Dr. Grigory KESSEL

High school education

Diploma of higher education (approximately equal to MA), Moscow State University, Faculty of Philosophy, Chair History and theory of world culture, June 2003.

Diploma in Orthodox Theology, Moscow Orthodox Theological Seminary (Sergiev Posad), 2006.

Russian State degree ‘kandidat nauk’ (approximately equal to PhD), State University for Humanities (attached to the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences), December 2008.

Thesis: “A Letter of Thomas the Monk: Problems of Dating, Attribution and Localization in the Context of the History of Syriac Christianity” (supervisor: Dr. Alexei Muraviev).

Teaching experience and employment

Moscow Theological Academy (Segiev Posad): Tutor in Aramaic and Syriac at the Department of Biblical Studies, 2001-2006.

Philipps Universität – Marburg: Research assistant (‘Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter’) at the Faculty of Theology, Chair of Church History, 2006 –.

Professional Activities

International Conference on Patristic Studies (Oxford), 2007, 2011.

International Conference ‘Symposium Syriacum’, 2004 (Lebanon), 2008 (Granada), 2012 (Malta).

Conference on Christian Arabic Studies, 2004 (Lebanon), 2008 (Granada), 2012 (Malta).

Deutscher Syrologentag, 2011 (Göttingen).

‘Interpretation of the Text in the Culture of Christian East: Translation, Commentary, Poetic Treatment’, International conference in the State Hermitage Museum (St.Petersburg), 2011.

Quarto seminario internazionale sulla tradizione indiretta dei testi medici greci: i commenti (Siena), 2011.

Deutscher Orientalistentag, 2010 (Marburg).

Sixth North American Syriac Symposium (Duke University), 2011.

Epidemics in Context: Hippocrates, Galen and Hunayn between East and West (Warburg Institute, London), 2010.

A workshop on ‘Syriac Galen Palimpsest’ (Manchester University), 2012.

Arbeitskreis Alte Medizin (Mainz), 2012.

Workshops organized by Comparative Oriental Manuscript Study Project (COMSt): Codicology (2010, Pisa; 2011, Nice), Manuscript Cataloguing (2011, Frankfurt), Textual Criticism (2011, Athens; 2012, Leuven).

Current Research Activities

1. Study of the corpus of Syriac monastic anthologies (ca. 130 mss).

2. External cataloguer of the Syriac and Arabic Christian manuscripts for Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, USA.

3. Study of Syriac medical literature.

Language skills

Ancient: Classical Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, Classical Arabic, Church Slavonic.

Modern: English, French, German, Italian, Arabic, Russian.

Fellowships, research grants :

2004 – Fellowship of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies of the Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands)

2005 – Grant of the French Government

2010-2011 – Research scholarship of the Thyssen Stiftung

2011-2014 – Research grant of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2012-2013 – Dumbarton Oaks Research Library Residential Fellowship (Washington, DC)

Study of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts on site:

British Library, Cambridge University Library, Birmingham University Library, John Rylands Library (Manchester), Bodleian Library (Oxford), Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire in Strasbourg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, National Library of Greece (Athens), Russian National Library (St. Petersburg), Institute of Oriental Studies (St. Petersburg), Library of the Notre Dame - Louaize University (Lebanon), Library of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Residence in Sharfeh (Lebanon).

Areas of Academic Interest:

Syriac and Arabic manuscript study

Transmission and reception of Syriac and Arabic Christian literatures

Syriac and Arabic Christianity

Syriac monasticism

Syriac medicine

Late Antiquity

Byzantine Studies

PUBLICATIONS

Book

Kessel, G., Pinggéra, K., A Bibliography of Syriac Ascetic and Mystical Literature (Eastern Christian Studies, 11). Leuven: Peeters, 2011 [X+224 p.].

Articles and Chapters

‘A Note on One Borrowing from Aphrahat: St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Studies, Diettrich 2’. Parole de l’Orient 31 (2006), pp. 295-307.

· ‘The Activity of Grace in the “Book of Grace”. Some Preliminary Observations’. In M. Tamcke (ed.), Christliche Gotteslehre im Orient seit dem Aufkommen des Islams bis zur Gegenwart (Beiruter Texte und Studien 126). Beirut – Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2008, pp. 57-68.

‘ Letter of Thomas the Monk. A Study of the Syriac Text and its Author’. The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 61 (2009), pp. 43-100.
‘Sinai syr. 24 as an Important Witness to the Reception History of Some Syriac Ascetic Texts’. In F. Briquel Chatonnet et M. Debie (eds.), Sur les pas des Araméens chrétiens. Mélanges offerts à Alain Desreumaux (Cahiers d'études syriaques, 1). Paris: Geuthner, 2010, pp. 207-218.
‘A fragment from the lost ‘Book of Admonition(s)’ by Abraham bar Dašandad in ‘Risāla fī faḍīlat al-ʿafāf’ (‘Letter on the priority of abstinence’) of Elias of Nisibis’. In M. Tamcke (ed.), Gotteserlebnis und Gotteslehre. Christliche und islamische Mystik im Orient(GOF.S., 38). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010, pp. 109-130.
‘Shemʽon d-Ṭaybutheh’. In S.P. Brock, A. Butts, G. Kiraz, L. Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2011, p. 375.
‘A List of East Syrian Ecclesiastical Authors in the “Book of Considerations on the Order of Church Services and Its Succession” of Abrāhām Šekwānā (1849-1931 AD)’. Parole de l'Orient 36 (2011) [Actes du 10^e Symposium Syriacum (Granada, septembre 2008), vol. II], pp. 39-65.
‘La position de Simon de Ṭaibūteh dans l’éventail de la tradition mystique syriaque’. In A. Desreumaux (ed.), Les mystiques syriaques (Études syriaques, 8). Paris: Geuthner, 2011, pp. 129-158.
‘Petit guide bibliographique dans la littérature ascétique et mystique syriaque’. In A. Desreumaux (ed.), Les mystiques syriaques (Études syriaques, 8). Paris: Geuthner, 2011, pp. 249-260.
(co-authored with Nicholas Sims-Williams), ‘ The ‘Profitable Counsels’ of Šemʿōn d-Ṭaibūtēh: the Syriac original and its Sogdian version’. Le Muséon 124 (2011), pp. 279-302.
‘ The Syriac Epidemics and the Problem of Its Identification’. In Peter E. Pormann (ed.), Epidemics in Context. Greek Commentaries on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition (Scientia Graeco-Arabica, 8). Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012, pp. 93-124.
(co-authored with H. Teule and S. Sado) ‘The Mikhail Sado Collection of Syriac Manuscripts in St. Petersburg’. In Monferrer-Sala J.P., Teule H.G.B., Torallas Tovar S. (eds), Eastern Christians and their Written Heritage. Manuscripts, Scribes and Context (Eastern Christian Studies, 14). Leuven: Peeters, 2012, pp. 43-76.
‘The importance of the manuscript tradition of the ‘Book of Grace’ for the study of Garšūnī’, Parole de l’Orient 37 (2012) [Actes du 8^e Congrès international des études arabes chrétiennes (Granada, septembre 2008)], pp. 199-222.
Review Essay of: "Wilson, E.J. and Dinkha, S., Hunayn Ibn Ishaq’s 'Questions on Medicine for Students'. Transcription and Translation of the Oldest Extant Syriac Version (Vat. Syr. 192). Studi e testi, 459. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2010", Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 15.2 (2012), pp. 367-392.

Articles at Press

‘‘triseudemon maximus noster sophista’. The evidence of one Syriac text for identification of a source used in John of Alexandria’s 'In Epid. VI'’, in I. Garofalo (ed.), Quarto seminario internazionale sulla tradizione indiretta dei testi medici greci: i commenti (Siena, Certosa di Pontignano, June 3-4, 2011).

· ‘Manuscript evidence for Galen in Syriac’, in John C. Lamoreaux, Ḥunayn Ibn Isḥāq on His Galen Translations (Eastern Christian Texts, vol. 3). Provo: Brigham Young University Press.

· ‘A previously unknown reattributed fragment from Mēmrā 16 of the «Liber Graduum»’, in Robert A. Kitchen and Kristian S. Heal (eds.), Syriac Book of Steps (Liber Graduum) Volume. Catholic University of America Press.

‘New Manuscript Witnesses to the Second Part of Isaac of Nineveh’, in Markus Vinzent (ed.) Studia Patristica: Papers presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2011, vol. 54. Leuven: Peeters.
‘A manuscript tradition of Dadīšōʿ Qaṭrāyā’s work ‘On stillness’ (ʿal šelyā) in Syrian Orthodox milieu’, in Proceedings of the Deutscher Syrologentag (Göttingen, 2011).
‘An East Syriac Book in the library of St.Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai: the case of the monastic collection M20N from the ‘New Finds’, Khristianskij Vostok.
(co-authored with Siam Bhayro, Robert Hawley and Peter E. Pormann) ‘Collaborative Research on the Digital Syriac Galen Palimpsest’, Semitica et Classica 5.
(co-authored with Siam Bhayro, Robert Hawley and Peter E. Pormann) ‘The Syriac Galen Palimpsest: Progress, Prospects and Problems ‘, Journal of Semitic Studies.

Book Reviews

The Peshitta: Its Use in Literature and Liturgy. Papers Read at the Third Peshitta Symposium, ed. by Bas ter Haar Romeny (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden, 15). Leiden: Brill, 2006. Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 10 (2010), pp. 492-501 [in Russian].
Materials for the biographical dictionary of Assyrians in Russia: XIX - the middle of the XX centuries by S. Sado [in Russian], 2nd ed. Sankt-Peterburg: O. Abyshko, 2006. Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 62 (2010), p. 161.
Sources for the Study of the School of Nisibis by A.H. Becker (Translated Texts for Historians, 50). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008. Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 14 (2011).
The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh by P. Hagman (Oxford Easrly Christian Studies). Oxford, 2010. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History January 63 (2012), pp. 124-126.
Nouveaux Manuscrits Syriaques du Sinaï by Philothé du Sinaï. Athènes: Fondation du Mont Sinaï, 2008. Bogoslovskiye trudi 43/44 (2012), pp. 625-634 [in Russian].

Articles and Book Chapters in Russian (select)

· [translation] ‘Isaac of Antioch. Second memra against Jews’, Bogoslovskiy Sbornik 9 (2002), pp. 172-196.

· ‘Isaac of Antioch and his Second memra against Jews’, Bogoslovskiy Sbornik 9 (2002), pp. 197-220.

· [translation, with Leonid Grilikhes], ‘Aphrahat. Demonstrations on Love and Faith’, Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 3 (2003), pp. 31-69.

· [translation, with Leonid Grilikhes] ‘Aphrahat. Demonstration on Sons of the Covenant’, Bogoslovskie Trudi 38 (2003), pp. 120-146.

· ‘The Aphrahat’s Teaching on the Ascetic Life according to the ‘Demonstration on Sons of the Covenant’’, Bogoslovskie Trudi 38 (2003), pp. 356-375.

· [translation, with Leonid Grilikhes] ‘Aphrahat. Demonstration on Fasting and Prayer’, Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 4 (2004), pp. 28-68.

· [translation, with Leonid Grilikhes] ‘Aphrahat. Demonstration on Wars’, Bogoslovskie Trudi 39 (2004), pp. 61-78.

· [translation, with Leonid Grilikhes] ‘Aphrahat. Demonstration on Penitents’, Bogoslovskie Trudi 40 (2005), pp. 11-30.

· [translation] ‘John the Solitary. On Prayer’, Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 5/6 (2005-2006), pp. 42-57.

· ‘John the Solitary: annotated bibliography’, Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 5/6 (2005-2006), pp. 642-649.

· [with N.N. Seleznyov] ‘Syrian Christianity: Recent Bibliography in Russian’, Scrinium 2 (2006), pp. 481-487.

· ‘An unknown page of the history of relationship between the Crusaders and the Syriac Christians’, Srednie veka 69 (2008), pp. 97-107.

· [with N.N. Seleznev] ‘Syrian Christianity: Recent Bibliography in Russian’, Scrinium 4 (2008), pp. 394-402.

· ‘The Book of Crumbs – an anthology of East Syriac literature’, Simvol 55 (2009), pp. 327-356.

· [translation] ‘Memra Sixteen of the Liber Graduum’, Bogoslovskiy Vestnik 10 (2010), pp. 167-179.

· ‘New data on the reattribution of the Early Syriac writings’, Vestnik drevney istorii (2009), pp. 139-149.

· ‘Bibliographic Index of the works of St. Ephrem the Syrian translated from Syriac in the Series the 'Works of Holy Fathers'’, Bogoslovkij Vestnik 11-12 (2010) 1023-1061.

· ‘Shem’on d-Taybuteh and his literary heritage; ‘Book of Grace’ Selected chapters’, Simvol 61 (2012), pp. 195-213.

· ‘The manuscript tradition of the ‘First Part’ of Isaac of Nineveh. Preliminary observations’, in A. Muraviev (ed.), [Mar Isḥaq Nineviyskiy. First Part. Treatises 1–6], Moscow (forthcoming).