Jacob of Edessa, who died in 708, was probably the most outstanding of all Syriac scholars apart from the thirteenth-century polymath Barhebraeus. The present volume of papers provides the reader with an excellent idea of the wide range of Jacob's scholarship and of those of his writings that have come down to us. Born around the time of the Arab invasions, he stands at a point of transition between the world of Greek late antiquity and early Islam; as a result there is much in this volume which will be of relevance and concern to scholars beyond the more limited confines of Syriac specialists. As background there are opening chapters on his life (A. Salvesen) and on early Islamic Edessa (R. Hoyland), followed by contributions on his Chronicle, alas only fragmentarily preserved (W. Witakowski), his use of Jewish pseudepigrapha (W. Adler), and his correspondence, so far only partly published (J. J. van Ginkel). Two chapters are devoted to Jacob's various collections of canons (H. G. B. Teule and K. D. Jenner), while his revision of biblical texts and his exegesis are covered in three chapters (R. J. Saley, A. Salvesen and B. ter Haar Romeny). Jacob's pioneering Grammar (again, only fragmentarily preserved) is discussed by R. Talmon, while, as an example of Jacob's revision of earlier translations, L. van Rompay takes his revised version of Severus of Antioch's Cathedral homilies. Two contributions concern Jacob and philosophy, one on his work connected with Aristotle's Organon (H. Hugonnard-Roche), and the other on his use of Greek philosophy in his learned Commentary on the Six Days of Creation (M. Wilks). Jacob's work of revising earlier texts extended to the liturgy and this aspect is covered by B. Varghese, who deals with Jacob's revision of the Anaphora of St James. Finally D. Kruisheer provides a detailed and very valuable Bibliographical Clavis to Jacob's writings. The standard of all the contributions is consistently high, and this volume will not only be essential reading for anyone with an interest in Jacob and seventh-century Syriac literature, but it will also be illuminating for all who are concerned with the wider issues of intellectual history in the period of transition between the Graeco-Roman world and Islam. The publication of the volume, which has its roots in a conference in 1997, nicely coincides with the thirteenth centenary of Jacob's death (which was also commemorated by another conference on him, held in Aleppo).