Barhebraeus’ Metrical Grammar and Ms. BML Or. 298: Codicological and Linguistic Remarks

Abstract

This contribution deals with different issues connected with Barhebraeus’Metrical Grammar, its manuscript tradition and its linguistic content.The fi rst two sections of the paper aim at giving a general overview ofthe text and of its manuscript witnesses. They contain some codicologicaland text-critical observations, offering an overview of the main featuresof ms. Or. 298 of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana of Florence, whichpreserves the oldest dated copy of Barhebraeus’ Metrical Grammar. Thelast section analyses from the linguistic point of view two particular paragraphsof the Grammar, in which Barhebraeus gives his own interpretationof a phenomenon that some modern linguists call coreferential dative. The aim of this section is to show how the study of native Syriac grammars cancontribute not only to the understanding of ancient linguistic thinking, butalso of features of the Syriac language usually overlooked.
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