some of the books represent the Mekhitarists of Venice and their publications. The collection also includes several commentaries translated from Latin into Classical Armenian (APIP 00082, APIP 00083, and APIP 00084). One manuscript documents the collection of donations for the poor living in different Armenian vilayets in Turkey (APIP 00224). A highlight is a group of manuscripts on the history of the St. Savior Hospital (APIP 00169-APIP 00176); these appear to be the handwritten drafts of Arshak Alpōyachean (1879-1962), and the published version of the same work can also be found in the collection for comparison (APIP 00190).

These manuscripts range from the 15th century to the mid-20th century, and they offer a fascinating window into Armenian religious and socioeconomic life in the Ottoman Empire. View now

Cataloging is complete for 419 manuscripts from the Melkite Greek Catholic Archdiocese of Aleppo (GCAA). This collection includes a wide array of Christian Arabic liturgical, theological, devotional, and Church historical works, among which are a few rare and unknown translations. For example, GCAA 00092 is a previously unknown, anonymous Arabic translation of a rare late-18th-century Italian work defending certain practices of the Armenian Catholics against the suspicions of their Western European counterparts.

The collection is primarily Arabic, but includes small amounts of Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Persian, Turkish, and other languages. Cataloging was begun some years ago by former HMML cataloger Adam Bursi and the remaining projects have now been completed. View now

Over the course of the Austrian phase of HMML’s preservation work (1965-1973), the microfilming team worked at universities in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Linz, Klagenfurt, and Graz. By far, the largest of these collections was the one in Graz (Styria), where HMML preserved more than 1200 manuscripts along with hundreds of manuscript fragments

Many of these manuscripts came from monasteries closed during the reforms of Emperor Joseph II in the 18th century, including Milltstatt, Neuberg, Sankt Lambrecht, Seckau, Seitz (Žiče in Slovenia), and elsewhere. Not only is the collection rich in monastic manuscripts, it also holds some of the oldest extant manuscripts in the Georgian language, as well as several ancient papyrus fragments from Egypt. Many of these manuscripts have been digitized by the University of Graz, and the HMML records include links to these digital images. View now

Cataloging is now complete for the Private Library of Bét Qušā, located in Qārū, Iraq. This collection contains ten manuscripts in Syriac script, and the manuscripts are primarily liturgical in nature, though one of them contains a collection of saints’ lives. The manuscripts range in date from the 16th-19th centuries. One particularly notable manuscript is PLQ BQ 00010, which is a complete Ḥudrā manuscript, dated 1892 CE. View now

Cataloging is now complete for the manuscript collection of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Diocese of Duhok in Duhok, Iraq. The collection consists of 47 manuscripts total, most of which are written in Syriac script, but two of the manuscripts are in Arabic script.

This important collection reflects the history of Syriac Christians in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, and the colophons of several manuscripts provide geographical data for places in the Duhok district. For example, three of the manuscripts in this collection (DCD 00024, DCD 00040, and DCD 00048) were copied by the same scribe from the village of Mār Yaqúb (later known also as Qāshāfīr), located next to the monastery of Mār Yaqúb, near the village of Sheyoz/Shazi, to the northwest of Duhok. Most of the manuscripts are liturgical in nature, though several of them contain important theological works from Syriac authors. Of particular note among the manuscripts are DCD 00026, a lectionary of Paul’s epistles copied and ornately decorated by the prodigious scribe Pawlos Qaša of Alqūsh, and DCD 00002, a 17th-century (dated 1680 CE) Evangelion.

Cataloging is now complete for 20 items from Kullīyat Bābil al-Ḥabrīyah lil-Falsafah wa-al-Lāhūt (Babel College for Theology), a Chaldean Catholic seminary in ʻAynkāwah, Iraq. This collection was digitized in collaboration with the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO) and includes the collection of Yūsuf Ḥabbī (1938-2000), one of the founders of the seminary. Texts in the collection are primarily Arabic, Syriac, and Neo-Aramaic, with a small amount of French and Turkish. The oldest item in the collection is a Syriac grammatical manuscript dated to 1702 CE (PBCL Y HABBI 00010), while one of the newest is an unusually late manuscript copy of a devotional work in Arabic Garshuni, copied in 1991 CE (PBCL 00005 and PBCL 00006). View now

Cataloging is complete for 74 items from Dayr Sayyidat al-Bishārah (BCCZ), the Convent of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Zūq Mīkhāʼīl, Lebanon. The collection is primarily Arabic, with small portions in Greek, Latin, Ottoman Turkish, and French, and the earliest items date back to at least the early 17th century. Certain works testify to the particular interests of religious women in this Melkite Greek Catholic convent, including lives of female saints (such as a book-length biography of Teresa of Avila), homilies addressed to nuns, and the rules of the community. Other items include liturgical and devotional works, some of which were translated from early Christian Greek or early modern European originals. Of particular interest is a 1612 illustrated Arabic copy of Barlaam and Joasaph (BCCZ 00031), a popular story inspired by the life of the Buddha. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of Buṭrus Mattī Yūsuf in ʻAynkāwah, Iraq (PLF PMY). Yūsuf (1936-2015) was a Chaldean Catholic native of northern Iraq who lived in Paris for most of his later life. His manuscript collection includes his own class notes from his studies in Rome in the 1950s and 1960s along with numerous Syriac texts that were copied by hand from the great manuscript collections of Paris, London, and the Vatican, in many cases followed by French translations. Many of these recent copies were inherited from the earlier French Syriacist François Nau (1864-1931) and are likely in his hand. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of Dayr al-Qiddīs Yūḥannā al-Maʻmadān, or Saint John the Baptist Monastery, a Greek Orthodox institution in Dūmā, Lebanon (DUMA). The collection is almost entirely Arabic with a little Syriac and is surprisingly rich for its small size. It includes an Old Testament manuscript dated to 1236 CE, a liturgical book dated to 1322, and several other manuscripts that are likely of similar age, such as a rare Gospel commentary of Coptic origin. Rare patristic and medieval homilies are joined by numerous liturgical books copied in the late 18th century by Afthīmiyūs, a monk who worked to renovate and expand the monastery. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of the Congregation of the Chaldean Daughters of Mary Immaculate in Baghdad (CSDMB). The collection includes liturgical books along with modern scholarly works. It is primarily in Arabic and Syriac, but a compilation of the correspondence of the priest Buṭrus Ḥaddād (1937-2010) includes numerous languages and showcases Ḥaddād's global connections. View now

Cataloging is complete for the private library of Saʻīd Shāmāyā in Alqūsh, Iraq (PLA SSh). Shāmāyā (born 1929) is a contemporary poet and author working in both Arabic and Neo-Aramaic. The collection includes drafts of his poems, short stories, plays, and other works, including works composed under a pseudonym during the decade he spent in hiding under the rule of Saddam Hussein. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of the Dominican Fathers of Baghdad (DFB). Along with recent scholarly works in French and Arabic, the collection includes a manuscript containing two sacred texts from Iraq's minority Mandaean community. View now

Cataloging is complete for the Kfarbo parish of the Greek Orthodox Church in Ḥamāh, Syria (KFARBO). The collection includes the parish's full complement of liturgical books, primarily in Arabic with small portions in Greek, and dates from the 17th to the 19th century. The oldest dated item in the collection is a Horologion printed in Bucharest in 1702 by Antim Ivireanul, a famous early printer of Georgian origin. View now

Cataloging is complete for the private library of ʻAzīz Qāshā in Karamlīs, Iraq (PLK AQ). Qāshā was a poet working in both Neo-Aramaic and Arabic who died in 2013, and the collection includes drafts and copies of his poems. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of St. Peter's Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary (SPSCPI) in Baghdad, a collection of nine manuscripts photographed by HMML's partners at the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux. The majority of the items in this small collection are homiletic or liturgical in nature, in Arabic or Syriac. The collection includes one of the first Arabic books printed in the Middle East, a devotional work by a Spanish Jesuit printed at the Lebanese monastery of Shuwayr in 1734. Less expected items include a 1910 geometry textbook in Ottoman Turkish and an 1893 collection of stories in Turkish Garshuni (Turkish written in Syriac script). View now