A Greek-Arabic Liturgical Manuscript in Princeton’s Scheide Library

1. The largest batch of Sinaitic diaspora manuscripts ever to circulate on the European antiquities market was probably the one offered by the Leipzig-based antiquarian, book dealer, and publisher Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann (1854-1924). His Katalog 500, with the thematic title Orientalische Manuskripte, offered 54 manuscripts in 8 languages. The majority of these is probably of Sinaitic origin, though the catalogue discloses next to no provenance information. Still, at least two former owners of a handful of Hiersemann’s Sinaitic manuscripts are identifiable: Friedrich Grote (1861-1922) and Wilhelm Anton Neumann (1837-1919). It is well-known that both had manuscripts that originally came from St Catherine’s Monastery. Hence, it appears highly likely that all the Sinaitic manuscripts in Katalog 500 are related to either of these collectors. Chronologically, Neumann is the more likely candidate, having died in 1919, whereas Grote was still alive when the catalogue was compiled. However, Neumann’s and Grote’s collections are possibly not unrelated and Grote might, in fact, have been a source of Neumann’s Sinaitica. I shall address this question in a future post. Something else that should be noted is that Katalog 500 was not the only of Hiersemann’s catalogues that included Sinaitic manuscripts. Some also showed up in Katalog 487, Katalog 565, and an unnumbered catalogue also entitled Orientalische Manuskripte.¹

2. The Syriacist Anton Baumstark (1872-1948) had been asked to write a report on the manuscripts of Katalog 500, which is dated 17 January 1922, and was enclosed to the catalogue.² Baumstark was also responsible for the descriptions in the catalogue. His report primarily focuses on the Syriac manuscripts, which form the main group, numbering 26 (not counting one Syriac-Arabic manuscript). The second largest group consists of 21 Christian Arabic manuscripts, including one Syriac-Arabic and two Greek-Arabic manuscripts. I’m also planning a post on these Christian Arabic manuscripts in the near future.

3. In the 1970s, Bernard Outtier and Werner Strothmann set about investigating the afterlife of the manuscripts of Hiersemann’s Katalog 500.³ Here, I will take up one of Strothmann’s remarks concerning one of the Greek-Arabic manuscripts (MS olim Hiersemann 500/no. 46). First of all, here’s Baumstark’s short description of this manuscript (my English translation below):

“46. Ritual of Funeral Office. Greek-Arabic paper manuscript, probably 12th c., incomplete at the beginning and hangig loosly in its older leather covers. At the beginning, 9 leaves are missing, as the regular structure of quaternions allows to determine. Even though all leaves are damaged at the lower outer margin, no text was lost. Ritual of Funeral Office. 73 leaves, 13,2 x 10,4 cm with regular 11 lines. Original leather cover.    42.000

This manuscript offers only a single normal formular of the Office for the Dead, which is meant for use at the funeral itself. The text starts with the litany of the Vesper, which here is not clearly separated anymore from the Matutin. The normal formular is followed here by the completely preserved special canons for monks and women (inc. Μνήσθητι τῶν ἐν πίστει καὶ ἐν σφραγίδι τῇ σῇ κοιμηθέντων) with its biblical pericopes. Here, only the latter have, as in the normal formular, Arabic translations. Appended follows the communion troparion: Τοῦ δείπνου σου τοῦ μυστικοῖ. The manuscript has the highest value as a complement to defect parts of the former.”⁴

Unfortunately, the catalogue does not include a facsimile (fig. 1 above represents MS olim Hiersemann 500/no. 45 = MS Leiden, Universitaire Bibliotheken, Or. 14239, which also contains a Greek-Arabic Office for the Dead). One folio page (38r) of the manuscript is pictured in Kotzabassi/Ševčenko/Skemer 2012,⁵ fig. 239 (fig. 3).

4. Now, thanks to the work of Outtier and Strothmann it is not hard to reconstruct the post-1922 biography of this manuscript. It was bought with a number of other manuscripts offered in Katalog 500 by the Swiss merchant and collector Arnold Mettler-Specker (1867-1945) (fig. 2 shows Mettler-Specker’s ex libris as it is found in MS olim Hiersemann 500/no. 15 = MS Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College Library, Special Collections, BV 69). Mettler-Specker deposited some of his manuscripts in the University Library of Zurich, Switzerland. MS olim Hiersemann 500/no. 46 was assigned the shelfmark Or. 85. After Mettler-Specker’s death, his heirs auctioned his collection through Sotheby’s & Co. at the Parke-Bernet Gallaries, New York, on 29 and 30 November 1948. At this auction, the manuscript was bought by the New York-based collector and dealer of Austrian origin Hans Peter Kraus (1907-1988).

5. Both Outtier and Strothmann mention that already around 1975 the manuscript was in Princeton.⁶ In fact, Princeton University Library’s online catalogue has an entry on it.⁷ The manuscript’s present shelfmark is MS Princeton, William H. Scheide Library, M 141. The entry offers interesting additional information. Apparently, the manuscript was obtained from Kraus in 1970. However, between 1948 and 1970, Kraus had sold it to another famous collector from Switzerland, Martin Bodmer (1899-1971), and then again repurchased it from Bodmer.

6. In 1974, Kraus published a book entitled Monumenta Codicum Manu Scriptorum, a lavishly produced “exhibition catalogue”, showcasing some of his most impressive manuscripts.⁸ I checked this publication just to make sure it doesn’t have the Greek-Arabic manuscript, which, at that time, was of course no longer part of his collection.⁹ There are still some Sinaitic manuscripts pictured in the book, though, and I noticed that one of them, part of a Syriac Psalter, which according to Kraus might be a membrum disjectum of MS Sinai, St Catherine’s Monastery, Syr. 41,¹⁰ was also purchased from Martin Bodmer.

7. Notably, Kraus’s provenance statement ultimately traces this Syriac manuscript back to Grote. Since some of the manuscripts from Katalog 500 demonstrably come from Grote’s collection, MS olim Hiersemann 500/no. 46 = MS Princeton, University Library, William H. Scheide Library M 141 might have formed part of this collection as well and, therefore, ultimately derive from St Catherine’s Monastery. I wonder if the actual manuscript still bears traces of a possible Sinaitic origin.

Published: 15 May 2024. Last updated: 12 April 2024. License: CC BY-NC. Download PDF

1. See the Bibliography. [↩]
2. Anton Baumstark, “Gutachten über die griechischen, syrischen und arabischen Handschriften und Handschriften-Bruchstücke des Katalogs K. W. Hiersemann, Leipzig No. 500“, in: Karl W. Hiersemann, Katalog 500: Orientalische Manuskripte: Arabische, syrische, griechische, armenische, persische Handschriften des 7.-18. Jahrhderts [sic]: meist theologischen, vorzüglich kirchen- u. liturgiegeschichtlichen Inhalts von hoher Bedeutung z. gr. Tl. Inedita und Unica (Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1922), 2 pp. [s. n.]. [↩]
3. Bernard Outtier, “Le sort des manuscrits du ‘Katalog Hiersemann 500’“, Analecta Bollandiana, 93/3-4 (1975), pp. 377-380; Werner Strothmann, “Die orientalischen Handschriften der Sammlung Mettler (Katalog Hiersemann 500)“, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Supplement III, 1: XIX. Deutscher Orientalistentag (1975) (1977), pp. 285-293. [↩]
4. Karl W. Hiersemann, Katalog 500: Orientalische Manuskripte: Arabische, syrische, griechische, armenische, persische Handschriften des 7.-18. Jahrhderts [sic]: meist theologischen, vorzüglich kirchen- u. liturgiegeschichtlichen Inhalts von hoher Bedeutung z. gr. Tl. Inedita und Unica (Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1922), p. 21; Eng. tr. mine. [↩]
5. Sofia Kotzabassi, Nacy Patterson Ševčenko, Don C. Skemer, Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010). [↩]
6. B. Outtier, “Le sort du manuscrits”, p. 378; W. Strothmann, “Die orientalischen Handschriften”, p. 293, n. 54. [↩]
7. I’m grateful to AnnaLee Pauls, Special Collections Assistant, for her help with locating the manuscript. As a result of our exchange, the online entry now contains the following provenance information: “Sold in 1922 by Leipzig-based antiquarian, book seller, and publisher Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann (1854-1924) to the collector Arnold Mettler-Specker (1867-1945) and deposited for a while in the University Library of Zurich under the shelfmark Or. 85. Purchased by H.P. Kraus in 1948 at auction from Sotheby’s & Co. Since some manuscripts of Katalog Hiersemann 500 demonstrably came from the collection of the German collector Friedrich Grote (1861-1922), it is highly likely that this manuscript comes from this source as well, which means that it is again highly likely that it originally hailed from St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt”. The manuscript also features in S. Kotzabassi, N. P. Ševčenko, D. C. Skemer, Greek Manuscripts, pp. 217-219. Ibid. at p. 219, the following provenance information is provided: “The early provenance is unknown, probably Egypt or the Holy Land. Purchased by William H. Scheide, Princeton University Class of 1936, in September 1970 from the antiquarian bookseller H. P. Kraus, New York, which [sic] had obtained it in 1970 from the Swiss collector Martin Bodmer (1899-1971) of Colgony (near Geneva). Kraus had previously sold it to Bodmer in 1958 or after”. I owe this reference to Grigory Kessel. [↩]
8. Hans Peter Kraus, Monumenta Codicum Manu Scriptorum: An Exhibition Catalogue of Manuscripts of the 6th to the 17th Centuries from the Libraries of the Monasteries of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai – Monte Cassino – Lorsch – Nonantola and from the Collections of Claude, Queen of France – The Duke of Roxburghe – The Earl of Ashburnham – Baron James Rothschild – Sir Thomas Philipps – Sir Arthur Chester Beatty – Sir Sidney Cockerell – C. W. Dyson Perrins – Dr. Martin Bodmer – Dr. Peter and Irene Ludwig: With 63 color illustrations on 51 plates and 125 illustrations in black and white (New York: H. P. Kraus, 1974). [↩]
9. The manuscript does not appear in H. P. Kraus, Monumenta Codicum, but in idem, The Eightieth Catalogue: Remarkable Manuscripts, Books, and Maps from the IXth to the XVIIIth Century: Including Many First Descriptions of Hitherto Unknown Items Recently Discovered (New York: H. P. Kraus, 1956), no. 3. See also Jean-Marie Olivier, Répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de manuscrits grecs de Marcel Richard (Turnhout: Brepols, 1995), p. 679; For William H. Scheide: Fifty Years of Collecting (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library, 2004), p. 40, n. 7.] [↩]
10. See H. P. Kraus, Monumenta Codicum, p. 21: “The Catalogue of Syriac manuscripts by Agnes Smith Lewis […] lists only two Syriac Psalters on vellum; one of them, no. 41, is described as of 13 x 9 cm, 25 lines, Estrangelo script; it may just possibly be another portion of the present codex”. Grigory Kessel informed me that he will deal with a section from the Syriac Psalter that features in Kraus’ catalogue as well as MS Princeton, Scheide Library, M 141 and its provenance in a forthcoming installment of his “Membra Disjecta Sinaitica”. [↩]

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