ASSEMANI

assemani, the name of a syrian maronite family of famous orientalists. 1. joseph simon, a maronite of mount lebanon, was born in 1687. when very young he was sent to the maronite college in rome, and was transferred thence to the vatican library. in 1717 he was sent to egypt and syria to search for valuable mss., and returned with about 150 very choice ones. the success of this expedition induced the pope to send him again to the east in 1735, and he returned with a still more valuable collection. on his return he was made titular archbishop of tyre and librarian of the vatican library. he instantly began to carry into execution most extensive plans for editing and publishing the most valuable ms. treasures of the vatican. his two great works are the _bibliotheca orientalis clementino-vaticana rec. manuscr. codd. syr., arab., pers., turc., hebr., samarit., armen., aethiop., graec., aegypt., iber., et malab., jussu et munif. clem. xi._ (rome, 1719-1728), 9 vols. folio, and _ephraemi syri opera omnia quae extant, gr., syr., et lat._, 6 vols. folio (rome, 1737-1746). of the _bibliotheca_ the first three vols. only were completed. the work was to have been in four parts--(1) syrian and allied mss., orthodox, nestorian and jacobite; (2) arabian