Cerf’s up!

I agreed to use the Sources Chrétiennes Greek text of Eusebius’ Quaestiones with the editors.  This will appear opposite the English translation that I commissioned, when I publish the book.

Well, the contract from Les éditeurs du Cerf has arrived! It’s all in French, of course, but is only three pages. 

In fact it’s a sensible contract, designed to facilitate business; that much I can see at once.  You see, I get to see a lot of contracts, professionally.  They get offered to me to sign when I do a freelance job.  Most of those are deeply unfair, and have one-sided clauses in them which one has to try to mitigate as best one can.  The Cerf contract has none of that rubbish.  All the clauses I have read so far seem reasonable, and designed only to protect them against a rogue, rather than to screw the translator.

Now I need to read it very, very carefully and make sure it won’t stop me doing what I need to do, which is put the English translation online under a Creative Commons license eventually.  I can’t do that with a thumping headache, so I will put off doing so for a day or two.

I wonder if we can call the board of directors the “Cerf board”!  I love that pun.  And they seem to be a good company, and one doing a great work for patristics.  All of us, you know, live in what people will one day call the “age of the Sources Chrétiennes”.  Long may they flourish.

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2 thoughts on “Cerf’s up!

  1. All of us, you know, live in what people will one day call the “age of the Sources Chrétiennes”.

    I think this wins the prize for the best quote I’ve read all day!

  2. Thank you, although I’m not sure I understand why. But when we look back on the great scholarly achievements of the past, like Migne, well, it’s the same sort of thing.

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