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Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 63(3-4), 277-310. doi: 10.2143/JECS.63.3.2149623 © 2011 by Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. All rights reserved. THE PATRIARCH, THE SCRIBE AND MR. READER THE COLOPHON OF JERUSALEM MS.SYR 1, A GOSPEL LECTIONARY FROM ALQOSH (1679) HELEEN MURRE-VAN DEN BERG* In the summer of 1679, a beautiful manuscript was produced in Alqosh, a small town in the foothills of the Ba’edhre Mountains in today’s North Iraq. It is a Gospel Lectionary, containing the lections (qeryane) for the Sundays and Holidays of the whole year, starting with the first Sunday of Annuncia- tion (subbara), the period of the year that corresponds with the Latin Advent. Further on in the colophon the scribe noted that the lectionary was written for “the famous church that is in Jerusalem.” Until today, the manuscript has remained in the city, in the library that is part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal complex.1 While the later history of the manuscript, including the question how it ended up in the Greek Patriarchal library, needs further research, its location in Jerusalem is directly connected to the reasons for commissioning and donating it as explicated in the colophon. This manu- script, though exceptional in many respects, provides an excellent basis for a further discussion of scribal practice and the function of manuscripts and colophons, following up upon an earlier article in which I discussed the colophons of the Church of the East in the Ottoman period.2 This study, which includes a full translation of the colophon and an overview of the * Heleen Murre-van den Berg is Professor of the History of World Christianity at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the history of Western missions in the Middle East and the modern history of the Syriac churches. 1 J.B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur les manuscrits syriaques conservés dans la bibliothèque du patri- arcat grec orthodoxe de Jerusalem’, Journal Asiatique, 3 (1894), pp. 92-134, here 94-95; Sebastian Brock, ‘East Syriac Pilgrims to Jerusalem in the Early Ottoman Period’, Aram, 18-19 (2006-2007), pp. 189-201; see further A Rücker, ‘Mitteilungen: Ein alter Handschrif- tenkatalog des ehemaligen nestorianischen Klosters in Jerusalem’, Oriens Christianus, 28 (1931), pp. 90-96, and K.M. Koikylides, Katalogos synoptikos ton en te bibliotheke tou hierou koinou tou p. Taphou apokeimenon syriakon cherographon (Berlin, 1989) (quoted by Brock). 2 Heleen Murre-van den Berg, ‘“I the weak scribe”, Scribes in the Church of the East in the Ottoman Period’, The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 58 (2006), pp. 9-26. 95073_JECS_2011_3-4_01_Murre.indd 277 27/02/12 12:39 278 HELEEN MURRE-VAN DEN BERG historical context, intends to contribute to understanding the particular cir- cumstances of the genesis of this volume, but also to enhance our insight in the function of colophons in the Church of the East more generally, in its religious as well as socio-political aspects. THE MANUSCRIPT There can be little doubt that this Gospel Lectionary was intended to be one of the top manuscripts of its time. I will refrain from an extensive codico- logical discussion, but a few observations should be made.3 The first of these is its outward appearance: its huge size (580x345mm) and beautiful red leather binding, fitting its prominent place in the liturgy. The leather bind- ing is decorated with a cross in relief, which shows traces of a yellowish (perhaps originally golden) color. The decorative band along the border has traces of the same yellow as well as green, though all colors have faded towards browns and grays. Somewhat remarkably, the cross, with three equal arms ending in a fleur-de-lys motive, stands on a pedestal that is on the long, spinal side of the book. This may indicate a flat lectern where readers and devotees approached the manuscript from different sides. However, marks on the cross, resulting from touching and kissing, are mostly on the right- middle side of the volume, suggest a standing, rather than a flat, position on a lectern. Whatever its intended and actual position, these marks indicate that at least for some period of time this manuscript was used for devotional purposes. Compared to other liturgical manuscripts the cover is remarkably well preserved, pointing to the transfer of the manuscript to a library collec- tion before it got too much damaged by regular usage. 3 On East Syriac codicology more generally, see W.H.P. Hatch, An Album of Dated Syriac Manuscripts, Monumenta paleographica veteran, 2 (Boston, Mass., American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1946). Of the 200 photographs of manuscripts, only 24 are East Syriac (‘Nestorian’), two dating to the 14th c. (nos. 175-6), three to the 15th c. (177-9) and four to the 16th c. (180-3). See further The Hidden Pearl: The Heirs of the Ancient Aramaic Heritage, eds. Sebastian P. Brock, David G.K. Taylor (Rome: Trans World Film Italia 2001), II, “The Art of the Scribe” (Ch. 7), pp. 243-262. Two detailed codicological descriptions of individual manuscripts are given by Jean-Marie Sauget, Un cas très curieux de restauration de manuscrit: le Borgia syriaque 39, and Un gazza chaldéen disparu et retrouvé: le MS. Borgia syriaque 60, Studi e testi, 326 (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1987). 95073_JECS_2011_3-4_01_Murre.indd 278 27/02/12 12:39 THE PATRIARCH, THE SCRIBE AND MR. READER 279 The inside is in an even better condition. Most of the manuscript is writ- ten in a monumental and refined East Syriac Estrangela, in two columns, in shiny black ink, with almost full vocalization, on thick paper. For the initial paragraphs of the colophon, the scribe used the same script, but from fo. 128a/A onwards (§4, see below, fig. vi) is written in a much smaller, cursive, East Syriac hand. The columns are bordered by a double thin red line and new Sunday lections are indicated by the use of red ink for the initial lines of writing, often in addition to decorative bands consisting of a variety of geometric designs in black, red, green and yellow. On a number of pages larger geometric designs are included, with crosses and rose-like motives, sometimes including larger crosses and lamps, customarily positioned at the beginning of new Sunday lections. The title page, in accordance with East Syriac and wider Middle Eastern practice, is decorated with a monumental ‘gate’, consisting of two larger borders including knotted designs in red, green, yellow and black, alternated with simple striped borders. The initial lines of the text are outlined in red and filled in with gold (fig. i). Most remarkable is the fact that the manuscript includes two large (though not quite full page) drawings, something not very common in the later East Syriac manuscripts.4 The first pictures Jesus’ triumphal entrance in Jerusalem on a young ass, with beardless youngsters in the trees while others welcome him by putting items of clothing on the street. Notably, no disciples are included in the scene. As one would expect, it introduces the reading for Palm Sunday (fig. iii). The second displays the so-called Incredulity of St. Thomas, the scene at the Upper Room (Cenacle) of Zion (‘ellita Òehyonita) with the risen Christ in the middle, putting Thomas’s hand on his right-side wound and Simon (Peter) watching on the right, introducing the reading for the first Sunday after Easter (“New Sunday”) (fig. v).5 Jules Leroy, in his monumental overview of illustrated Syriac manuscripts, notes a series of several Gospel lectionaries with similar illustrations. Among these are lectionaries produced in 1572, 1576 and 1586 in Gazarta (Cizre, 4 Jules Leroy, Les manuscrits syriaques a peintures conservés dans les bibliotheques d’Europe et d’Orient: contribution a l’étude de l’iconographie des églises de langue syriaque (Geuthner: Paris, 1964). 5 On this version of the Incredulity, see Bas Snelders, Identity and Christian-Muslim Inter- action: Medieval Art of the Syrian Orthodox from the Mosul Area, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 198 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), pp. 182-183. 95073_JECS_2011_3-4_01_Murre.indd 279 27/02/12 12:39 280 HELEEN MURRE-VAN DEN BERG East Turkey) and Wasta (also East Turkey, not far from Silope), as well as a later series produced in Alqosh in 1679, 1706, and 1735. As far as can be concluded from the current overviews of the manuscripts of this period, this modest tradition of illustrated Gospel lectionaries was started by the famous scribe and priest Attaya, son of priest Faraj, of Gazarta, in 1572.6 It is tempt- ing to see our manuscript, the one produced in Alqosh in 1679, as the first of a new series and thus our scribe as the one who re-introduced these illus- trated Gospel lectionaries after a pause of more than hundred years. So far, no conclusive evidence supports this hypothesis. The illustrations, however, are strikingly similar to those in Borgia 169 (Gazarta 1576), though these were not copied slavishly. The Borgia manuscript is discussed in detail by Leroy, and was also produced by priest Attaya, like the first of the series.7 Interestingly, like our Jerusalem manuscript, this second manuscript of the series was written for ‘the church of the Nestorians in Jerusalem, situated near the church of the Franks, north of the tomb of Christ.’8 This is not to place to delve deeper into the iconography of this series of Gospel lectionaries, but despite their lack of technical sophistication, these drawings certainly deserve a separate study. In such a project, their connection to earlier Byzantine, Armenian and Syrian Orthodox traditions and the con- text of their appearance in the Lectionaries of the Church of the East, should be further explored.
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