[Melchite Office book].
Contributors: Catholic Church.; Orthodox Eastern Church.
Published: 1200
Language: grc
Number of pages: 70
Subjects: Catholic Church -- Byzantine rite, Melchite -- Liturgy -- Texts.; Divine office -- Texts.; Manuscripts, Greek (Medieval and modern) -- Washington (D.C.); Manuscripts, Arabic -- Washington (D.C.)
Notes: Former owners: Sing Humsamn (d. ca. 1929); A.E. Shadd.
Purchased by LC from Rev. A.E. Shadd of Washington, D.C., in July 1946.
In Greek.
Ricci, S. de.  Medieval and Renaissance mss. (suppl.), p. 122, no. 144
Ms.
Title and dating from Ricci, S. de.
The text begins, following an illegible rubric: A(i)sōmen tō K[yri]ō endoxōs gar dedoxastai ... (beginning the set of the 9 Odes).
Imperfect at end (1 or more leaves wanting, with loss of text).
Hierarchical obedience of the scribes or their sponsors could not be determined; no signs of a denominational bent have been found.  The rite is Byzantine.
Written in Hodegon-style Greek script, mostly 12 lines to a page, by at least 2 scribes (change of hand with f. 64); probably in Egypt.
The leaves are foliated in Greek, [alpha]-omicron.
Leaves 2 (beta), 48 (mu ēta), and 68 (zeta ēta) are missing; the foliator overlooked a leaf following f. 58 (nu ēta); actual number of preserved leaves is 68.
One leaf 18 x 13 cm folded to 13 x 9 cm laid in in front (split in two halves) and another of same size at end; both contain (Christian, presumably Melchite) prayers in Arabic. They appear to be a later addition.
The paper is saturated with beeswax.
Contemporary binding in the saddlebag style.