Manuscript Presentation: The Four Gospels in Syriac and Arabic: Biblical Philology and the Birth of Syriac Studies in Europe

Explore the birth of Syriac Studies in the West through a selection of Syriac and Garshuni-Arabic manuscripts, alongside ancient fragments from the Austrian National Library. These texts illuminate the patronage networks behind the first printed Syriac Gospels (1555) and Vienna's role as the Porta Orientis. The presentation will also demonstrate how Cod. Syr. 1, scribed by Moses of Mardin in Vienna in 1554, became the foundational historical source to power the first public AI-driven Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) model on Transkribus.