S. Ephraemi Hymni de Virginitate

Syrian Catholic Patriarch and Syriac scholar Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani (1848–1929) here presents an edition of Ephrem’s poems “On Virginity,” which in fact deal with a number of other subjects as well, such as oil (as a symbol), the mysteries of the Lord, the Lord’s temptation, John the Evangelist, the women that followed Jesus, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Lot and his daughters, Jonah and Nineveh, and several others. The Syriac text is printed in the Estrangela script, and the Latin translation is annotated with biblical references and other elucidations. Rahmani provides a Syriac (in vocalized Serto)-Latin lexicon of words not included in other lexica; it also contains a number of related citations from Jacob bar Shakko’s Dialogues. The introduction covers the publication history of Ephrem’s works and the meters used in these hymns, and offers an overview of the hymns. This volume is an important addition to the library of any reader interested in Ephrem, Syriac literature generally, and Christian literature in Late Antiquity.