PREFACE

...held sway over Persia and India, and the farthest shores of the East, as is clearly testified to this day by the ancient monuments still existing among the Chinese, inscribed with both Chinese and Syriac characters This likely refers to the Xi'an Stele (Nestorian Stele), discovered in 1625, which detailed the arrival of Christianity in China via Syrian missionaries.. Nor will it be permitted hereafter for certain critics to reject a testimony of such great authority—those who, hearing the great Ephrem through the Vossian or Oxford editions Reference to early 17th-century European editions of Ephrem's works (like those of Gerardus Vossius), which were often based on late Greek translations rather than original Syriac manuscripts., stammering in Greek through no fault of his own, and discoursing in a humble style to monks mostly about their own profession, believed him to be some common hermit from the streets. On the contrary, those same unfair judges, when they hear the most eloquent Doctor expressing his own thoughts in his own words and inimitable voice, such is their integrity that they will change their judgment of so great a man; nor will they regret admiring him whom those two lights of wisdom, Basil and Jerome, confess they vehemently looked up to; whom Chrysostom, truly the greatest, calls "the Great"; whom Theodoret proclaims to be "admirable and divine." Only the enemies of the Church will grieve, whom it is no wonder are burst with envy when they see the riches of this Divine Bride A traditional metaphor for the Christian Church. increased by perpetual growth, and—with commerce established with the Syrians and the inhabitants of the far East—the treasures of Christian doctrine and Apostolic traditions restored to her sons, the legitimate heirs. Indeed, Most Distinguished Cardinal, it was destined to be added to your other merits toward the Christian Republic that you should put her into possession of the heritage left to her by the Holy Fathers.

For who would have attempted to undertake a work of such great exertion, or hoped that he would ever even partially complete it, unless your liberality, wisdom, and authority had opportunely supplied the necessary support? Or what would it have profited to have rescued codices brought out from the deserts of Syria from decay and filth, if we had reserved them in our libraries to be gnawed by beetles and moths? They would not have escaped their fate, but merely changed it, so that they might perish more gloriously in the City that is the Mistress of the world Rome., leaving to us the disgrace of neglected wisdom. But now, while you hold the Prefecture of the Vatican Library, what is said to have happened to the statue of Memnon The "Singing Statue" of Egypt, which was said to emit a musical sound when touched by the morning sun. from the unaccustomed sight of the sun has occurred here: the codices, standing like lifeless images for the decoration of libraries, have received a soul and a voice. They sound more clearly than a Homeric trumpet, which indeed not only Greece and Latium The Latin-speaking world., and consequently all of Europe, may hear, but also the greater part of Asia, where it extends most widely from the farthest shore of our sea The Mediterranean. toward the East as far as the Indians; for the Syrian rite and language occupy as many places, as I have said. Nor do I pronounce these things by rashly prophesying; but having drawn a conjecture from the certain histories of those nations, I have certainly persuaded myself, while I reflect that the heresy of Nestorius The 5th-century belief emphasizing the distinction between Christ's human and divine natures; it spread widely along the Silk Road. was propagated to the Chaldeans and Indians solely by the translation of the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus from Greek into Syriac; you might think it an epidemic disease spread solely by the contagion of books. That, indeed...