La Renaissance Études Syriaques

While the European Renaissance of the sixteenth century spawned an immense interest in ancient Greek and Latin sources, it was not until the nineteenth century that scholars realized fully the potential of ancient Syriac sources to illumine our understanding of Christianity and history of the Middle East. In the present essay, Félix Nève chronicles the rise of interest in Syriac studies in the first half of the nineteenth-century. Nève focuses on three primary areas of academic interest that had already benefited from the study of Syriac sources: Biblical studies, patristics, and history. Nève also emphasizes the potential held by Syriac sources not yet fully studied or even discovered. As such, Nève’s essay serves a prophetic role, foreshadowing the discoveries and studies of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that would help establish Syriac Studies as an academic discipline in its own right.