The Book of the Ascent of the Mind

The French translation of the astronomy course by Bar Hebraeus will be preceded by an introduction providing the necessary information regarding this work.

Today, we limit ourselves to briefly characterizing the manuscripts that served as the basis for our edition. The reader will find a complete description at the beginning of the translation.

The first (A) is the Paris manuscript: Syriac 244 (1), written in Jacobite script, undated, but originating at least from the fourteenth century. In fact, a note informs us that it was sold in the year 1796 of the Greeks (1485), and in another note, written before the first, as it divides the former into two parts, a certain monk named Daniel tells us of the suffering he endured in the year 1693 of the Greeks (1382). The pagination of A is reproduced in our printed text.

Words that are difficult to read or illegible in manuscript A are restored with the help of the Paris manuscript (B): Syriac 329, a modern copy of the same work made in 1883 by the archdeacon Abdul Aziz from a Mosul manuscript. This copy, in Jacobite characters, is very well written. It presents some rather long lacunae missing sections that are not accidental, but stem from the Mosul manuscript, as the scribe left the corresponding space blank. This observation will allow us to determine the origin of the fourth manuscript.

(1) Mgr Graffin gave me a copy of it in 1890; I collated it in the following years and kept it before my eyes during the entire printing process.