ASSEMANI  , the name of a . Syrian Maronite

family of famous Orientalists . I . JOSEPH SPM0N, 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 1 717 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 r735, 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., etMalab., 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 MSS., Christian and Mahommedan; (3) Coptic, Aethiopic, Persian and Turkish MSS.; and (4) Syrian and Arabian MSS. not distinctively theological; only the first part was completed, but extensive preparations were made for the others . There is a German abridgment by A . F . Pfeiffer . 2 . JOSEPH ALoystus, brother of Joseph Simon, and professor of Oriental languages at Rome . He died in 1782 . Besides aiding his brother in his literary labours, he published, in 1749-1760, Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Universae in xv. libris (this is incomplete), and Comment. de Catholicis sive Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775) . 3 .

STEPHEN EVODIuS, nephew of Joseph Simon and Joseph Aloysius, was the chief assistant of his uncle Joseph Simon in his work in the Vatican library . He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several rich prebends in Italy . His literary labours were very extensive . His two most important works were a description of certain valuable MSS. in his Bibliothecae Mediceo-Laurentianae et Palatinae codd. manuscr . Orientalium Catalogus (Flor . 1742), fol., and his Acta SS . Martyrum Orientalium . He made several translations from the Syrian, and in conjunction with his uncle he began the Bibliothecae Apostol . Vatic. codd. manusc . Catal., in tres partes distributus . Only three vols. were published, and the fire in the Vatican library in 1768 consumed the manuscript collections which had been prepared for the continuation of the work . 4 .

SIMON, grandnephew of Joseph Simon, was born at

Tripoli in 1752, and was professor of Oriental languages in Padua . He died in 1820 . He is best known by his masterly detection of the literary imposture of Vella, which claimed to be a history of the Saracens in Syria .