Beschreibung:

ROME, Vatican Library -- Giuseppe Simon Assemani (1687-1768). Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, in qua manuscriptos codices Syriacos, Arabicos, Persicos, Turcocos, Herbraicos... . Rome: Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1719-1728. Three volumes in four, 2 o (385 x 257 mm). Engraved frontispiece in volume I, titles with engraved vignettes, engraved capitals. Title-pages printed in red-and-black. Contemporary vellum, brown morocco spine labels (some minor wear). This work was almost entirely destroyed by fire. It contains important studies of the earliest Vatican manuscripts in Syriac and Arabic. According to The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity , it is "the first and best encyclopedia for the study of early Syriac Christian literature" After almost 300 years from its first appearance, BO (as it is widely known) remains the unrivaled resource on Syriac literature. The author Assemani, who came from a Syriac Maronite tradition, was prefect of the Vatican library where he compiled this encyclopedia. (4)