St. Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Nineveh

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 548. SAINT ISAAC THE SYRIAN, BISHOP OF THE CITY OF NINEVEH. NOTITIA.

(GALLAND, *Veterum Patrum Bibliotheca*, Vol. XII, p. 111, 4.)

I. In publishing the work of this author, which bears the title *Of the Contempt of the World*, we have attributed it to Saint Isaac, a presbyter of the Church of Antioch (of whom Gennadius makes mention, followed by Marcellinus), in the consulship of Patricius and Ricimer, led into error, indeed, by the authority of Trithemius, Nairon, Combefis, and others. But later, being better informed by Assemani and Fabricius, we now at last distinguish the presbyter of Antioch from the Bishop of Nineveh, of whom this discourse treats; since it is recognized that the former preceded the latter by nearly a whole century. For Gennadius wrote that the elder Isaac wrote against the Nestorians and Eutychians; he also lamented the ruin of Antioch in an elegant poem. And yet, to use the words of a man of great learning, Nestorius published his heresy in the year of Christ 429; Eutyches, however, around the year of Christ 448; and the ruin of Antioch at last occurred in the year 459. We conclude from Gennadius himself that he did not survive long after that Antiochene disaster, for he reports that he departed this life during the reign of Emperors Leo and Majorian, as is correctly stated in the ancient Vatican and Corbie manuscripts, and not [during the reign of] Leo and Marcian, as is erroneously found in printed editions. For indeed, as Marcellinus says, Leo succeeded Marcian in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus, and at his command, Majorian was ordained Caesar at Ravenna. But Majorian was stripped of the Western Empire and of life at the same time in the year 461, in the consulship of Dagalaifus and Severinus. Therefore, the great presbyter Isaac died about the year 460, since his death cannot be deferred beyond the year 461, when Majorian exchanged life for death; nor can it be pushed back before the year 459, in which he himself lamented the city of Antioch, shaken and destroyed by a severe earthquake, in a mournful poem. For the most learned man whom we just mentioned strives to prove from approved authors that the disaster of Antioch happened in that year—contrary to what Scaliger, Calvisius, Petavius, and Pagius believed—and he also enumerates the works of this same Saint Isaac at length from the Vatican manuscripts. ^A

II. Now, however, to speak of our Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of the city of Nineveh, it will be worth the effort to summarize here in a few words what the praised Assemani reports at length concerning him from an anonymous preface to the works of this same Isaac, which exist in the Nitrian manuscript XX, in the Arabic language indeed, but in Syriac characters. From this writer, therefore, we understand that the aforementioned Isaac the Syrian was originally a monk, and professed the monastic life in the monastery of Saint Matthew, where, excelling in doctrine and ascetic observance, after he had duly fulfilled the institutions of the cenobitic life, he withdrew to a cell far from the monastery, and there remained for a long time segregated from the company of men. But when the fame of his doctrine and holiness had spread abroad, he was raised to the see of the great city of Nineveh. Yet, on the very first day of his ordination, because of the insolence of two litigants, he was again led by a desire for the solitary life to resign his bishopric, and he sought the Scetensian desert; there he remained until his death, attaining the highest summit of holiness. These things, briefly described by the anonymous writer whom we have just mentioned, clearly prove, as Assemani rightly argues, that the conjecture of Lambecius and Cave is by no means to be admitted, who supposed that our Isaac, after abdicating his bishopric, came from the desert to Italy, and passed the remainder of his life in a monastery founded by himself near Spoleto: which, once established, would make one and the same person with Isaac ^B

they believe, of whom Saint Gregory the Great makes mention. For our Isaac did not depart from Mesopotamia to Italy, but to Egypt, where he closed his final day in the Scetic desert, as we have just heard from the aforementioned anonymous writer. Fabricius holds nearly the same opinion.

III. Furthermore, in speaking of the literary monuments of this prelate of the Ninevites, Sobensis, according to Assemani, has this to say: Isaac the Ninevite composed seven tomes, concerning the governance of the spirit, divine mysteries, judgments, and polity. A review of these from Syriac, Arabic, and Greek manuscripts in the Vatican was undertaken by the illustrious scholar. They exist in Greek in other libraries as well: namely, in the Viennese, the Coislinian, and the Bodleian, as the often-commended Fabricius reports. To these, moreover, must be added the Royal Library of Turin; where, from Greek manuscript 351, all the ascetic sermons of Isaac the Syrian, bishop of the city of Nineveh, are described, having been translated from the Arabic language into Greek by Patricius and Abramius, monks of the monastery of Saint Sabas, ["by the abbot Patricius and the abbot Abramius, the philosophers," etc.] The illustrious Du Cange, in referencing a nearly similar inscription of a Caesarean manuscript, observes that monks are called "philosophers" by the Greeks, just as they profess the monastic life to be "philosophizing." Nor should we pass over here what Cave reports, namely that the translators of these sermons are called Abramius and Isaacius in the Bodleian library catalogue, page 43; nor that they are called anything else in the Royal Alexandrian Vatican manuscript 25, according to Assemani, although this is not approved by Fabricius; and with good reason: for from many other manuscripts we have found it to be confirmed that the other translator is consistently said to be Patricius, not Isaacius.

IV. From these ascetic sermons of Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, only the first fifty-three, as if they were a single book, were published in Latin under the title *On the Contempt of the World*, inscribed under the name of Isaac, bishop of Antioch; but erroneously, as we pointed out above; and moreover, they were not sufficiently corrected; for which reason we have endeavored to restore some of their passages in the notes provided below. Yet our edition had scarcely emerged from the press when, behold, we learned from the *Acta Eruditorum* provided to us by chance, that a Greek version of these same sermons of Isaac had been published at Leipzig in the year 1770, in octavo, by the efforts of Nicephorus Theotokis; the inscription of which edition is reported as follows: "Of our holy father Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, the Syrian, the ascetic findings, through the request of the most blessed, most divine, and most wise patriarch of the holy city of Jerusalem and all Palestine, Kyrios Ephraim; and by the care of Nicephorus, hieromonk of the Theotokos, now first published in print." We learn from those same *Acta* that the illustrious editor used two manuscripts, one of which he consigned to be printed; and that he appended the variant readings of the other to individual pages; and further, that he not infrequently sprinkled the sermons themselves with observations that either well illustrate the meaning of the more obscure passages, or contain variant readings, and sometimes even conjectures and a collation of the Latin version. Would that this Greek edition had indeed been discovered by us in a timely fashion: for it would certainly have rendered our own more elegant and more useful.

SECOND NOTICE.

Isaac, presbyter of the Church of Antioch, wrote in the Syriac tongue, for a long time and on many subjects: with the greatest care, however, against the Nestorians and Eutychians; he also bewailed the ruin of Antioch in an elegant poem, imbuing his listeners with that sound with which the deacon Ephrem of Nicomedia imbued his own age. He died under the emperors Leo and Majorian. This is what Gennadius says of Isaac in chapter 66 of *De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*. Of the writings of Isaac that he mentions, nothing has come down to us, either in the Syriac language, or—as happened to the monuments of Ephrem—translated from Syriac into Greek. However, there exists in Latin, in the later edition of the *Orthodoxographa* (Basel, 1569, fol., p. 1626), and thence in all the *Bibliothecae Patrum*, as in Cologne 1618, tom. VI, and Paris 1644, 1654, tom. V, col. 483-552; and in the latest edition, Lyon 1672, tom. XI, p. 1019, [also in Galland. *Bibl. PP.*, tom. XII, p. 3 seqq., *Isaac the Syrian, presbyter of Antioch, book on the contempt of the world, in Latin, now revised and restored in many places, yet in the prolegomena page 1, it is attributed to the bishop of Nineveh*] a farrago of minor works or ascetic sermons, I know not whether translated from the Syriac, or—as I would sooner believe—from the Greek, which is inscribed, *Book of S. Isaac the Syrian and presbyter of Antioch on the contempt of the world, on the operation of the body and on self-abjection*. Jo. Jacobus Grynaeus in

his preface to the *Orthodoxographa* says that it was written at the end of the book (as it is also exhibited in the *Orthodoxographa*, p. 1677): *He lived in the year of the Lord 1407*, from which he concludes that Isaac, whom he calls a monk, lived at that time, when Rupert, Prince Palatine, held the scepter of the Roman Empire in the West. But to me, that note seems to be understood not of Isaac himself, but of his Latin translator; for Isaac himself is much older. And there are those who think that the Isaac mentioned by Gennadius is the author; for thus, after Possevin and others, Francis Combefis, who in the *Bibliotheca Patrum Concionatoria*, vol. I, p. 25, says: "Since Gennadius explicitly writes 'presbyter of the Church of Antioch,' and this book is not prefaced by any other title, and is worthy of the man, who wrote so remarkably on morals and compunction with an affinity of character and genius to Ephrem, I would ascribe it to no other, and I do not even sufficiently detect from that little work that he was a monk." Nor is it permitted to doubt that Trithemius also attributed the Gennadian book *On the Contempt of the World* to the elder Isaac, although he read it under different titles and divided into several booklets. For in both, Combefis is mistaken when he says: "Trithemius reports many things of that elder (Isaac) which do not exist, among which he does not include this book *On the Contempt of the World*." For if one consults chapter 147 of Trithemius's book *De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*, it will appear that neither are many non-existent things of Isaac reported by him, nor was the book *On the Contempt of the World* unknown to him. Here are Trithemius's words for you! "Isaac, from a monk, a presbyter of the Church of Antioch, a man learned in the divine Scriptures and venerable in the delivery of homilies, wrote in the Syrian language, in imitation of Saint Ephrem, several devout little works, the reading of which is judged to be very useful to religious men. Among which, among our own, I found the following: *Against the Nestorians and Eutychians*, book II (b)."

[NOTES.]

eighty-seven ascetic [sermons]. The former of these, he says, ^A forty-one in number, separated from the rest, once had their own special general rubric in red: "The first of them begins: 'The soul that loves God, in God,' etc." But the title of that same first sermon in two other Caesarean codices is old: "A discourse of our holy Father Isaac, the hermit and ascetic, on renunciation and the monastic way of life." On renunciation and the monastic way of life; but in this codex, it is inscribed and begins: "On patience, for the love of God," etc. This sermon 41 having been finished, the remaining 46 follow, and they have a special general rubric in red: "Of Abba Isaac the Syrian, the hermit, who became bishop of the Christ-loving city of Nineveh. Ascetic sermons found by Abba Patricius and Abba Abramius, etc." See Fabricius, presently about the younger Isaac, the Syrian, and what things I have transcribed there from Assemani. Then Lambeck observes that of the mentioned 87 ascetic sermons, fifty-three indeed exist in the *Magna Bibliotheca Patrum*, Paris 1654, vol. V, col. 483 seqq. (or vol. XI, in the newest edition); but in Latin only, and in a mutilated, troubled, and confused order, and as chapters of one continuous book, inscribed: *On the Contempt of the World*; when nevertheless it manifestly appears that those sermons, as they are on diverse subjects, so were also delivered at diverse times, and therefore are distinguished from one another by inscriptions and beginnings, as well as by epilogues or conclusions. Later he notes that the author of the same sermons is wrongly called, as also by Jo. Trithemius in the book *De SS. Ecclesiasticis* and by Possevin in the *Apparatus Sacer* and others, a presbyter of Antioch, when indeed it is clear that Isaac the Syrian is entirely different ^B from Isaac the Syrian, first bishop of the city of Nineveh, but later an abbot and hermit. The same person argues at length about the passages of Trithemius, most especially the one by Gennadius whom he corrects, and about distinguishing the two Isaacs, and notes that Isaac the presbyter of Antioch did not become famous for ascetic writings, but for heretical ones against the Nestorians and especially the Eutychians, and that he died between the Kalends of April, a.d. 457, and August 7, a.d. 461; but the other Isaac, abbott and hermit, the author of the 87 ascetic sermons, was born not long after the death of the former, about whom are the fables from the narrative of Gregory the Great concerning the arrival of Saint Isaac the Syrian, abbot and hermit, in Italy and his stay in the same region until his death, in the third book of the *Dialogues on the Life and Miracles of the Italian Fathers*, etc. On ch. 14, he repeats, and cites the *Roman Martyrology* for April 11.—At Venice, in the library of St. Mark, 127 of his sermons, chapters, and very useful interrogations. Which individual, and very many, works in that codex are contained, are copiously listed in the *Catalogus codicum graecorum Bibliothecae Marcianae* p. 71 seqq.—Ibid., in the manuscript library of Saint Michael is a codex which contains the *Sermons of Isaac the Syrian*, and those which are found in that codex, Bened. Mittarellus in the *Bibliotheca codicum manuscriptorum* of that library p. 543 seqq. carefully lists and observes, in the *Bibliotheca veterum Patrum* of Margarin de la Bigne, 3rd edition, vol. V, p. 563, and others, that they appeared inscribed: *Of Isaac the Syrian, presbyter of Antioch, on the contempt of the world*, and that this work was first published at Venice in 1506, 8vo. But the editions differ much from that Venetian codex, and more is read in it than is in the printed ones; they are also more uncorrected, such that the sense is scarcely elicited, which is clearer by the aid of that codex: besides, he notes that Ambrosius Venetus, a.d. 1432, found in Rome in the papal library the works of Isaac the Syrian, *On the Perfection of the Religious Life*, and that those differ little from the title of the Venetian codex: *On the Perfection of Contemplation* (Italian version: *Isaac de Syria abbate, libro De la perfectione de la vita contemplativa*, Venice, by Bonet Locatell, presbyter, 1509, 8vo, is listed by Mittarell. in the appendix of books of the 15th century, to the same library cited 220.) Then p. 545 seqq. of the *Bibliotheca* he lists the codex: *Libro dello abate Ysaac de Syria—come l'anima se deve posare in Deo et in lo contempto dello mundo*, which book he notes contains other chapters which he points out, and adds that a vernacular version of these sermons [without place and year, s.l. et a.], but with a correction of the dialect, came to light, and the authors of the *Diarii litteratorum Italiae* vol. XXXII, p. 544, praise a version of these sermons under the name: *Collezione de' Padri del abate Isac*, made at the time when Dante lived; and that the Florentine editors, who in 1720 gave this collection of Abbot Isaac to the presses, admit this, and there list many codices which they used. (Paitoni wrote more about this Florentine edition in the *Bibl. degli autori antichi Gr. et Latini volgarizzati*, vol. II, p. 190.) Finally, Mittarellus relates that the *Excerpta in Evangelium Matthaei* of John of Antioch exist in the *Catena Graeca*, codex 120. Isaac the presbyter is cited in anonymous *Scholia* on J. Climacus. See above vol. IX, p. 525, n. 3. Concerning other codices, see shortly concerning the younger Isaac. Harl. ^{C D} (b) Trithemius reports these from Gennadius, as is his custom; he did not inspect them himself, otherwise he would have appended their first words.

NOTITIA

He delivered many homilies to the people, but they have not come into our hands at all. He flourished under Theodosius the Younger. FABR.

Regarding Isaac the presbyter, see Cave, *Hist. litter. SS. Eccl.* I, p. 434 sq., to the year 440, who concluded that he was a disciple of St. Ephrem the Syrian and died circa 456; he also opines that the short booklet *On Thoughts*, which P. Possinus edited in Greek and Latin in his *Ascetica* (p. 318), belongs to him, as well as that fragment preserved for us by the monk Nicephorus in his book *On the Custody of the Heart* (ibid., opusc. 17, p. 420). Nor does he suspect that this Isaac is a different person from the Isaac who was a disciple of the great Arsenius, whom Arsenius took with him to the abbot Poemen, and whose mention is made among the *Apophthegmata Patrum* (ibid., opusc. 9, p. 247). However, what Cave wrote—that he was a disciple of Ephrem—is to be understood in this way: that that Isaac had as a teacher around the year 390 Zenobius, a deacon of the Church of Edessa and a disciple of St. Ephrem. Assemanni teaches this from several arguments, especially from that poem in which he lamented the ruin of Antioch (which happened in the year 459) in *Bibl. Orient.* tom. I, cap. 16, p. 207 seqq., where he deals at length with Saint Isaac, surnamed the Great, a presbyter of Antioch, his homeland, family, dignity, and writings; he also warns that Isaac the presbyter is sometimes confused, even by the ancients, with Isaac the Ninevite; and on p. 210, he places his year of death at A.D. 460, contrary to Cave. Add ibid. p. 38 and p. 215, 405 in the *Chronicle of Edessa*. He is called a Doctor and "the Great" by the Syrians, both in order to distinguish him from other Isaacs and because he wrote many learned works of a diverse nature, composed in very elegant Syrian, including poems. HARL. In the *History of the Dynasties* of Gregory Abulpharaji, p. 91 (p). In the time of Theodosius the Younger (who died in the year 450).

NOTES

It is recorded that Mar Isaac, a disciple of Mar Ephrem, flourished—the author of *Rhythmic Sermons*: which words of Gennadius concerning Isaac are without doubt to be understood [as referring to] Ephrem, that most famous and in holiness distinguished priest of Edessa ^A, who died in the year of Christ 375: not, as it pleased Tentzel (vol. II, *Diss. select.*, p. 145), Ephrem the Antiochene patriarch who passed away in 546. For that Isaac is reported by Gennadius to have died under the emperors Leo and Majorian, who began to reign in the year of Christ 457. [FABR.]

With Isaac, the Antiochene priest, many people confuse Isaac the Elder, whom, however, Assemanni in his *Bibl. Orient.* (vol. I, ch. 7, p. 165 sqq.) distinguishes in the Nitrian codex V—relying on the Syrian author of the *Life of Saint Ephrem*, who counts that Isaac among his disciples—and against Suffridus Petrus Leovardiensis, to whom it seems in his notes on Gennadius that he flourished around the year 450, he maintains that he flourished around the year 380; add [what is said] a little below concerning Isaac from the Jews. [HARL.]

Another, younger Isaac the Syrian is praised by Gregory the Great, *Dialogorum* lib. III, cap. 14, where he says that he had come from the parts of Syria to the city of Spoleto ^B and that he had lived there almost until the final times of the Goths, that is, up to the middle of the sixth century; he refers to him as also being famous for the spirit of prophecy and for miracles, and he celebrates this sentiment of his: "A monk who seeks possessions on the earth is not a monk" (r). That this man is the author of those opuscula of which I spoke is the preference of Aubertus Miraeus in his notes on Gennadius, of Lambecius (V, p. 74 sqq.) (s), of Cave, and others. But I do not see by what arguments Lambecius proves that this Isaac of Gregory the Great is the same as Isaac, bishop of the city of Nineveh, who the codes that still survive—Syriac and Greek—and Ebedjesu in his *Catalogue of Chaldean Books* (p. 29) do not permit one to doubt is the true author of those opuscula; [he states that] Isaac the Ninevite composed seven volumes *On the governance of the spirit*, *On divine mysteries*, *On judgments and politics* (t). In the Greek Caesarean codex:

Of our father among the saints, the anchorite Isaac the Syrian, who became bishop of the Christ-loving city of Nineveh, ascetic discourses, discovered by our holy fathers Patricius and Abraham, philosophers (u) and hesychasts in the Laura of our father among the saints, Sabas.

Of our holy father Isaac, the anchorite and ascetic the Syrian, a discourse on renunciation and the monastic life.

About patience for the sake of the love of God and how help is found in it, discourse 41.

On the governance of novices.

NOTES. ... [latin material omitted as per instructions] ...

^A And in other codices the chapters of Isaac the Syrian: "Love the poor garments on your body"; and others, the beginning of which is: "He who restrains the mouth." Another again: "The soul that loves God in God alone." On the angelic movement and progress of the soul: "First idea." 99 ascetic homilies, rendered from Syriac into Greek by Patricius and Abramius, monks of the monastery of St. Sabas. See the catalog of English manuscripts, p. 35, no. 256; and p. 44, no. 295, where those two interpreters—just as with Cave—are mistakenly called Abramius and Isaacus. In the same catalog, p. 155, three homilies of this Isaac are said to be preserved in Syriac in Thomas Bodley’s codex 72. Lambecius also mentions, IV, p. 148 (v), a fragment On Baptism from the great letter of Isaac the Syrian. It begins: "For it gives freely to baptism." FABRICIUS. Ascetic homilies, written in Arabic and long ago translated into Greek by Patricius and Abramius, were edited by Nicephorus Theotokius, hieromonk, with the inscription: "Of our holy Father Isaac, Bishop of Nineveh the Syrian, the ascetic works found, under the care of Nicephorus, Hieromonk, first published in print, Leipzig, 1770. 8." The editor used two codices. But the order of the sermons is not the same as the order in the Arabic [version] in Assemani, nor are all that are in the Vatican books contained in the Greek version; many, however, are found. The style is said to be filled with metaphors. You will read more about them and the edition in the *Nova Acta eruditorum*, 1770, June, p. 283, and in Ernesti’s *Novissima Bibliotheca theologica*, vol. 1, part II, p. 154-155, and the excellent Morelli’s *Bibliotheca manuscripta Graeca et Latina*, vol. I, p. 81, concerning the Venetian Marcian codex 127, in which are preserved the ascetic sermons of Isaac the Syrian in Greek. Isaac the Syrian is praised by a certain poet who composed iambics on the sermons of the Holy Fathers, which were published by Amadutius in *Anecdota litteraria*, vol. II, p. 23 ff., and in verse 29 ff. he is said to know how to lift the mind from a quiet state on high to pour forth fervent prayers; and in a certain homily on silence and the solitary life, in the Paris public library codex 1067, no. 1. — Regarding this Isaac, see William Cave, *loco citato*, vol. I, p. 431, by whom, however, it has already been noted that two Isaacs have been conflated; Oudin, in *Commentarius de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis*, I, p. 1400 ff., to the year 510, who is not only lengthy on him, but also diligently enumerates the codices that exist in the Viennese and English libraries and comprehend Isaac’s short works; Saxius in *Onomasticon literarium*, I, p. 507 ff., to the year 440; for he suspects he flourished about this time, and says they claim he certainly wrote a letter to Simeon Stylites. Above all, Assemani should be consulted, who in *Bibliotheca Orientalis*, vol. I, ch. 54, p. 444-465, copiously pursues the life and writings of Isaac, the Ninevite. He first excerpted a passage from his life, which an anonymous author in the preface to Isaac’s Works—which exist in Arabic speech but in Syriac characters in the Nitrian codex 20—described. Then he inquires into his age, and from Isaac’s letter to Simeon Stylites the Younger, named Thaumastorites, who died on May 24th, A.D. 593 (which letter occupies the last place in the Greek codex 391, containing ninety sermons of Isaac translated from Syriac by Patricius and Abrahamius), he concludes that our Isaac flourished at the decline of the sixth century, and against Lambecius and Cave, who confuse this Isaac with the other disciple of Ephrem, he shows from the letter that our Isaac went not to Italy but to Egypt from Mesopotamia, and breathed out his pious soul in the Scetene desert. Then he deals briefly with his writings and codices, in which exist 98 sermons translated into Greek and wrongly attributed by others to Isaac of Antioch, in the Vindobonensian [Viennese] Kaisar codices, in Lambecius, in the Vatican codices 391 (already mentioned), 605, 787, and in the Royal Alexandrian 23, in which he specifically and very richly lists the works, i.e., 4 books of sermons from the Syriac codices (which have only one book), and the Arabic (in which there are four books), and the Greek Vatican ones; and he indicates everywhere in which codices the individual sermons are found. Book I contains twenty-four sermons; book II, 45 sermons; book III, 44 sermons; book IV, 20 sermons, and a letter to Simeon Thaumastorites. Finally, p. 461 ff., he pursues the codex in the library of the Maronite college in Syriac, inscribed: "General book to all nations, or On the cause of all causes," divided into IX treatises; the author of which some have made Isaac the Ninevite; but Assemani doubts this, and from the preface of the author shows that the author was Isaac, Bishop of Edessa, and that he finally, because of disturbances, left his see and retired to the mountains near Edessa, where he dictated the praised codex. In the same volume, p. 563 ff., 563, 569, Isaac’s sermons are named, which are in the Nitrian codices in the Vatican library, and p. 607, codices 4 and 5, which Assemani brought from the East. Isaac is frequently cited by Syriac writers, as Assemani teaches in vol. III, p. 158, 183, 303 (where Bar-Hebraeus praises 214 sermons of Isaac), 306, 340 end, 315, and the note there (where however Isaac of Edessa is hinted at around the year 450, and is said to have died at Amida). — To the codices in which the sermons of Isaac the Ninevite occur, and which have already been brought forward by Fabricius and Oudin, can be added the Moscow ones: 293, orations with scholia; 294 (in which there are seventy-six orations); 295 (written with a prologue about Isaac’s life); 296, excerpts from five of Isaac the Syrian’s orations; in codex 378 seven of his short works; 598 Isaac the Syrian’s *On thoughts*. Finally in codex IV in 4, no. 16 and 19, of the library of the synodal printing house, certain things twice. See Matthaei’s *Notitia codicum Graecorum Mosquensium*, p. 190, 191, 192, no. 3; p. 243, no. 1; p. 255, no. 14, and p. 301. In Turin in the Royal codex 251, which is diligently examined, the titles of all of Isaac’s writings contained therein, and their beginnings, are subjoined in the *Catalogus manuscriptorum Taurinensium Graecorum*, p. 475. NOTES. (v) Or p. 536 ed. Kollar. in cod. 157, no. 7. Ibid. p. 155 ff., no. 21-23, cod. 156, there are more ascetic chapters of Isaac in Greek. HARL.