The Study of Languages: Near East
Along with the Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages, Hebrew was one of the earliest languages taught at Cornell. Under Professor Frederick Roehrig’s and William Wilson’s instruction, students could translate the Old Testament as part of their language studies. Daniel Willard Fiske began teaching Arabic and Persian, and at the turn of the century Nathaniel Schmidt was offering hieroglyphic Egyptian and Assyrian. Some of the best—or only—materials in these languages owned by Cornell at that time were religious texts.
Samaritan Pentateuch, 1750-1895.
This copy of the Pentateuch is written in the Samaritan script, though the liturgical texts themselves may be written in the Hebrew, Arabic, or Aramaic language. This Samaritan version contains significant grammatical and semantic differences from the Jewish Pentateuch.Gift of Nathaniel Schmidt.
Ethiopic Manuscript, mainly hymns, in Ge’ez. 1700s.
Gift of Nathaniel Schmidt.
Maḥzor. Amsterdam: Yetome Shelomoh Props, 1737 or 1738.
A Jewish prayer book, mainly containing holiday prayers.
Psalterium coptice. Berlin: F. Dümmler, 1837.
This psalter is in both Coptic and Arabic, printed side by side for linguistic studies or practice.Franz Bopp Collection, purchased in 1868.
Vellum Ethiopian scroll containing fragment of the New Testament and prayer to the Blessed Virgin. In Amharic. 1600-1900.
Gift of J. Holmes, 1914.
Kozer ha-mikra Epitome Bibliorvm continens insigniora Veteris ac Noui Testamenti dicta Hebraicè, Chaldaicè, Syriacè, Graecè, Latinè, et Germanicè. Wittenberg: Haeredes Ioannis Cratonis, 1578.
The New Testament in Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Greek, Latin, and German.
Fragment of the Book of Bartholomew, a New Testament apocryphal text, written in Sahidic Coptic. 800s.
Gift of Bruce Ferrini, circa 2000.
Clay Bulla, Sumerian, in Cuneiform script. Circa 2000-3000 BCE.
This official seal contains a list of goods needed for ritual offerings. The tablet indicates that several quantities of the date fruit were needed as offerings to various deities on different days. Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of written language.
Aramaic incantation bowls. Circa 500-800 CE.
These Near Eastern ritual bowls were usually buried upside down to trap evil spirits and protect the holder. The writings around the inside of the bowl were prayers, spells, an alphabet, or sometimes just gibberish to sell the bowl to an illiterate customer.
Photograph of Nathaniel Schmidt.
Nathaniel Schmidt began teaching at Cornell in September of 1896. As professor of Semitic studies, Schmidt focused his language lectures on the translation of texts, including the Mishnah and Talmud in Hebrew, the Qur’an in Arabic, and the Book of the Dead in hieratic and hieroglyphics. A gifted linguist, Schmidt also taught courses in Assyrian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, and Coptic, as well as comparative Semitic philology. His dedication to forming a strong Near Eastern Studies department led to the enhancement of the library’s collection of Near Eastern literature and the purchase of the August Eisenlohr collection of Egyptology and Assyriology in 1902.
Book of the Dead fragments on linen. Hieratic, circa 1000 BCE.
Gift of Bruce Ferrini, 2007.