THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
euch gegeben, is included in some modern German hymn-books. (F. W Dibelius.)
Bibliography: J. W. Petersen, Lebensbeschreibung, Frankfort, 1719 (reproduced in Eng., in the work by J. W P., A Letter to Some Divines Concerning the Question whether God, since Christ's Ascension doth any more Reveal Himself to Mankindby the Means of Divine Apparitionst With an Exact Account of what God hath Bestowed upon a Noble Maid written in High-Dutch and Now Set Forth in Eng., London, 1695).
ASSEMANI, as-se-ma'ni (Italianized from the Arabic al-sama' aniyy , " the Simeonite ")"• The name of several learned Maronites who came to Rome from the Lebanon.
1. Joseph Simonius Assemani: The oldest and best known; b. at Hasrun (35 m. n.e. of Beirut, near the cedar-grove at the foot of Jabal Makmal); d., eighty years old, at Rome Jan. 13, 1768. He was educated at the Maronite college in Rome, and is said to have learned thirty languages. In 1715 Pope Clement XI sent him to the East to look for manuscripts, and he was there again from 1735 to 1738 in behalf of the Roman Catholic Christians of the Lebanon. He published numerous works, of which the first, and perhaps the most important, was the Bibliotheca orientalis Clementino-Y aticana in qua manuscriptos codices Syriacos, Arabicos, Persicos, Turcicos, Hebraicos, Samaritanos, Armenicos, Mthiopicos , Grcecos, JEgyptiacos, Ibericos, et Malabaricos bibliotheca Vaticance addictos recensuit digessit J S. Assemani. Twelve volumes were planned, of which four were published (Rome, 1719-28). For Cardinal Quirini's edition of the works of Ephraem Syrus he prepared the three Greek volumes (1734-46), and in 1751-53 issued four volumes of Italicce historicce scriptores, a sup plement to Muratori; four more volumes were planned. Six volumes of Kalendaria ecclesice universes appeared in 1755; six more were planned and partially completed, but were destroyed by fire in the Vatican library in 1768. The Bibliotheca juris orientalis canonici et civilis (5 vols., 1762-66) is now very rare. The archives of the Propaganda and of the Inquisition contain more than 100 volumes of treatises by Assemani. Many of the works which he planned should be taken up by organized scholarly research. A list of his manuscript remains is given in Mai, Nova collectio, ii, 2 (Rome, 1828), 166-168.
2. Joseph Aloysius Assemani : A younger brother of the preceding; b. about 1710; d. at Rome Feb. 9, 1782. He was professor of Oriental languages in Rome. His chief work was Codex liturgicus ecclesice universal in xv. libros distributus (13 vols., Rome, 1749-66). Most copies of the last volume were burned, but it (as well as the entire work) is accessible in anastatic reprint. Besides minor dissertations, he published De catholicis seu patriarchis Chaldceorum et Nestorianorum commentarius historico-theologicus (1755). His Latin translation of the Collectio canonum of Ebed Jesu and of the Nomocanon of Barhebra?us is in Mai, Nova collectio, vii (1838).
3. Stephan Evodius Assemani : A cousin of the preceding two; b. 1707; d. Nov. 24, 1782. He was titular bishop of Apamea and member of the Royal Society of Great Britain. He published
Bibliotheece Medicece Laurentiana et Palatince codicum mss. orientalium catalogus (Florence, 1742), containing in twenty-three plates the illustrations of Bible history from the Syriac codex of Rabulas; the three Syriac volumes of the works of Ephraem Syrus in the edition mentioned above; Acta sanctorum martyrum orientalium et occidentalium in duas partes distributa : adcedunt acta S. Simeonis Stylitm (2 vols., Rome, 1748); and with J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana codicum manuscriptorum catalogus in tres partes distributus, of which 3 volumes (Hebrew and Syriac manuscripts) had appeared (1756 sqq.), as well as eighty pages of the fourth (Arabic manuscripts), when the fire in the Vatican library destroyed the remainder.
4. Simon Assemani: A great-nephew of Joseph Simonius and Joseph Aloysius Assemani; b. in Rome Feb. 19, 1752, according to G. P. Zabeo, Orazione in funeredi Assemani (Padua, 1821); others say in Tripolis, and give the date as Feb. 20, 1752, and Mar. 14, 1749; d. in Padua, where he was professor of Arabic, Apr. 7, 1821 . His publications were chiefly on Arabic subjects, as Museo cufico Naniana (Padua, 1788); Su la Setta Assissana (1806).
E. Nestle. Bibliography: J. S. Ersch and J. G. Gruber, Allgemeine
Encyclopadie, vol. vi, Leipsic, 1821 sqq.; Nouvelle bio-
graphie generate, vol. iii, Paris, 1854.
ASSEMBLY, GENERAL: The highest court of the Presbyterian churches (see Presbyterians). The name is from Heb. xii, 23.
ASSER: Bishop of Sherborne; d. 909 or 910. He was a Briton, a monk of Menevia (St. David's), and related to the bishop of that see. His repute for learning was such that about 885 King Alfred asked him to enter his service, and an arrangement was ultimately made whereby the monkish scholar agreed to spend half of each year with the English king and half in his own home. Alfred gave him very substantial rewards, including a grant at Exeter and its district in Saxonland and Cornwall. He became bishop of Sherborne (in Dorsetshire) before 900. He wrote a life of Alfred (De rebus gestis JElfridi), which is a chronicle of English history from 849 to 887, with a personal and original narrative of Alfred's career to the latter year. It betrays the author's Celtic birth in many passages, and in existing manuscripts has been much interpolated. The best editions are by F. Wise (Oxford, 1722), in Petrie's Monumcnta historica Britannica (London, 1848), and by W H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904, Eng. transl. by A. S. Cook, Boston, 1906).
Bibliography: T. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, i, 405-413, London, 1842 (questions Asser's authorship of the De rebus gestis); R. Pauli, Konig JElfred und seine Stelle in der Geschichte Englands, Berlin, 1851 (shows that Wright's objections are unfounded).
ASSHUR: 1. City of Assyria. See Assyria, IV, § 1. 2. Assyrian God. See Assyria, VII, § 2.
ASSHURBANIPAL. See Assyria, VI, 3, §§ 14- 15.