Le Paradis retrouvé à Louvain-la-Neuve. Inventaire préliminaire des microfilms de manuscrits du Fonds René Draguet-CSCO, suivi d’un Appendice sur les manuscrits syriaques du Centre d’Études sur Grégoire de Nazianze

Abstract

René Draguet, renowned orientalist of the last century, was General Secretary of the CSCO (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium) from 1948 to 1980. Following his death in 1980, part of his archive was bequeathed to the CSCO publishing house, Peeters, in Leuven (Belgium). Among these archives, four cardboard boxes containing microfilms of manuscripts were bequeathed by Peeters Publishers to the Institut Orientaliste of UCLouvain (Louvain-la-Neuve) in the late 1990s. The “Fonds Draguet”, previously known only to a small number of researchers, was systematically inventoried between August and December 2023. It contains reproductions of over 500 manuscripts (spread over some 1,300 microfilms), mainly in Greek and Syriac, but also in Latin, Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic, Georgian and Arabic. This preliminary inventory aims to highlight the richness and importance of this collection, which will require further analysis and study in the years to come. This inventory is followed by an Appendix listing the microfilms of manuscripts from the Centre d'Études sur Grégoire de Nazianze, also held by UCLouvain in Louvain-la-Neuve.