ASSEMANI

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 779 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ARN-AUD

ASSEMANI , the name of a. Syrian Maronite family of famous Orientalists.
I. JOSEPH SPM0N, a Maronite of

Mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

Lebanon, was born in 1687. When very

young

he was sent to the Maronite college in Rome, and was transferred thence to the Vatican library. In 1 717 he was sent to Egypt and Syria to search for valuable MSS., and returned with about 150 very choice ones. The success of this expedition induced the

pope

to send him again to the

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

in r735, and he. returned with a still more valuable collection. On his return he was made titular archbishop of Tyre and librarian of the Vatican library. He instantly began to carry into execution most extensive plans for editing and publishing the most valuable MS. treasures of the Vatican. His two

great

GREAT

works are the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana rec. manuscr. codd. Syr., Arab., Pers., Turc., Hebr., Samarit., Armen., Aethiop., Graec., Aegypt., Iber., etMalab., jussu et munif. Clem. XI. (Rome, 1719-1728), 9 vols. folio, and Ephraemi Syri opera omnia quae extant, Gr., Syr., et Lat., 6 vols. folio (Rome, 1737-1746). Of the Bibliotheca the first three vols. only were completed. The

work

WORK

was to have been in four parts(1) Syrian and allied MSS., orthodox, Nestorian and Jacobite; (2) Arabian MSS., Christian and Mahommedan; (3) Coptic, Aethiopic, Persian and Turkish MSS.; and (4) Syrian and Arabian MSS. not distinctively theological; only the first part was completed, but extensive preparations were made for the others. There is a German abridgment by A. F. Pfeiffer.
2. JOSEPH ALoystus, brother of Joseph Simon, and professor of Oriental languages at Rome. He died in 1782. Besides aiding his brother in his literary labours, he published, in 1749-1760, Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Universae in xv. libris (this is incomplete), and Comment. de Catholicis sive Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775).
3. STEPHEN EVODIuS, nephew of Joseph Simon and Joseph Aloysius, was the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

assistant of his uncle Joseph Simon in his

work

WORK

in the Vatican library. He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several rich prebends in Italy. His literary labours were very extensive. His two most important works were a description of certain valuable MSS. in his Bibliothecae Mediceo-Laurentianae et Palatinae codd. manuscr. Orientalium Catalogus (Flor. 1742), fol., and his Acta SS. Martyrum Orientalium. He made several translations from the Syrian, and in conjunction with his uncle he began the Bibliothecae Apostol. Vatic. codd. manusc. Catal., in tres partes distributus. Only three vols. were published, and the fire in the Vatican library in 1768 consumed the manuscript collections which had been prepared for the continuation of the work.
4. SIMON, grandnephew of Joseph Simon, was born at

Tripoli

in 1752, and was professor of Oriental languages in Padua. He died in 1820. He is best known by his masterly detection of the literary imposture of Vella, which claimed to be a history of the Saracens in Syria.

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