The Hán–Nôm Catholic Prayer Manuscript of Philipphe Binh

The collection of Hán–Nôm Catholic prayer manuscripts by Philipphê Bỉnh consists of three works digitized from the Borgiani Tonchinesi collection (Borg. Tonch., Vatican Digital Library): (1) Borg. Tonch. 17 – Book of Miracle Stories; (2) Borg. Tonch. 18 – Prayer Book of Father Bỉnh; (3) Borg. Tonch. 34 – Meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary. These three manuscripts were compiled by Philipphê Bỉnh between 1815 and 1818, during the early period of his residence in Portugal. Digitizing Việt Nam would like to express its sincere gratitude to the Vatican Digital Library (https://digi.vatlib.it/) for granting permission to mirror these manuscripts on the Digitizing Việt Nam platform. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to scholar Nguyễn Nam (Centre College), who prepared the Nôm transcriptions and the transliterations from Hán–Nôm texts into Quốc ngữ, and generously shared these materials with us. The Nôm transcriptions and Quốc ngữ transliterations will be made available in the near future, and we warmly welcome feedback from users and scholars. We believe that expanding access to these materials will bring significant value to the Catholic community, scholars of Hán–Nôm studies, and the broader public interested in Vietnamese studies.

Borg. Tonch. 17: Book of Miracle Stories

Manuscript Borg. Tonch. 17: Book of Miracle Stories(Sách truyện các phép lạ), also known as Admonitions to the Faithful on the Third Commandment: Attending the Mass, was composed by Philipphê Bỉnh in 1818.

Borg. Tonch. 18: The Prayer Book of Father Bỉnh

"Borg. Tonch. 18: The Prayer Book of Father Bỉnh, also known as the Book of Novenas, is a Hán–Nôm manuscript (19+), comprising 520 (+18) pages. The contents include common prayers of the day and different liturgical seasons (pp. 1–94); a novena to Saint Anne and a record of her miracles (pp. 95–222); a novena to Saint Joseph (pp. 223–326); a novena for Christmas (fol. 327); devotional practices and a novena for the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary (fol. 327); indulgences for visits to churches in Rome (p. 467); admonitions to Christians of Annam regarding family life (fol. 477); a Latin litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, along with Latin prayers recited by the priest in the novenas described above (fol. 519); a Han-Nom litany to Saint Francis Xavier and final remarks to Christians of Annam (fol. 520); miscellanous description of the Temple in Jerusalem and other miracles"

Borg. Tonch. 34: Spiritual Meditations

Borg.Tonch.34 is the only surviving Hán-Nôm copy of an original work titled "Meditaçao da Alma" (Meditation of the Soul) written by Fr. Girolamo Maiorica, SJ (1591-1656) - an Italian Jesuit whose extensive Catholic Hán-Nôm bibliography laid the foundation of the Catholic Hán-Nôm literary tradition in Vietnam. This manuscript, together with a corresponding Quốc Ngữ version of the same text (Borg.Tonch.30), was produced by Fr. Philipphê Bỉnh approximately between 1815 and 1818. The content of this manuscript can be divided into three components: [1r-15r] - Mysteries of the Rosary and a mixture of different prayers, most likely derived from Fr. Bỉnh's Prayer Book (Borg.Tonch.18); [15r-50r] - Spiritual Meditations, the crux of the manuscript; [50r-57r] - Rosary of the Seven Sorrows and Saint Gregory's Prayers of the Passion, alongside other miscellanous prayers.