Vatican Manuscripts from the Sbath Fond

Paul Sbath (Būlus Sbāṭ) was a Syrian Catholic priest, born in Aleppo in 1887 he died in October of 1945. He begain collecting manuscripts around 1912 and accumulated 1,325 during his life. Of those more than 90% were in Arabic, the rest in Syriac, Turkish, Persian and a smattering of other languages. From his collection he donated 776 to the Vatican, with the assistance of Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, in 1926, forming the Fonds Sbath.

This collection spans 776 shelfmarks, but today there are only 773 volumes in the Fond, of which 48 have been digitized. The three lacking are Sbath.339, not part of the donation, and Sbath.683 and 772 which were fragments taken from Sbath.689, and returned to that volume.

Sources

Biblioteca apostolica vaticana. (2011). Guida ai fondi manoscritti, numismatici, a stampa della Biblioteca vaticana. Biblioteca apostolica vaticana. pp. 530-532


Sbath.5 (Low Quality)

Sbath.26, Misc. Devotional Works (1543)


Sbath.47 (Low Quality)

Sbath.48 (Low Quality)

Sbath.49 (Low Quality)

Sbath.68, (1653)

Collection hagiographique et histoires édifiantes (de Paul de Monembasie).


Sbath.73 (Low Quality)

Sbath.89 (Upgraded to HQ), 'Ibn Raʿd et de ʿAdb al-Masīḥ, Yūsuf et ʿAbdalqādir Description of Venice, الفخ والعصفور (1656)

The second part is a fable about a bird and snare, in verse


Sbath.108 (Low Quality)

Sbath.118 (Low Quality)

Sbath.125, Ephrem the Syrian, Jacob of Serug, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, et al. Patristic and Apocryphal works (1440/1444)

See NASSCAL. Includes Martyrdom of Pilate, Acts of Thomas, Apocalypse of Paul, Acts of Andrew and Bartholomew, Book of the Rolls, Protoevangelium of James, Life of John the Baptist by Serapion, History of the Rechabites, and more. Vatican dates to 1444, SBath to 1440




Sbath.202, قصص واخبار الاباء القديسين qiṣaṣ wa-aḫbār al-ābbā' al-qiddīsin (17th C)

Sbath.209 (Low Quality)

Sbath.220 (Low Quality)

Sbath.223 (Low Quality)

Sbath.231 (Low Quality)



Sbath.243, Pierre Moghila, Christodulos bishop of Ramala and Gaza (tr) اعتراف الراي المستقيم iʿtirāf ar-ra'y al-mustaqīm (1691)

Sbath.244, Nectarius قضاء الحق ونقل للصدق Qaḍā' al-Ḥaqq wa-Naql aṣ-Ṣidq (1740)

Nectarius was the Patriarch of Jerusalem in the 17th C. He wrote this in 1674 as an argument against the Latin Rite, who were sending missionaries to Palestine. It was translated from Greek and Latin into Arabic in 1733 by Sophronius


Sbath.250 (Low Quality)


Sbath.254 (Low Quality)

Sbath.257 (Low Quality)

Sbath.267, Baidabā, Abū ʿAmr ʿAbdallāh Ibn al-Muqaffa (tr) كليلة ودمنة kalīla wa dimna (18th C)

Sbath.274 (Low Quality)

Sbath.280 (Low Quality)

Sbath.334 (Low Quality)

Sbath.337 (Low Quality)

Sbath.338 (Low Quality)

Sbath.343, Astrology: غاية التحرير بعلم حركات منازل القمر التمانية والعشرون (1781)

Sbath.349, (ḫabar al-qiddīs al-ğalīl) خبر القديس الجليل (18th C)

Contains a Vita of Anthony the Great based on the writings of Athanasius and Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. Composed by Ignatius Karbus, Greek Cahtolic Bishop of Aleppo, written by Anṭōniōs al-Kabīr wa-kawkab al-Barriyya al-Munīr


Sbath.436 (Low Quality)

Sbath.438, Collection of Melkhite Hagiography (1748)

Partially translated from Greek



Sbath.496 (Low Quality)


Sbath.542 (Low Quality)


Sbath.606, Medical work (14th C)

Author and exact title unknown



Sbath.643 (Low Quality)



Sbath.757 (Low Quality)