PREFACE.

After we had promised, nearly three years ago, with the publication of our prospectus, that the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of GREGORIUS BARHEBRÆUS would be edited by us, it happened due to various causes, which it would be superfluous to recount here, that the work, elaborated in our spare hours, proceeded more slowly than we had anticipated. But since now at last a not insignificant part has come from the press, and there is hope that the part which remains to be printed will, God willing, follow more quickly, we have decided that the delay should not be drawn out further, and that we must respond to the long-standing expectation with this first volume.

Our preface is recalled to two chapters: one regarding the author of the Chronicle, and the other regarding the method and norm applied in adorning the book. Regarding the first, since it deals with the life, writings, faith, and sect of BARHEBRÆUS, all of which are certainly well-known to anyone who applies himself to oriental letters, it would gladly have been omitted by us in this place, had there not also been supporters of our work—literary and learned men—who, though not so versed in the literary affairs of the Syrians, might desire these things by their own right. Therefore, in order to satisfy such wishes, a notice of the individual matters that seem a prerequisite for the reading of the Barhebræan Chronicle will be proposed briefly, as far as it can be done, at the threshold.

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