Welcome to Syri.ac! This site aims to be a comprehensive annotated bibliography of open-access resources related to the study of Syriac. The primary goal of Syri.ac is to make research on Syriac literature, history, and culture as painless and direct as possible. The annotated bibliographies can be accessed through the list of authors and themes at the top right of the page (or through a dropdown menu on mobile devices). Each page offers direct links to editions and translations of the texts referenced. Our intention is to collate in one place a world-class scholarly library that can be accessed completely through the web.
Other tools for Syriac research are also available through the menu at the top of the page. The most significant is our database of Syriac manuscripts available in digitized form. The database is searchable and offers direct links to manuscripts, even specific folios of manuscripts, so that students and scholars can quickly consult high-quality images of physical Syriac texts online.
The site also offers a table of editions and translations of Syriac texts that are currently in progress. This is especially useful for connecting scholars working on the same texts or areas of Syriac research. This list is available in the top menu.
Also available via the top menu is a complete survey of available editions of the Syriac Bible, including the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and New Testament Apocrypha in Syriac.
Finally, all of the texts, editions, and translations cited anywhere on Syri.ac are collected in the searchable database of the Bibliography. This resource offers the ability to group published works by author, date, type, and subject. In the majority of cases the Bibliography provides direct links to complete online versions of the texts referenced, and each entry exists as its own independent, linkable page to be used in other online projects. The entries in the bibliography are all Zotero aware and can be downloaded in other bibliographical markup formats.
The site is hosted by the University of Oklahoma's Department of Classics and Letters and Office of the Vice-President for Research. It has received additional funding from Princeton University's Center for Digital Humanities. We are grateful to both universities for their foundational support of our project. Editorial work on this site is carried out by Scott Johnson (University of Oklahoma), Morgan Reed (Catholic University of America), and Jack Tannous (Princeton University).
I am happy to announce that Dr. Grigory Kessel’s “Syriac Editions and Translations in Progress” page is now live on http://syri.ac. You can find it at the following direct link, and it is also linked in the top menu of the site under “Editions in Progress": http://syri.ac/editions
Just a quick note to say that our John of Ephesus page is now up and running. The Lives of the Eastern Saints and the Ecclesiastical History (Part 3) are broken down by Book/Chapter with direct links to the Syriac and English and German translations where available. As always, if you find typos or would like to suggest changes, please do so through our Contact page.
Morgan Reed authored John of Ephesus page, and we're very grateful for his work on this!
Another Syriac-related announcement from Fr. Columba Stewart:
A reminder that deadlines for fellowships at HMML are fast approaching:
cstewart@csbsju.edu
Please note the following announcement from Fr. Columba Stewart:
Dumbarton Oaks and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library announce a new four-week intensive introduction to Syriac language and paleography, July 10 to August 6, 2016. The program, sponsored and funded by Dumbarton Oaks, will be hosted at HMML, located on the campus of Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. The summer school will include a long weekend in Washington, DC, to visit Dumbarton Oaks and other institutions in the area to learn more about their resources for Byzantine and Eastern Christian studies.
Approximately ten places will be available to doctoral students and recent PhDs, including early-career faculty members, who can demonstrate the value of Syriac for their teaching and research. All costs apart from travel to and from Saint John’s University (nearest airport: Minneapolis-St Paul) will be covered by Dumbarton Oaks, including the weekend in Washington, DC.
Mornings will be devoted to Syriac language instruction by Prof. Scott Johnson of the University of Oklahoma, with afternoons devoted to the study of digitized Syriac manuscripts with Dr. Adam McCollum of the University of Vienna (formerly Lead Cataloger of Eastern Christian Manuscripts at HMML). There will be opportunities to use HMML’s collections, as well as to enjoy the campus of 2700 acres, with woods, lakes, and notable architecture.
Further information, including instructions for applicants, can be found here.
Columba Stewart OSB
I am posting to highlight briefly that some important pages have been added in recent weeks to http://syri.ac.
Let me draw your attention to the brand new page on the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. This resource breaks down the Chabot edition by chapter and offers direct links to both the Syriac text and the French translation, in addition to translating the chapter titles into English for ease of navigation. (If any experts on post-9th-century Syriac note any errors of transliteration, particularly with regard to proper names, please let us know through the contact page.)
We have also added a Councils and Canon Law page which provides links to editions and translations available online. These publications, often scattered across hard-to-find journals or in limited editions, are organized here according to confession, author, and date.
In addition, the Hagiography page has been radically expanded and revised: all the major collections of Syriac hagiography are now included in full, with direct links to the Syriac texts as well as the BHO entry and translations where available.
These new pages and expansions were prepared by Morgan Reed (CUA). We are grateful for the hard work and attention to detail he has put into the site.
Please continue to send us your thoughts and comments through our Contact page.
Welcome to syri.ac! This site is a comprehensive annotated bibliography of open-access resources related to the study of Syriac. The site is hosted by the University of Oklahoma and housed in the Department of Classics and Letters. A previous iteration was called "Resources for Syriac Studies" and was hosted by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections in Washington, DC from 2012 to 2015. We are grateful to both institutions for their support of our project. Editorial work on this site was carried out by Jack Tannous (Princeton University), Scott Johnson (University of Oklahoma), and Morgan Reed (Catholic University of America).
A number of new pages have been added to this site. Note the pages devoted to the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis, Isaac of Antioch, Jacob of Sarug, and Narsai, which were authored by Morgan Reed in the summer of 2015.
Even though the design and structure of this site are still under development, all the content should be accessible through the index at the top of each page. If you find problems or errors, or if you have suggestions for further improvement, please send us a note through the Contact form in the menu bar.