Complete Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 3

The mention I have made again in this place of that exceptional praise of Nicholas V aims at this, MOST BLESSED FATHER, that after I have said so much at the beginning of the four previous volumes of this Vatican Edition of the Works of Saint Ephrem regarding his excellence, this fifth volume, which is now appearing, may be commended to YOUR HOLINESS with a certain singular efficacy by that very commemoration. For I shall say that the favor of Nicholas toward letters shone forth especially in the task of entrusting the rendering of Greek writers into Latin to men most skilled in both languages, as many as were flocking to Rome from all sides, summoned by that Pope with great rewards; and I shall soon add that Your Pontificate shines forth with that same kind of praise even more illustriously, since under Your auspices this Edition of Saint Ephrem is now hastening to completion, marked by magnificent type—not only in Latin, which the Vossiana referring to the Vossius manuscript collection alone puts forward, or in Greek, which is exhibited uniquely in the Oxford edition—but also, beyond these, in the Syriac language, and reviewed from ancient Codices, indeed augmented in many parts with the utmost diligence by those to whom, by virtue of the Apostolic Librarian office which I hold, I have entrusted the task of adorning that sphere.