Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard Houghton Library, Syr. 82

Images: not available online

Former shelfmark: SMH 73, access no. 4010

Physical description: paper, 13 × 8 cm., 214 fols., 1 col. From Titterton’s description: “the ms. has 23 quires originally of 10 leaves each; but many leaves have been lost. Fols. 1–6, 9, 189, 190, 192, 194, 195 are in later hands and supplied to fill lacunae. Even so, leaves are missing from quire 2 (after fols. 10 and 18), only 8 leaves remain out of 20 from quires 20 and 21 (between fols. 188 and 197), and the last 3 leaves of quire 23 are lost (after fol. 213)” (“Syriac Manuscripts in the Semitic Museum,” 150).

Language(s): Syriac

Date: ca. 17th/18th. cent.

Provenance: scribe identified as Joseph (fol. 15r); manuscript purchased by Rendel Harris in Mardin.

Contents: West Syriac Life of Mary featuring:

Protevangelium of James (as book 1, fols. 1v–15r; and book 2, fols. 15v–23v)

Vision of Theophilus (as book 3, fols. 24r–74v)

Infancy Gospel of Thomas (as book 4, fols. 74v–84r)

Six-Books Dormition of the Virgin (as book 5, fols. 84v–159v; and book 6, fols. 159v–188v, lacking the end)

Additional Contents: one or more untitled memre on Mary and Joseph (fols. 189r–214v, incomplete).

Catalogs:

Goshen-Gottstein, Mosche H. Syriac Manuscripts in the Harvard College Library: A Catalogue. Harvard Semitic Studies 23. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979 (p. 70).

Titterton, Lewis H. The Syriac Manuscripts in the Semitic Museum of Harvard University (unpublished thesis, 1925), 150-51.

Clemons, James T. “A Checklist of Syriac Manuscripts in the United States and Canada,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 32 (1966): 224-51, 478–522 (p. 243, MS no. 117).

Other online databases: HOLLIS

Entry created by Tony Burke, York University ([email protected]), 19 October 2016.