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This item contains a single image with three layered components. The first layer shows a page from a Syriac manuscript. The second layer is metadata provided for that manuscript to be understood online, and is expressed in XML encoding. The final…

Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal is a digital project hosted by Vanderbilt University for the study of Syriac literature, culture, and history. Today, a number of heritage communities around the world have linguistic, religious or cultural…

This contemporary piece was created by Steve Stone, Jr., a student in Vanderbilt Divinity School’s program in Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture. The artist carved the name of Jesus as it is typically spelled in East Syriac script (usually…

Pages numbered from back to front.

The Syriac script is an Aramaic alphabet derived from earlier Northwest Semitic scripts (a family of languages which has flourished for over 3 millenia). Over time, three distinct Syriac scripts developed. The oldest literary script, Estrangela, was…

In the 16th century, western interest in Syriac Christianity began to grow. Beginning with editions of the Syriac Bible, publishers sought out and printed Syriac texts as witnesses to the early history of Christianity. A variety of lead type fonts…

Aegidius Gutbier (1617-1667) was a professor of Oriental languages in Hamburg, Germany and one of the preeminent European scholars of Syriac of the early modern era. Gutbier’s scholarship reflected a Protestant interest in Syriac Christianity as a…