PONTIFICAL OF THE MARONITE CHURCH; 1723. Syriac, Arabic and Latin. The Pontifical was written in 1683 in the Patriarchal Monastery of St. Mary, Kanubin, Mount Lebanon, by Stephen Doueihi, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch (1670-1704). As explained in the preface (ff. 4-6v), Doueihi''s text is a revision of the original Pontifical by Jeremiah (Ermiya) al-Amshiti, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch (1209-1230), based on a comparison with a ritual written in 1295 by Theodore, Archbishop of Akourah, and other manuscript Pontificals dated 1311, 1495, 1581, and 1584. Patriarch Doueihi sent his work to Rome in 1683 to be printed, but the text remained unpublished, despite its solemn approval by the Synod of the Maronite Church in 1736. In the present MS. the original text in Syriac is flanked by its translation into Latin by Andrea Scandar, Professor of Arabic at the Maronite College at Rome, dated 1723: see note added by a later hand on f. 2; for Scandar see T. Anaissi, Collectio documentorum Maronitarum (Leghorn, 1921), p. 139, and P. Raphael, Le rôle du Collège Maronite Romain dans l''Orientalisme au XVIIe and XVIII siècles (Beirut, 1950), pp. 48, 151. The MS. is described, with details relating to the text division, in Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur, ed. by F. Rosen and J. Forshall, part I, Codices Syriacos et Carshunicos amplectens (London, 1838), no. XL, pp. 63b-64a; also mentioned with a short note by W. Wright in Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. 3 (London, 1872), p. 1205a. The language of the preface (ff. 4-6v) is Arabic in Syriac characters. Title in Syriac (f. 7); Syriac text begins on f. 8, col. a, and ends on f. 135v, col. b; Latin transation inc. (f. 8, col. b) ''Ordinatio Psaltis seu Cantoris / Primo offertur oblatio Mysteriorum Sanctorum'', expl. (f. 135v, col. a) ''Patriarcha finem det Missae, et decanus caetera absolvat / Explicit Ordo Patriarchae''. With sparse marginal notes added throughout by a later hand, occasionally trimmed away by the binder. Table of contents (f. 3) added by the same later hand as note on f. 2. A second later hand added another title on f. 1, ''Pontificale Ecclesiae Antiochenae Syro-Latinum / Tom. I / No. 36.o''; gilt-title on second spine compartment ''Pontificale Ecclesiae Antiochenae Syr. Lat. Trad. And. Scandar''. Ownership note on upper right corner of f. 1, ''Ad usum Jacobi Cavalli'', to be possibly identified with Giacomo Cavalli (1678-1758), a Catholic convert of Jewish descent from Verona, later Professor of Hebrew at Rome: see DBI, 22 (1979), pp. 733-734. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot no unknown. Paper; ff. 135+iii. Original pagination in ink ''1-262'' (ff. 4-135), omitting f. 7. 270 x 195mm. Horizontal catchwords used erratically in lower margins of columns for the Latin translation. Two columns of between 24 and 32 lines. One hand responsible for both the original text in Syriac (in the inner column of each page) and the Latin translation (in the outer column). 18th-cent. Italian binding of mottled brown leather with gilt-tooled spine in compartments; edges mottled in light red and green. MS. held in the Oriental collection.

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