Notulae Syriacae 9781463232665

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Notulae Syriacae

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Syriac Studies Library

209

Sériés Editors Monica Blanchard Cari Griffïn Kristian Heal George Anton Kiraz David G.K. Taylor

The Syriac Studies Library brings back to active circulation major reference works in the field of Syriac studies, including dictionaries, grammars, text editions, manuscript catalogues, and monographs. The books were reproduced from originals at The Catholic University of America, one of the largest collections of Eastern Christianity in North America. The project is a collaboration between CUA, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, and Brigham Young University.

Notulae Syriacae

William Wright

2013

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com G&C Kiraz is an imprint of Gorgias Press LLC Copyright © 2013 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 1887 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2013

ISBN 978-1-61143-592-4

Reprinted from the 1887 London edition.

Digitized by Brigham Young University. Printed in the United States of America.

Series Foreword

This series provides reference works in Syriac studies from original books digitized at the ICOR library of The Catholic University of America under the supervision of Monica Blanchard, ICOR's librarian. The project was carried out by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Brigham Young University. About 675 books were digitized, most of which will appear in this series. Our aim is to present the volumes as they have been digitized, preserving images of the covers, front matter, and back matter (if any). Marks by patrons, which may shed some light on the history of the library and its users, have been retained. In some cases, even inserts have been digitized and appear here in the location where they were found. The books digitized by Brigham Young University are in color, even when the original text is not. These have been produced here in grayscale for economic reasons. The grayscale images retain original colors in the form of gray shades. The books digitized by Beth Mardutho and black on white. We are grateful to the head librarian at CUA, Adele R. Chwalek, who was kind enough to permit this project. "We are custodians, not owners of this collection," she generously said at a small gathering that celebrated the completion of the project. We are also grateful to Sidney Griffith who supported the project.

I. engaged this autumn in making a catalogue of the Syriac and Arabic manuscripts presented by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to the University Library of Cambridge, I came across a volume (at present numbered 26), of the xiiith century, the contents of which, though mainly theological, are more than usually various and interesting. Unhappily, some wretched possessor of the manuscript was careless enough of his property to mutilate it wantonly by tearing out the first four quires, and with them has perished nearly the whole of the most curious item of the contents, a heretofore unknown recension of the " Secular Laws of the Emperors Constantino, Theodosius and Leo." WHILST

Brims and Sachau have edited in their Syrisch-Römisches Reehtsbuch aus dem fünften Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1880) no less than four redactions of these Laws, two in Syriac, one in Arabic, 1 and one in Armenian.2 We are now in possession of a fragment of a third Syriac version, which must have differed very considerably from the other two. According to the subscription, f. 2 b, these enactments were issued by the emperor Leo about the year 517 of the era of Antioch, i.e. about A.D. 468. The oldest This document was transcribed by me for my teacher the late Professor Rödiger. This is not stated in the note in Bruns's Preface, p. vii. 1

Compare iny article Syriac Literature nica, vol. xxii., p. 834. 2

in the Encyclopedia,

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Sjriac version known to us dates, according to Brims (op. cit., pp. 318-9), from A.D. 476 or 477 ; t h e oldest manuscript (Brit. Mus. Add. 14,528) belongs to the beginning of the vi th century. The new recension of the Laws, which I shall designate b j the letter C, is shorter than the London MS. (L), but longer than that at Paris (P). L has 127 sections; P, ,x.Lu .¿^fio.-ia rf ^j^i^cuiA . rc'cuL

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" 94. Whether a man, who for God's sake rears up orphans and does not accept (the post of) curator according to law, can be required to pay debts on their behalf, or be brought into court for any other matter, before they attain their legal majority? He cannot be sued in the place of the orphans except in this way. The creditor shall take part of the ovaia of the orphans, which is put in pledge to him by a \dprris, making a writing before the priests of the village as follows, ' I M h a v o received of the ouorta of N what was pledged to me by a x^-P 7 ^,' so that ho may sow and consume the yield thereof and manage it as he will, whether it bo land or a house or a crroa; ho preserving it for the orphans until they come of age, 2 5 years. I f they are come of age, and demand the pledge at the hands of the creditor, the whole produce of the pledge which he has received shall be made known. I f it exceed in amount the interest of the debt, it shall be restored so as to become the orphans' (property); but if it fall short, they shall make good (the deficiency) to the creditor." " 95. I f a man has sons, and one of his sons borrows money from another man, either for the purpose of trading or for things that are required for his use, and the man's son who incurred the debt dies, or flees to another place, can the creditor get his debt paid by his father or one of his heirs 1 The creditor cannot demand the debt from his father or from a brother, unless he can prove that the father or brother has taken something of the ttapaO-qKi) of the debt (something of the borrowed articles as a deposit). B u t if the man's father can show that there was in the trade or in the ovaia of his son some of his own property, he shall receive it, and the lender too shall be paid out of the owia, of the borrower. B u t if he who borrowed leaves no inheritance or property, he who lent to the youth shall bear the loss, for he has no way (aymy•3 »^Oui.SJ^U.T

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