Greek Manuscripts

Greek manuscripts collected during his visits to the East by Joseph Dacre Carlyle (1759-1804), Professor of Arabic, Cambridge,and chaplain to the embassy in Constantinople (1799), some of which were returned to their rightful owner, the patriarch of Jerusalem, shortly after their acquisition from Carlyle's executors by Archbishop Manners-Sutton (see Custodial History).

Acquired by Carlyle and his friend Dr Philip Hunt for Lambeth Palace Library during their mission in the East between 1800-1801, these MSS were brought to England with the intention to be collated for the preparation of a critical edition of the Greek New Testament. For further information, see 'The Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library: An Exhibition held on the occasion of the 21st International Byzantine Congress, London, 22-23 August 2006' (printed for Lambeth Palace Library by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 2006).

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Following Carlyle's death on 12 April 1804 the collection was deposited by Carlyle's sister (on Hunt's recommendation) in Lambeth Palace Library on 17 March 1806 and bought by the Archbishop of Canterbury Charles Manners-Sutton.

Re-catalogued in Christopher Wright, Maria Argyrou and Charalambos Dendrinos, 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library' (2016): https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/5131/catalogue.pdf

Consult this work for a more complete description.

Earlier descriptions in:

H. J. Todd, 'An account of Greek manuscripts, chiefly biblical which had been in the possession of the late Professor Carlyle ... now deposited in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Palace' [1823].

'The Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library: An Exhibition held on the occasion of the 21st International Byzantine Congress, London, 22-23 August 2006' (printed for Lambeth Palace Library by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 2006).

See also entries in K. Aland, 'Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments. Band 1, I. Gesamtübersicht' (Berlin, 1994), which refers to the Library's Greek manuscripts using a different numbering system.

Manuscripts reclaimed by the patriarch of Jerusalem in 1816 (delivered in 1817): MSS 1180, 1181, 1184, 1198, 1202, 1206.

Papers relating to the New Testament: Lambeth Palace Library MS. 1255. Collations ascribed to Dr Charles Burney in Lambeth Palace Library Manuscripts. For other papers of J D Carlyle, see the National Register of Archives.