This article concerns the manuscript collection of the Syrian Catholic priest Paul Sbath (Aleppo, 1887–1945), who is regarded by some as one of the twentieth century’s most controversial collectors. This is primarily due to the mysterious circumstances under which he obtained and consolidated his collection of 1,325 manuscripts, part of which he sold to the Vatican Library in 1927. Through a close study of the negotiations around the acquisition of Sbath’s manuscripts by the Vatican, this article explores the different, and sometimes conflicting, conceptualizations of a manuscript library in the early post-Ottoman period. Physically displaced following the historical events that were drastically transforming the Middle East in the early 20th century, Sbath’s collection has been a moving library—during his life and after—from Aleppo to Jerusalem, then from Cairo to the Vatican, and back to Aleppo. Using previously unresearched archival sources at the Vatican, this article explores how Sbath’s goal was to create a modern Western waqf (endowment) of books: a hybrid library reflecting the continuation of the Middle Eastern manuscript tradition in dialogue with the Western perception of a manuscript library, as well as representing Sbath’s identity as an Arab Catholic priest living through the contemporary challenges of war, plague, displacement, and migration in the Middle East in the interwar period.

中文翻译：

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Paul Sbath 的手稿图书馆

本文介绍的是叙利亚天主教神父保罗·斯巴特（阿勒颇，1887–1945 年）的手稿集，他被一些人视为二十世纪最具争议的收藏家之一。这主要是由于他在神秘的情况下获得并整理了 1,325 份手稿，其中一部分于 1927 年卖给了梵蒂冈图书馆。通过仔细研究梵蒂冈收购 Sbath 手稿的谈判，这文章探讨了后奥斯曼时期早期手稿图书馆的不同、有时是相互矛盾的概念化。在 20 世纪初彻底改变中东的历史事件发生后，Sbath 的藏品在他的一生中和之后一直是一个移动的图书馆，从阿勒颇到耶路撒冷，然后从开罗到梵蒂冈，再回到阿勒颇。本文使用梵蒂冈以前未经研究的档案资源，探讨了 Sbath 的目标是如何创建一个现代西方伊斯兰教法（捐赠）书籍：一个混合图书馆反映了中东手稿传统的延续与西方对手稿图书馆的看法的对话，并代表了 Sbath 作为阿拉伯天主教牧师的身份，他生活在战争、瘟疫、瘟疫等当代挑战中。两次世界大战期间中东的流离失所和移民。