{"id":23481,"date":"2023-07-04T15:53:59","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T13:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/souvenir-aus-dem-libanongebirge\/"},"modified":"2023-09-27T08:50:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T06:50:30","slug":"souvenir-aus-dem-libanongebirge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/souvenir-aus-dem-libanongebirge\/","title":{"rendered":"Souvenir from Mount Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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4. Juli 2023<\/em><\/span><\/p>

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Wolfenb\u00fcttel\u2019s copy of a Syriac Arabic psalter dating from 1610, with the shelf mark Bibel-S. 4\u00b0 227<\/a> (fig.\u00a01 \u2013Title page of the Syriac psalter, HAB Bibel-S. 4\u00b0 227) contains precisely this kind of evidence, namely a note written in Latin stating that the patriarch of Damascus and Mount Lebanon gave this book to one Henning von Steinberg in the monastery by the cedars (\"propre Cedros\"<\/em>) in 1612 (fig. 2).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tFig. 2 - Record of ownership in HAB Bibel-S. 4\u00b0 227<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\"Fig.\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/use>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\tFig. 2 - Record of ownership in HAB Bibel-S. 4\u00b0 227<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Yet this record yields more questions than answers about the book\u2019s history. Who was the donor \u2013 the patriarch of Damascus? And who was Henning von Steinberg? Where was the monastery \u2018propre Cedros\u2019? And, finally, how did the book get to Wolfenb\u00fcttel?<\/p>

The book itself provides a clue as to where \u2018propre Cedros\u2019 might be. The title page is illustrated with an episcopal coat of arms that bears the inscription \u2018SERGIVS RISIVS ARCHIEPISCOPVS DAMASCENVS\u2019. Sergius Risius, who was better known under his Syrian name Sarkis Rizzi (1572\u20131638), was the Maronite bishop of the Qozhaya monastery, which was situated deep in Mount Lebanon. Wadi Qadisha, the valley of the monasteries, was also the location of the Qannubin monastery, which was the seat of the Maronite patriarch of Damascus (fig. 3)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tFig. 3 \u2013 A Maronite Patriarch, mezzotint work by Andreas Scharff\/J. Andreas Scharffen [c.1700]. Contained in HAB Xb 4682<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\"Fig.\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/use>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\tFig. 3 \u2013 A Maronite Patriarch, mezzotint work by Andreas Scharff\/J. Andreas Scharffen [c.1700]. Contained in HAB Xb 4682<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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This was most likely the \u2018propre Cedros\u2019 monastery. By 1609 at the latest, Youhanna Makhlouf (d.\u00a01633) had been elected patriarch of Damascus after the death of his predecessor, Youssef Rizzi, in 1608 who was one of Sarkis\u2019s brothers. This must have been the patriarch mentioned in the note.<\/p>

According to contemporary biographies, the curriculum vitae<\/a> in his funeral sermon and a short biography<\/a>\u00a0by Konrad Barthold Behrens (1660\u20131736), Henning von Steinberg was born on 10 July 1584, probably in Bodenburg (Bad Salzdetfurth). Along with his brother Johann Hilmar (1585\u20131648) he studied in Leipzig, Basel and Orl\u00e9ans from 1602 onwards. In 1608 he spent a short period of time in Germany, where he was appointed canon of Halberstadt. The brothers subsequently moved to Italy, and while in Venice Henning decided to travel to Constantinople and the Holy Land. It was presumably on his way to Jerusalem with a small party that he visited the Qannubin monastery in Wadi Qadisha. The return journey, which took several years, brought him back home via Cairo, Malta, Sicily and Naples. His extensive travels qualified him to fill key posts at court in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenb\u00fcttel. He died on 14 February 1639 in Halberstadt.<\/p>

A note in the book\u2019s cover (dating from the 17th or 18th century) explains that the work had been brought back as a souvenir, and was a \u2018Psalterium Davidis regis et Prophetae, Syrice excusum\u2019. It turned out to be a true rarity known as the \u2018Psalter of Quzhaya\u2019, a bilingual Syriac Arabic edition of the psalter and the Prophets, which was printed in Quzhaya monastery in 1610. Only six copies are known to exist. The text in both languages was printed with Syriac type \u2013 a common practice for the liturgical books of Maronite Christians. Arabic texts written in Syriac script are called Garshuni<\/em>.<\/p>

The psalter is regarded as the first book to have been printed in the Levant. The printer was Pasquale Eli from Camerino, who was assisted by a deacon called Youssef ibn Amimeh from Karmsadd\u00e9. The work was published by Sarkis Rizzi.<\/p>

On the final pages of the psalter, Youssef ibn Amimeh writes that Rizzi commissioned the printing and bore the (undoubtedly very high) costs himself. One particularly elaborate feature is the use of two Syriac typefaces in the Western variant Serto<\/em> ; no other printed works with these two scripts are known to exist. It is thus all the more astonishing that the copies were apparently given away (as was evidently the case with the Steinberg copy).<\/p>

Despite \u2013 or perhaps because of \u2013 its rarity, the psalter has long been familiar to Bible researchers. In 1811 Christian Friedrich von Schnurrer (1742\u20131822) mentioned a copy in the private library of his friend Jacob Bruns (1743\u20131814), the last librarian of the Helmstedt university library.<\/p>

Thirty years later, Henry Cotton (1789\u20131879) makes note of a copy in Helmstedt and of the book belonging to Bruns. The psalter is listed in the old Helmstedt catalogue (fig. 4).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tFig. 4 \u2013 Entry in the catalogue of Helmstedt\u2019s university library, HAB BA III,75<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\"Fig.\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/use>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\tFig. 4 \u2013 Entry in the catalogue of Helmstedt\u2019s university library, HAB BA III,75<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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An old shelf mark demonstrates that the volume was already in the library\u2019s holdings before 1770. However, the Wolfenb\u00fcttel copy does not contain a Helmstedt shelf mark, which is extremely unusual. Is this the private copy owned by Bruns? And if so, where is the Helmstedt copy?<\/p>

One thing is certain: by 1858 the volume was no longer in Helmstedt. The ducal library in Wolfenb\u00fcttel had already taken over a number of books from Helmstedt in 1832\/33, as evidenced by a handwritten list (HAB BA III,151). The psalter appears on this list too. So the Wolfenb\u00fcttel copy does come from Helmstedt, even though there is no sign of this in the volume itself. The putative Bruns copy is most likely the same book.<\/p>

Henning von Steinberg died without issue. The presumed heirs, his brothers Johann Hilmar and Adolph (1594\u20131660), did erect an epitaph<\/a> for him. However, it is not known where his estate went \u2013 thereby leaving us in the dark about the ownership of the volume between 1639 and around 1770, before it came to Wolfenb\u00fcttel via Helmstedt.<\/p>

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Literature:<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Behrens, Konrad Barthold. Genealogische und zum Theil historische Vorstellung des Uhrsprungs und Fortstammung Einiger uhralter, wohlgebohrner hochadelicher H\u00e4user \u2026 Sonderlich derer von Steinberg. Hanover and Wolfenb\u00fcttel: Gottfried Freytag, 1703.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Bohne, Conrad Johann. Iusta Steinbergiana Das ist\/ Christliche Leich- und Trostpredigt. Bey dem Adelichen Begr\u00e4bni\u00df\/ Der ... Frawen Annen\/ Gebornen Postinnen\/ Des \u2026 Jobsten von Steinberg sel. auff Bodenburg\/ [et]c. Erbgesessenen\/ nachgelassenen Wittwen\/ [et]c. Welche Ann. 1639. am 22. Martii \u2026 selig verschieden: Wie auch Des \u2026 Herrn Henning von Steinberg\/ \u2026 Welcher den 14. Februarii vorher\/ \u2026 diese tr\u00fcbselige Welt gesegnet. Hilde\u00dfheimb [Hildesheim]: Joachim G\u00f6ssel, 1639.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Cotton, Henry. A Typographical Gazetteer. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1831.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Moukarzel, Joseph. \u2018Le psautier syriaque-garchouni \u00e9dit\u00e9 \u00e0 Qozhaya en 1610: Enjeux historiques et pr\u00e9sentation du livre\u2019. M\u00e9langes de l'Universit\u00e9 Saint-Joseph 63 (2010\u201311). #Digital# [https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/330563882_Le_psautier_syriaque-garchouni_edite_a_Qozhaya_en_1610_Enjeux_historiques_et_presentation_du_livre]<\/em><\/span><\/p>

Schnurrer, Christian Friedrich von. Bibliotheca arabica. Halae ad Salam [Halle (Saale)]: Typis et Sumtu J.C. Hendelii, 1811<\/em><\/span><\/p>

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PURL: http:\/\/diglib.hab.de\/?link=171<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Stellvertretender Leiter der Abteilung Alte Drucke (kommissarisch)<\/h4>\n Christoph Boveland<\/a>\n \n \n
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T\u00e4tigkeitsschwerpunkte Leitung der Arbeitsgruppe Katalogisierung Alte Drucke Kompetenzzentrum Alte Drucke, VD 17 Regelwerke f\u00fcr Altbestandserschlie\u00dfung   Curriculum Vitae seit 2016 Sprecher der Arbeitsgruppe Alte Drucke beim Standardisierungsausschuss seit 1990 als Dipl. Bibliothekar in der Herzog August Bibliothek seit 1991 in der Abteilung Alte Drucke 1986-1990 Studium Bibliothekswesen in Hamburg mit Schwerpunkt f\u00fcr Wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":23114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-info","category-hablog-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23481"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24273,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481\/revisions\/24273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}