The Rediscovery of the Arabic Book of Psalms Published by Patriarch Silvestros of Antioch in 1747 in Bucharest [in Arabic]

In 1747 Patriarch Silvestros of Antioch published an Arabic Book of Psalms in the recently established printing press in Bucharest, located in the monastery of Saint Spyridon. The monastery was given to the Patriarchate of Antioch as a metochion by the ruling prince Constantine Mavrokordatos and Silvestros initiated among other the rebuilding of its church. The Patriarch wasn't at his first printing initiative in the Romanian Lands. During the previous two years, as well as in early 1747 he had published four other books in another Arabic printed press, located at the Saint Sabbas Monastery in Jassy, in the Principality of Moldavia. All the books printed by Silvestros of Antioch are bibliographical rarities, most of them preserved in only one known copy available to scholarly research. This is the case of the Arabic Book of Psalms printed in 1747. After a thorough research a copy was obtained (from Bucharest or from Aleppo) by the leading French Oriental scholar of early 19th century Silvestre de Sacy. De Sacy's copy of the book was described by Christian Friedrich von Schnurrer in his Bibliotheca Arabica (1811). Afterwards, however, the trail went cold and the book was no longer available for study. It was presumed lost and even its existence was questioned. The idea was that von Schnurrer's description referred to a copy of the 1752 Beirut Psalter. In the present paper we will endeavor to retrace the history of the 1747 Book of Psalms and to locate its only available copy, the same one owned by de Sacy. A short description of this extremely rare book will be provided, showing Silvestros' achievements in book printing and the connections with the typographical activity in Wallachia.