1822.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE incalculable number of Eng- 
lish visitants to Paris having ren- 
dered the curiosities contained in the 
Royal -Library of that metropolis very 
familiar to my countrymen, I have 
been led to imagine that some notice 
of singularly curious manuscripts in 
the Grand Library at Lyons might 
not be unacceptable to your readers ; 
and, as a residence of a lengthened 
period, combined with a love of an- 
cient lore, and an intimacy with Mr. 
Delandine, first librarian of this city, 
have contributed to forward my views 
on ancient literature, 1 remit you the 
accompanying notices, which, if in- 
serted in your Miscellany, shall be 
followed up by others of a similar na- 
ture. It would be needless to remark, 
that the great distance of Lyons from 
our shores, and even from Paris, ren- 
ders the visits of the English very un- 
frequent; and of those who arrive but 
few are led to inspect the bibliothecal 
stores of this ancient city. 
Lyons ; June 1822. 
NO. I. 
Service of the Syriac Chureh, in the 
Language of that Country. 
This curious and remarkable manu- 
script is in folio, written upon vellum, 
in double columns; the rubrics- and 
titles being stained of a purple, and 
the work also adorned with drawings 
of the same colour, together with 
others green and yellow, and bearing 
the representation of an Asiatic cross. 
At each quire, consisting of twenty 
pages, is found a kind of catch-word, 
surrounded by Arabesque, and the 
character throughout is Syriac, or the 
ancient Chaldean, named Séringueli. 
It was written in the year 1449, of 
Alexander the Great, according to 
Greek calculation, which makes it in 
the year 1137 of our era. The author 
was Father Micaél, native of Maha- 
rach, and a brother of the monastery 
of St. Mary Magdalen, at Deiro- 
Oucams, which signifies the Black 
Mountain. We composed it at the pe- 
riod when John was Patriarch of 
Antioch, Gabriel Patriarch of Alex- 
andria, and Agnatius Bishop of Ma- 
harach. 
The volume was discovered under 
the vaulting of a Syriac place of wor- 
ship at Aleppo, where it had long 
served as the original guide for the 
rites of the Syriac church in Asia; and 
ERUGO. 
Curious Manuscripts in the Grand Library at Lyons. 
515 
from it were transcribed other manu- 
scripts, disseminated for the use of 
the followers of that faith. 
On the 22d of December, 1654, the 
Patriarch Peter, and Dionysius Ros- 
cala, Archbishop of the East, presented 
this curious relic to the Chevalier 
D’Arvieux, then French consul at 
Aleppo, who, upon his return to 
France, stopped at Lyons, where he 
was so gratified by the reception there 
experienced, that he gave this literary 
monument to the Grand Library of 
the eity, as a testimony of his particu- 
lar affection for the Lyonese. 
The Chevalier D’Arvieux, replete 
with zeal and with knowledge, had 
studied the oriental languages, in order 
to acquire a perfect insight as to the 
history of all the inhabitants of the 
East. The great services he had ren- 
dered to the Christians m Asia, and 
380 French slaves whom he ransomed 
at Tunis, prompted Pope Innocent XT. 
to bestow upon him a singular proof 
of his esteem; wherefore he named 
him Bishop of Babylon, although no 
more than a simple Knight of Malta; 
and, in case he did not think fit to 
accept this dignity, the Holy Father 
accorded him permission to confer it 
upon whomsoever he should think fit. 
D’Arvieux was consul at Aleppo in 
1679, and his Memoirs were published 
in 1736 by Labat, the work consisting 
of six vols. 12mo. 
NO. If. 
The Coran, written in the Turkish 
Language, in iGmo. 
This book, of remote antiquity, and 
so venerated by the major part of the 
inhabitants of Asia, is in Turkish- 
Arabian, every page having an embel- 
lished border, and containing eleven 
kinds of text. 
The Turkish dialect, formed from 
the Arabian, has five letters less ; the 
character was fixed by the Vizir 
Melech, who about the year 933 wrote 
out the Coran in’ such a beautiful 
and correct style of penmanship, that 
his letters were regarded as types. 
Sale, Gamier, Roland, Chardin, 
Prideaux, D’Herbelot, Tournefort, 
Marucci, Du-Ryer, and Turpin, have 
particularly descanted at large upon 
this Bible of the Mussulmans. It is 
written in verses, the chain of which is 
frequently broken, so that at the first 
inspection it seems to present nothing 
but a sexies of laws, or detached moral 
precepts. Beside a very trivial maxim 
is found amost sublime image; and 
near 
