Chronicle of Edessa

[b] The Chronicle primarily used old Edessan royal archives as its source, as well as some more recent church records,[1] and accordingly is thought to be historically reliable.

[5] It is extant only in an abbreviated version in a single manuscript, Vatican Syriac 163 (Vat.

[6][7] This manuscript, from the Syrian Convent of Our Lady in the Wadi El Natrun,[5] was acquired by Giuseppe Simone Assemani during a trip to the Near East from 1715 to 1717 taken at the request of Pope Clement XI.

[7] The Chronicle covers the period from the founding of the kingdom of Osrhoene in 133/132 BCE until 540,[7] but few events are recorded before the 3rd century.

[5] The Chronicle picks up with a record of a flood of the river Daysan during the reign of Abgar VIII in November 201, which damaged a Christian church building in Edessa.