Greek Orthodox manuscript for an Arab Patriarch

[Biblia graeca - VT - Psalmi]. Ottoman Greek commentary on the Psalms.

€ 35,000.00

A large Greek manuscript commentary on the Psalms, commissioned by Athanasius III Dabbas (1647-1724), a Greek Orthodox Arab and Patriarch of Antioch. This volume, titled "deuteron meros" (second part), begins with Psalm 80 and runs to the final Psalm 150, with the text of each Psalm picked out in red and an extensive commentary in black ink; section headings begin with a large stylized capital, and often floral designs in red ink. Following the Psalm commentary are brief commentaries on parts of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the Books of Jonah and of Samuel, the Annunciation, etc.

Dabbas, the wealthy and powerful patron of this manuscript, was born in Damascus, and his first monastery was Mar Saba in what is now the West Bank of Palestine. While the manuscript is almost entirely in Greek, its colophon is written in both Greek and in Arabic, perhaps in deference to its patron's linguistic and cultural roots. Adding to this multicultural milieu, the polished mulberry bark paper upon which the scribe wrote is watermarked with a crowned bunch of grapes, in a common motif used in Istanbul paper makers in the first half of the 18th century. The scribe gives his name as Georgios bin Eleftherios of Aleppo in Greek, and in the Arabic colophon as "Deacon Georgios ibn Ma'tuq, better known as Ibn Ghazalah of Aleppo, Orthodox by faith at the age of eighteen" who copied "This holy book, a commentary on the Zabur of David [...] during the lifetime of the father of fathers and the lord of lords, Athanasius II Patriarch of Antioch in the city of Aleppo at the Roman Monastery on the 3rd of Shevat of the year 1716." The work is lengthy and the hand remarkably consistent and fine: a beautiful and high-quality manuscript production for a Patriarch of the faith.