Both parts are distinguished by a thoroughness which is exemplary and which one seldom meets elsewhere. Since he himself travelled in the Orient, he was in the position to consider almost all known text witnesses. With the unknown it is scarcely possible to reckon. All available 19 manuscripts go back to an archetype, the most recent dating to the thirteenth century, and fall into two groups. Two show a non-uniform text character.
Excerpts are to be found in some additional manuscripts.
Also considered are the excerpts that have appeared in print. Juckel then summarizes the transmission situation. Since the editions in CSCO are printed in estrangela , vocalization is lacking. The editor of the series should consider whether one ought to depart from this principle for texts of later Syriac authors, and use rather the West or East Syriac script. Juckel next elucidates the perplexing external literary forms of the century.