Paul Sbath’s Manuscript Library

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.