The textual tradition of Job of Edessa

Abstract

The only extant writings of the Syriac physician and translator Job of Edessa (8th-9th century) are the Treatise on Dog Rabies and the Book of Treasures. These works have come down to us in four 20th century manuscripts: ms. Harvard Syriac 132 (1904); ms. Mingana Syriac 559 (1930), partially reproduced in the facsimile edition of the Book of Treasures published by Alphonse Mingana in 1935; ms. CFMM 555 (1964); and ms. MBLM 40 (1965), which had so far escaped notice. All manuscripts derive from a single 13th-century exemplar now lost. This paper summarizes the results of a first global examination of the tradition aimed at clarifying the mutual relations between the four witnesses and their stemmatic position with respect to the 13th-century codex. Special attention is also paid to the ancient colophons preserved in the modern copies, which offer some valuable clues for reconstructing the history of the reception of Job