********************************* * A WIDER WORLD, I * * How the Orient Came to Rome * ********************************* The scholarship done in the curia was not limited to Greek and Roman texts. The popes took a serious interest in Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament and still the hole language of the Jews. Christian scholars at Rome, as elsewhere in Europe, were captivated by the Cabalistic mysticism of some Jewish commentators on the Bible. Important members of the Curia, like Giles of Viterbo, believed as fervently as any rabbi that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet concealed deep theological mysteries. As the sixteenth century progressed, however, detailed knowledge of the real languages and cultures of the Near East grew, and facts began to displace myths. The Vatican developed one of the greatest collections in the world of Hebrew books, both handwritten and printed. Texts in Arabic and many other languages, from old Church Slavonic and Armenian to Syriac and Coptic, accumulated beside them. The Vatican became a center of what the humanists liked to call "trilingual" scholarship: the study of the Bible in its three great languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Rome, moreover, negotiated regularly with Christian churches and non-Christian powers all over the Mediterranean world and beyond, and individuals and small communities from Eastern Christian churches lived in and visited the city. During the sixteenth century the authorities took advantage of these opportunities for scholarship. Even as the Counter-Reformation damaged some areas of study, it promoted others. Rome became one of Europe's most productive centers of Oriental printing and study. ================================================================= Flavius Mithridates, Good Friday Sermon In Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic Rome 1481 On Good Friday 1481, Flavius Mithridates, a converted Jew from a learned Sicilian family, preached this sermon before the pope and cardinals in the Vatican. A good linguist, Flavius dazzled the clerics with his deft pronunciation of Hebrew and Aramaic as he cited Jewish texts to prove that the Jews had known and resisted the truths of Christianity. A clever charlatan, he altered and invented much of the evidence, borrowing from medieval Christian polemics against the Jews. Barb. lat. 1775 fols. 117 verso-118 recto orient01 IGH.01 ================================================================= Book of Job In Latin Owned by Pico della Mirandola, with notes in his hand Fifteenth century One Christian scholar who used the help of the learned but tricky Flavius Mithridates was Pico della Mirandola, who here struggles to unravel the secret meanings of the Book of Job. Ottob. lat. 607 fol. 3 recto orient02 IGH.02 ================================================================= /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ************************************ * THE STUDY OF EASTERN LANGUAGES * * From Mythology to Philology * ************************************ Objects orient03 - orient08 The church had long encouraged, in theory, the study of languages that might prove useful in converting unbelievers. But as late as the fifteenth century, it had amassed little expertise. The converted Jew Flavius Mithridates impressed the pope and cardinals on Good Friday 1481 simply by his ability to pronounce long passages in Hebrew and Aramaic. In the course of the sixteenth century, Rome became a center for the study of Near Eastern and other little-known languages. Christians (and a few non-Christian prisoners) from the Slavic world, Armenia, Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Ethiopia came to Rome, often on ecclesiastical business. They found eager students who wanted to learn their languages, inventive printers who could cut type following their scripts, and papal support--especially for the publication of the Bible in Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, and other languages. Meanwhile the library amassed extraordinary holdings from many languages and from many cultures. The Church Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-45) brought delegates to Italy from many churches and cultures. The books they brought with them proved instrumental to the growth of the Vatican Library and of near-eastern studies in Europe. ================================================================= Eusebius, Epistle to Carpianus, and other texts In Armenian Before 1287 The first Armenian manuscript to enter the Vatican collection in the fifteenth century, this finely illuminated thirteenth-century codex may have been donated by the Armenian delegates at the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-45). It contains a vast miscellany of mainly ecclesiastical texts. The Eusebian canon tables on display here indicate which passages in one of the Gospels are in agreement with the other three Gospels. The canon tables are a fine example of Armenian manuscript illumination in its heyday between 1250 and 1290, when the center of Armenian art was in Cilicia, between the Taurus mountains and the southeastern coast of Anatolia. Thanks to the presence of the crusaders and their alliances with the Mongols, the Armenians had become acquainted with both western and eastern art, and much of their work is an intriguing combination of the different styles. Among the Cilician illuminators, however, western influence prevailed. Vat. arm. 3 fol. 9 recto orient03 AH.03 ================================================================= The Gospel of Luke 20: 1-8 In Arabic Cairo A.D. 993 This tenth-century Egyptian codex was donated to Pope Eugenius IV by the Coptic delegates at the Council of Ferrara-Florence. Translated from a Coptic original, it is one of the earliest Arabic versions of any part of the New Testament, none of which can be dated before the late eighth or ninth centuries. Vat. ar. 18 fols. 79 recto - 78 verso orient04 AH.05 ================================================================= Psalter In Ethiopic Fifteenth century How this Ethiopic Psalter came into the Vatican Library in the late fifteenth century is still unclear. Perhaps it was brought by the Ethiopian delegates at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, probably from the Ethiopian convent in Jerusalem. Or perhaps it was donated by Giovanni Battista Brocchi from Imola, who accompanied a Franciscan mission to Ethiopia in 1482. The first folio of the codex shows the First Psalm between two strapwork bands. Vat. etiop. 20 fol. 1 recto orient05 AH.06 ================================================================= Psalterium David et Cantica aliqua Edited by Johannes Potken In Ethiopic Rome: M. Silber 1513 This Psalter, probably based on the preceeding manuscript [Vat. etiop. 20], was the first book printed in Ethiopic, the first book printed in Rome in any oriental language other than Hebrew, and the first Psalter printed in any language other than Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. Johannes Potken learned Ethiopic from Thomas Walda Samuel, an Ethiopian pilgrim from Jerusalem staying at Santo Stefano Maggiore in Rome, and had Ethiopic types cut at his own expense. Potken's edition includes canticles from the Song of Solomon and ends with an Ethiopic syllabarium and brief comment. This page shows the First Psalm and the beginning of the Second Psalm under a woodcut lacework headpiece. R.G. Bibbia IV 936 fol. 2 recto orient06 AH.07 ================================================================= Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum, et Chaldaeum, cum tribus Latinis interpretationibus et glossis (Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and Chaldean Psalter, with three Latin translations and glosses) Edited by Agostino Giustiniani Genoa: P.P. Porro 1516 The gifted Dominican Agostino Giustiniani taught Hebrew and Arabic at the University of Paris, visited England and made the acquaintance of Erasmus. Giustiniani's Psalterium was dedicated to Pope Leo X in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. It was originally intended as part of a multilingual edition of the entire Bible, but the project was thwarted by the limited commercial success of the psalter. The pages displayed here bear the text of the First Psalm. In parallel columns from left to right, spread across the two leaves, we see the Hebrew text; a literal Latin translation by Giustiniani himself; the text of the Latin Vulgate; the Greek text in the Septuagint version; an Arabic version based on at least two manuscripts owned by Giustiniani, one from Egypt and one from Syria; the Aramaic "targum;" a Latin translation of the "targum;" and, finally, Giustiniani's own notes, in Latin. These show how well he was acquainted with the Midrash and rabbinic literature, from which he quotes extensively. Later in the work his glosses on Psalm 19:4 contain the earliest reference in print to the discoveries of his compatriot Christopher Columbus. R.G. Bibbia II 94 sigs. A iv verso - A v recto orient07 AH.08 ================================================================= Liber Sacrosancti Evangelii de Iesu Christo Domino et Deo nostro Edited by J. A. Widmanstetter In Syriac Vienna: M. Zimmermann 1555 Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter, diplomat, lawyer, and statesman, spent some time in the papal service and, in 1552, was appointed chancellor of Lower Austria. He learned Syriac from Teseo Ambrogio and in Rome from the Jacobite Christian Moses of Mardin, who showed him a manuscript of the Syriac New Testament. After trying in vain to set up a Syriac press in Rome, Widmanstetter and Moses went to Vienna. There, with the assistance of the French orientalist Guillaume Postel, they had Syriac types cut. The work was the first edition of the New Testament to be printed in Syriac. The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand supported the enterprise to increase the prestige of the Habsburgs and to lend support to the Christians in the Ottoman Empire. The emblematic woodcut shown here is found opposite the end of the Gospel of Luke. It bears the motto "In hoc Signo vinces, et conculcabis Leonem et Draconem," translated into Syriac on either side of the cross. The first part of the motto, "In this sign wilt thou conquer," refers to the alleged dream or vision of the fiery cross of the Roman emperor Constantine just before his conversion to Christianity and to his victory over Maxentius in 312. The second part, "the lion and the dragon shalt thou trample," is taken from Psalm 91:13 and frequently referred to triumph over heresy. R.G. Bibbia IV 517 fol. 125 recto orient08 AH.10 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ================================================================= Gospel of Matthew In Persian Copied by Mas ud ibn Ibrahim 1312 This, the first Persian manuscript to enter the Vatican Library, may well have been acquired by the Chaldean metropolitan Mar Yosef, who came from Malabar to Rome in 1568 to clear himself of the charge of heresy. Written in the cursive "naskhi" script typical of the Middle East, it is one of the earliest surviving Persian manuscripts of any part of the Scriptures--none are known to be earlier than the fourteenth century. The page displayed here includes the opening of the text. Vat. pers. 4 fol. 78 recto orient09 AH.11 ================================================================= The Tale of Bayad and Riyad In Arabic Spain Early thirteenth century This fragment of the medieval love story of Bayad and Riyad may have been taken from Tunis by the troops of Charles V. It is one of the rarest and most singular Arabic manuscripts in the Vatican collection. Written in "maghribi" script, it was probably copied in Spain in the first half of the thirteenth century from an eastern manuscript of the Baghdad school. The miniaturist adapted the original illustrations and substituted Spanish architectural details for oriental ones. This codex remains one of the only known examples of Muslim figurative painting in Spain. In the leafs shown here, we see Bayad receiving a letter from Riyad in the house of three women. Vat. ar. 368 fols. 23 recto - 22 verso orient10 AH.13 ================================================================= Fragment of a Quran, Sura 33: 73-74 In Arabic Spain or northwest Africa Thirteenth century One of the first Quranic manuscripts to enter the Vatican Library, this codex--containing only a fragment of the full text- -comes from a "madrasa" or mosque school in Tunis and was probably taken when the troops of Charles V captured the city in July 1535. A fine example of the "maghribi" script typical of northwest Africa and Muslim Spain, the manuscript also contains good illuminations. The pages shown here bear the last two verses of Sura 33. Vat. ar. 214 fols. 24 recto - 23 verso orient11 AH.15 ================================================================= Tomar Grigorieann havitenakan (A Gregorian calendar for all eternity) In Armenian Rome: D. Basa 1584 This Armenian translation of the Gregorian calendar was printed by the Vatican press using Armenian types which were designed by the French typographer Robert Granjon shortly after his arrival in Rome. A copy of the calendar was given to the Armenian patriarch Azarias by Leonardo Abel toward the end of 1584. The title page shows, beneath the title, the coat of arms of Gregory XIII's family, the Boncompagni. R.G. or. IV 598 (1) title page orient12 AH.70 ================================================================= Evangelium Sanctum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi In Arabic Rome: Typographia Medicea 1590 The Medici Press was founded in 1584 to produce a polyglot Bible and works in other languages, especially Arabic. Its first great publication was this edition of the Gospels. Two versions appeared, one solely in Arabic and one with an interlinear Latin translation. The Arabic types were cut by Robert Granjon. The 149 woodcuts with which the book is illustrated were probably made by Leonardo Parasole after designs by the Florentine artist Antonio Tempesta, known for the frescoes he painted in the Vatican and numerous Roman palaces. The pages on display here show Mark 1: 1-6, and include woodcuts depicting, on the right, the Evangelist with a winged lion and, on the left, John the Baptist preaching. The woodcut below pictures the baptism of Jesus Christ. R.G. Bibbia II 117 pp. 110-111 (sic) orient13 AH.71 ================================================================= Four Gospels In Bohairic Coptic and Arabic Copied by Georgis Cairo 1205 This manuscript is one of the finest surviving Coptic codices of the Middle Ages. Copied in Cairo, it was once in the library of the monastery of Saint Anthony in the desert near Suez. After being moved back to Cairo and then to Alexandria, it was purchased by Girolamo Vecchietti in 1594 for the director of the Medici press, Giovanni Battista Raimondi. This codex includes both a Coptic version of the Gospels, translated from the Greek and written in an uncial script, and an Arabic translation. In the Byzantine tradition each Gospel is preceded by a historical preface stating when and where the Gospel was written, making the codex of particular interest. The manuscript is richly illustrated and illuminated, partly by the scribe Georgis and partly by another artist. The ornamentation frequently shows Islamic influence, but the illustrations are Byzantine in style. The pages on display show the opening of the Gospel of Mark (verses 1-3) on the right. On the left is the Evangelist writing the first word of his text, and beside him stands the archangel Michael. Vat. copt. 9 pp. 146-47 orient14 AH.72 ================================================================= Giles of Viterbo, Explanation of the Hebrew Alphabet In Hebrew and Latin Late fifteenth century Many Christian intellectuals believed that the medieval Jewish mystical tradition of the Cabala provided powerful truths about the Bible by identifying the secret meanings of the Hebrew letters in which it had been written. Here Giles of Viterbo, an important member of the curia, explains the secrets of the Hebrew alphabet to cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII). Vat. lat. 5808 fol. 17 verso orient15 IGH.03 ================================================================= Tamil mantiram (Tamil prayers) In Tamil South India ca. sixteenth century While inspecting the famous Palatine Library of Heidelberg, confiscated as spoil of war by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and presented to Pope Gregory XV in 1623, the papal librarian Allacci wrote Cardinal Ludovisi that amongst the notable objects was "a mass of palm leaves" ("uno mazzo di palme") whose language and content he did not know. It was a small collection of Christian prayers in Tamil entitled "Tamil mantiram" (Tamil prayers), which could be either the work of missionaries of the Counter-Reformation or an older composition from the ancient Christian communities in South India. The accompanying note, of unknown date, labels it as "carmina in lingua japanica" (songs in the Japanese language), which shows the difficulty of identifying works in "exotic" scripts before the additional growth of Oriental studies in the nineteenth century. Vat. ind. 38 fols. 3 verso - 4 recto orient16 IGH.05 ================================================================= Vitae 13 sanctorum (Lives of the thirteen Saints) In Tamil South India ca. seventeenth century By the time of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic church had become suspicious of vernacular translations of the Bible and missionary literary efforts were more likely to be directed towards such genres as lives of the saints, catechisms, and controversial works. Some of these were preserved in Rome because they were written there, some because they were sent back there as testimonies of the missionaries' labors, and some because it was planned or hoped that they be printed and they needed to be vetted for theological correctness. The anonymous "Vitae 13 sanctorum," written on palm leaves in Tamil, a language spoken in Southern Indian and Sri Lanka, is a verse work on the lives of the Apostles. It appears to date from the seventeenth century, before the papacy of Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni (reigned 1689-1691) whose arms appear on the European leather box made for it. Vat. ind. 19 fol. 1 orient17 IGH.04 ================================================================= Pietro della Valle, Risalah- i Padri Khristafarus Burris Isavi dar tufiq-i jadid dunya. Compendio di un trattato del Padre Christoforo Borro Giesuita della nuova costitution del mondo secondo Tichone Brahe e gli altri astologi moderni (Compendium of a tractate of Father Christoforo Borri, S.J. on the new model of the universe according to Tycho Brahe and the other modern astronomers) In Persian and Italian Naqsh script in the hand of della Valle 1624, 1631 Pietro della Valle translated and condensed the "De tribus coelis" of Christoforo Borri, S.J., into Persian in Goa, India, in 1624 and into Italian in Rome, in 1631. This is a diagram of Tycho Brache's compromise scheme for a cosmology. The sun revolves around the earth as it traditionally had, but the planets revolve around the sun. Also shown are the locations of several comets whose courses were calculated to cross the courses of two or more planets and proof that they could not be carried by crystalline spheres. The author, Pietro della Valla was a rich Roman noble whose linguistic skills and bravery as a traveller were as remarkable as his circle of friends. Vat. pers. 10 fols. 6 verso - 7 recto, from back orient18 IGH.06 ================================================================= Ignazio de Jesus, O.D.C., Dictionarium latino persicum (Latin-Persian dictionary) In Latin and Persian Nasta'aliq script ca. 1660 The Italian missionary priest Ignazio de Jesus (died 1667) dedicated this Latin-Persian dictionary to Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607-1681), Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the new division of the curia in charge of missionary efforts. Unlike the author's Persian grammar, this dictionary was not printed. Father Ignazio lists Latin words alphabetically in the first column, gives the Persian equivalent in a Roman script transliteration (representing sounds not in the Roman alphabet by the addition of diacritic marks derived from the Persian version of the Arabic alphabet), and finally gives the Persian written form. Borg. pers. 15 fols. 7 verso - 8 recto orient19 IGH.07 ================================================================= Rubbing from ninth-century stone monument Sian 1625 This is a rare, ink-squeeze rubbing of the top portion of a ninth-century stone monument discovered in 1625 in a Christian graveyard in Sian (Xi`an). Initially studied by Alvaro Semedo, it was later featured in Michael Boym's many writings and in Athanasius Kircher's influential "China illustrata." Nestorian Christians had scattered throughout Asia in the fifth century A.D. and were reported in early sources of Chinese history. This stele, with its long explanation of Nestorian theology and history of the religion in China (with Syriac bilingual transliterations of names), caused a sensation in Europe on its discovery in 1625. The tablature seen here (which capped the nine-foot monument) reads: "A Memorial Stele [honoring] the Flowing into China of the Illustrious Religion from Great Ch`in." Great Ch`in was a traditional Chinese term for the Roman Orient. The original monument exists today in Sian's Museum of Stone Tablets; a full-size replica is in the Musee Guimet in Paris. Barb. or. 151, fasc. 2d orient20 HG.01 ================================================================= /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ *************************************** * Alternate Exhibit Objects * * (to be used if there is a problem * * with one of the primary objects) * *************************************** Objects orient21 - orient22 Sluzebnik (Liturgical book) of Isidore of Kiev In Russian Principality of Novgorod Pskov Fourteenth or early fifteenth century This "Sluzebnik," owned by Isidore of Kiev, the much-travelled Russian delegate to the Council of Ferrara-Florence, is a collection of liturgical texts and contains notes in his own hand. Written in a large uncial Cyrillic script of the Russian type, the manuscript is particularly striking on account of its neo-Byzantine ornamentation and its initials, mainly of a geometric, floral design, although those on display are plaited. The text is the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Vat. slav. 14 fol. 32 recto orient21 AH.02 ================================================================= Teseo Ambrogio, An Introduction to the Chaldean Language, Syriac, and Armenian, and Ten Other Tongues Pavia: J.M. Simoneta 1539 Teseo Ambrogio's "Introduction" is a novelty in many respects. This book is one of the first studies in comparative linguistics to refer to several oriental languages. Although it is mainly about Armenian and Syriac, it also contains information about Samaritan, Arabic, Coptic, Slavonic, and Ethiopic. It is the first occasion on which Syriac was presented to a European readership and on which Syriac types were used. The pages illustrated show, on the left, the Lord's Prayer in Syriac, taken from Luke 11:2-4 (mistakenly given as Luke 1), with an interlinear transcription of the Syriac in the Roman alphabet and a literal Latin translation. On the right is the Lord's Prayer in Armenian, taken from Matthew 6:9-13, with the same system of interlinear transcription and translation. The Lord's Prayer was widely used as a text for elementary linguistic exercises. R.G. or. IV 355 fols. 184 verso-185 recto orient22 AH.30 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ***** END ***** Note: This file has been edited for use on computer networks. This editing required the removal of diacritics, underlining, and fonts such as italics and bold. kde 12/92