The Syriac Chronicle

...and in the Palatine Medici Library of Florence No. CXVIII, as is evident from the catalog of this library compiled by Assemani.

After I had published specimens from the work I described in a booklet issued in Oxford in 1780 On the Deeds of Richard King of England in Palestine, and then in the Repertorium dedicated to biblical and oriental letters (Repertorium für biblische und morgenländische Litteratur), and in the Helmstädt Literary Annals, the best judges of these matters desired that the entire work be brought to light. But since the booksellers to whom I had offered the book refused to pay the expenses, finally Mr. Georgius Guilielmus Kirsch, a man born and made for the promotion of Syriac letters, and Rector of the Gymnasium which is at Hof in the Principality of Bayreuth, undertook to pay them. I wished, as much as my strength allowed, to encourage the zeal of this man who deserves so well of Syriac letters by most willingly acquiescing to the conditions he voluntarily promised.

In the Latin version, so that the work would be of greater benefit not only to students of history but also of the Syriac language, I was tenacious of the words. Therefore, the harsh and unadorned Syriac style shines through in the interpretation, alien to any affectation of elegance. However, wherever the laws of perspicuity seemed to advise it, so that I would not slavishly adhere to the words, I followed them. If more abundant lexicons of the Syriac language existed...