Syriac texts make up the third largest corpus of late antique literature. Today, perhaps more than ten thousand manuscripts, or fragments, written in Syriac survive. These manuscripts offer evidence on a wide variety of subjects relevant to patristic scholarship.
The value of these Syriac sources notwithstanding, they have been largely inaccessible to non-specialists for a variety of reasons. First, many of the scholarly resources for Syriac studies are now dated by more than half a century. For example, the best comprehensive survey of Syriac literature still remains Anton Baumstark’s Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, published in 1922. Scholars lack a convenient reference to help them locate current editions and translations of texts or reliable information about authors, texts, and secondary literature. A second and even greater challenge is that a significant portion of Syriac literature remains unpublished. Finding these sources requires navigating a complicated maze of nearly 1000 finding aids.
In an effort to make the field of Syriac studies more accessible to both Syriac specialists and scholars working in other areas of patristic studies, an international team has begun work on a new on a new online reference tool, the Syriac Reference Portal (www.syriac.ua.edu). A joint project of Princeton University and the University of Alabama, the Syriac Reference Portal has three aims: 1) to compile and organize core data related to the study of Syriac sources; 2) to create digital tools for widely disseminating this data and facilitating further research; 3) to organize the data and tools through an online hub (cyberinfrastructure) for future research in the field of Syriac studies.
This communication will introduce the Syriac Reference Portal, demonstrate some of the features and seek user feedback for future development.
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