Philippe was born in Beirut to a renowned Syriac Catholic merchant family which had recently emigrated from Aleppo.

Philippe showed interest in the Syriac, Arabic and French literatures, and authored at least 57 books on these, of which only 25 were published.

[1] He was active in Lebanese Phoenicianist cultural circles and was also close to the Assyrian nationalist Naum Faiq.

The Lebanese National Library was established in 1921, with a donation from Viscount de Tarrazi of twenty thousand books, many rare manuscripts, and the first issues of newspapers from the Near East.

[4] De Tarazi's instructions were that his donation should form "the core of what should become the Great Library of Beyrouth.