Previous owners of the Syriac manuscripts in this collection include Wolpherdus Senguerdius, Petrus de Cardonnel, J.H. van der Palm and Karl W. Hiersemann. The Dutch Orientalist Joannes Willmet (1750-1835), whose library is kept at Leiden University as a permanent loan from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, had purchased Syriac manuscripts from the library of D.A. Walraven (Cat., p. 59, No. 43: 'Liber incerti argumenti, pessime scriptus et lacerus', Acad. 219), the Library of E. Scheidius (1742-1794) (his cat., p. 99, Nos. 72-75, Acad. 220) and the library of Hidde Heremiet (Acad. 221).

Some of the Syriac manuscripts in this collection were passed along through a long chain of ownership before they were acquired by Leiden University Library. For instance, the manuscripts which have been registered as Or. 1198 and Or. 1199 (analysed by M.J. de Goeje in CCO V p. 66 and by Land Anecdota SyriacaI pp. 6-7) contain notes that indicate that they had been acquired by Daniel Bomberg in Venice from Guillaume Postel (1510-1581) who had acquired them in 1550 in Constantinople. Then they must somehow have entered into the possession of Christoffel Plantin (c. 1520-1589) and then into the possession of his son-in-law Franciscus Raphelengius (1539-1597) who collated from them for Plantin's Polyglot Bible (1572-1574). A. Hamilton (1990), pp. 105-117 esp. p. 108 gives the following chain of European owners and users: Acquired by Postel in Constantinople brought to Venice at the expense of the younger Daniel Bomberg in 1550. Bomberg sent it from Cologne to Antwerp at Christopher Plantin's request. In Antwerp it was used by Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie who edited the liturgical section from the 'codex Coloniensis' for publication by Plantin in 1572 of D. Severi Alexandrini qvondam patriarchae de ritibvs baptismi et sacrae synaxis apvd Syros Christianos receptis, liber. Nunc primum in lucem editus Gvidone Fabricio Boderiano exscriptore et interprete . Antverpiae ex officina Christophori Plantini 1572 [three copies in Leiden : 874 D 17:1 / 874 D 18:1 with notes by J.J. Scaliger / 874 16:3 with notes by J.J. Scaliger]

The manuscripts that have been registered as Or. 14.236 - Or. 14.241 were originally from the library of the St. Catherine Monastery in the Sinai. A collection of 53 such manuscripts was offered for sale in 1922 by the Leipzig antiquarian bookseller Karl W. Hiersemann (Katalog 500. Orientalische Manuskripte). The learned descriptions in that catalogue were made by Anton Baumstark (1872-1948). Several of the manuscripts of this catalogue went to private collectors. A few were purchased by the University Library of Louvain in Belgium (and were lost when that library was burnt down in 1940) and 28 items were acquired by a private collector in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, namely Arnold Mettler Specker or Arnold J. Mettler, whose bookplates still can be seen in the manuscripts. The latter group of has for a while been deposited on loan in the Zentralbibliothek in Zürich but at some stage they were taken back by the owner and then in the course of 1948, sold by auction by Parke-Bernet in New York. At that sale the 5 manuscripts remained unsold and were returned to A. Mettler-Bener, a descendant of the original owner in Sankt Gallen. The latter sold the manuscripts in the course of 1974 to the Library of the University of Leiden. The purchase was conducted by Dr. W. Baars acting on behalf of the Leiden Library.