Tag: Eusebius

More on the lost manuscript of Eusebius’ “Quaestiones” and the deeds of Cardinal Sirleto

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the mysteries attached to the Gospel Questions and Solutions by Eusebius of Caesarea is the question of what became of the last known manuscript of the full text.  It was seen “in Sicily” in 1563 by Cardinal Sirleto (who became a cardinal only in 1565, but was already librarian at the Vatican at that time), together with a manuscript of ps.Eustathius on the Hexameron.  Sirleto intended to publish the text, but never did.  A manuscript of the Eustathius, copied in the same year in a South Italian hand, is in the Escorial Library in Spain.  According to the IRHT catalogue it does not contain the Eusebius.

This evening I was reading the cheap reprint copy of Harnack’s Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur I.1 that I received a couple of days ago, and browsing the section on the manuscripts of Origen.  On p.393 I came across repeated references to “Cod. Sirl. xxxx (Miller, Esc. 123)”. 

19th century tomes loved to abbreviate.  Sometimes we may reasonably curse them. But I can think of no library which might be abbreviated “Sirl.”, and “Esc.” sounds an awful lot like “Escorial”.  Are the manuscripts of Sirleto all in the Escorial, I wonder?

An article by Irene Backus, Le cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto (1514-1585), sa bibliothèque et ses traductions de saint Basile, online here, tells me that Sirleto was appointed Cardinal-protector of the Basilian Greek monasteries in Southern Italy in 1571.  On p.899 it continues (my translation):

No doubt the contacts of Sirleto with the Basilian communities of the South (he had been  named Visitor on 4th March 1566 [38]) had facilitated a nomination above all honorific, and which was not a cause of great regret to him.  Likewise this facilitated his access to the monastic libraries, the engagement of copyists, and perhaps even the borrowing of certain manuscripts.  It is on the other hand certain that Sirleto collected Greek manuscripts from the decaying Italo-Greek monasteries of Calabria — and also in the East (cf. Vat. lat. 9054) — and he was set to reform these monasteries in collaboration with Cardinals Savelli, Carafa, and Santoro.[39]

The footnotes on this are also of interest:

[38] Commodaro, p. 126 (Calabria, Sicily and Basilicate).  {{which I presume from BBKL is P.E. Commodaro, Il Card. Sirleto 1514-1585, in: La Provincia di Catanzaro 3 (1985) Nr. 4}}

[39] One of the most celebrated Basilian monasteries, S. Giovanni Teresti, was situated in Sirleto’s native country (Stilo).  On the decay of the monasteries and their reform undertaken by Sirleto, see the very well documented expose in Commodaro p. 126-132.  It also served the aims of Philip II, who, as sovereign of Southern Italy, desired to acquire manuscripts for the Escorial Library; ibid. p. 141, n. 8.

I know that some of Sirleto’s papers are in the Vatican, and the Backus article makes this clear.  But … are the manuscripts in the Escorial?  The Backus article certainly suggests that an investigation there might pay dividends.  

I don’t think we should be deterred by one aspect that always clouds searches at the Escorial; the fire in the Greek manuscripts.  I do wish, tho, that I could consult Gregorio de Andrés, Catálogo de los códices griegos desaparecidos: de la Real Biblioteca de El Escorial (1968).

That said, a note in Simon Ditchfield, Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy, p. 61, is discouraging: he tells that Sirleto built up a library of almost 2,000 mss, which Philip II considered buying but found the price too high:

… Sirleto subsequently became Prefect (1570) and finally Cardinal-Librarian (1572-85). In addition to the familiarity which he enjoyed with this the largest and most comprehensive library of liturgical and church history in Christendom, we have already seen that Sirleto himself owned a notable personal library, which was considerably enriched by material that had come from Cervini’s collection, containing almost 2,000 manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic and valued at 20,000 scudi at his death.[171]

[169]  E.g. a single ms.: BAV, Vat. lat. 6191 … consists entirely of letters to Sirleto, 1571-73. On Sirleto the best monograph is still G. Denzler, Kardinal Guglielmo Sirleto (1514-1585) … (Munich, 1964). For a list of mss. in the BAV which contains material by, to and from Sirleto see ibid. p. ix. Cf. L. Accattatis, Le biografie degli huomini illustri delle Calabrie, vol. 11 (Cosenza, 1870; repr. Sala bolognese. 1977), pp. 31-6 and P. Paschini, ‘Guglielmo Sirleto prima del cardinalato’ in his Tre ricerche sulla storia della chiesa nel ‘500 (Rome, 1945), pp. 155-281.

[171] Philip II of Spain deputed his ambassador Count Olivares to investigate the possibility of buying this library for the Escorial but the king decided the price was too high. See P. E. Commodaro, ‘Il Cardinale Guglielmo Sirleto’, pp. 171-3. Cf. L. Dorez, ‘Recherches et documents sur la bibliotheque du Cardinal Sirleto’, Melanges d’archeologie et d’histoire, 11 (1891) pp. 457-91.

It seems to me that there is a trail to be followed here.

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Graf on Arabic translations of Eusebius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In Graf’s Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, vol. 1, p. 318, is a note on translations of Eusebius in Arabic.  Here it is:

85. Eusebius, Bischof von Cäsarea (gest. 339 oder 340). Abu’l-Barakät, Katal. 648 erwähnt von ihm “Erklärungen zu den Abschnitten des heiligen Evangeliums und verschiedene Abhandlungen”. Mit den ersteren sind eher die “Kanones” oder synoptischen Tabellen zu den Evv gemeint, die häufig den Evv-Hss beigegeben sind, als die unter seinem Namen gehenden Scholien in Katenenwerken. Die grosse koptisch-ara­bische Evv-Katene (siehe unten S. 481 f.) enthält 6 Scholien des Eusebius zu Mt und weist ihm im Bunde mit Severus von Antiochien den grösseren Anteil an Scholien zu Lk zu [1]. Auch ein junger jakobitischer Kommen­tar zu den evangelischen Sonn- und Festtagsperikopen verwendet “Er­klärungen” des Eusebius; siehe im II. Teil. — Ueber eine Einleitung zu den Psalmen unter seinem Namen siehe II. Teil.

Von den „Abhandlungen” scheint in arabischer Sprache nichts mehr vorhanden zu sein ausser ein unterschobenes Leben des Papstes Silvester (314-335) in Par. ar. 147 (15. Jh.), ff. 306 r-321 v. Ob und inwie­weit dieses mit der griechischen Vita S. Silvestri (von Simeon Metaphrastes?) in Verbindung steht, aus der ein Auszug in freier Bearbeitung dem B. V. 58 einverleibt ist, bleibt noch dahingestellt; vgl. Rom. Quartalschr. 36 (1929) 209 f. 229 f.

[1] Nächste Quelle für den Kopten dürfte Nicetas gewesen sein, der in seinem Kommentar zu Lk Eusebius 121 mal (mit Auszügen aus der Kirchengeschichte) zitiert; siehe Joseph Sickenberger, Die Lukaskatene des Niketas von Herakleia [T. u. U. 22, 4], Leipzig 1902.

In English:

85. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (d. 339 or 340). Abu’l-Barakat, Catalogue 648 mentions by him ‘Explanations of the sections of the Holy Gospel, and various papers”. The former are more likely to be “canons” or synoptic tables of the Gospels, which Gospel-manuscripts often include, or scholia going under his name in Catenas. The great Coptic-Arabic Gospel-Catena (see below p. 481 f.) contains 6 scholia of Eusebius on Matthew and, along with Severus of Antioch, assigns to him the larger share of the scholia on Luke. Even a younger Jacobite Commentary on the Gospel passages used on Sundays and festivals refers to “Explanations” of Eusebius, see in Part II. – About an introduction to the Psalms in his name, see Part II.

Of the “papers” in Arabic, nothing seems to be left apart from a interpolated life of Pope Silvester (314-335) in Par. ar. 147 (15th century), ff 306r-321v. Whether and to what extent this is connected with the Greek Vita of S. Silvestri (by Simeon Metaphrastes?), from which an excerpt is incorporated in a free version by BV 58, remains an open question; Rom. Quartalschr. 36 (1929) 209 f. f 229 .

[1] Nicetas should have been the source most readily available to the Copts, who, in his commentary on Luke, cited Eusebius 121 times (including excerpts from the Church history), see Joseph SICKENBERGER, The Luke catena of Nicetas of Heraclea [T. u. U. 22, 4], Leipzig, 1902, B. 86 f.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The first chunk of the translation of the Coptic portions of Eusebius on the Gospels has arrived!  This is very good news.  The translator is asking ab0ut how I formatted the rest of the work — a very good question — and asking to see the rest.  I must progress this. 

An email came back from Claudio Zamagni; when he sent his Greek/French text to the publisher, he supplied the Greek and the French in separate files.  This is why, he says, the Greek page has the same page number as the French page.  This is very useful info, of course.

The chap who is going through the files turning the Greek into unicode is doing a splendid job, and has done the second file also (of four).

I have started to put out feelers to see if I can find a freelance editor to take on the book.  I just know so little about the process of book production.

I also emailed Sebastian Brock about the possibility of finding the lost mss. of Seert.  His response was to discourage investigation because of the sensitive politics around the massacres that led to the books being lost/hidden.  Some parties locally might prefer to destroy the books, rather than recover them. 

I’ve also remembered who I asked to translate all of Sbath treatise 20, and sent them a reminder.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Andrew Eastbourne has now translated into English the Latin preface to De Lagarde’s Coptic catena, and this has arrived today.  I’ve passed it over to the lady translating excerpts from Eusebius from the Coptic in that catena, who requested it.  There will be probably be some tweaking as it contains fragments of Coptic.  With luck, this will bring forth the translation of the Coptic materials which I have been awaiting.

A little card on the doormat tells me that the postman has a book for me that he couldn’t get through the letter box.  This must be vol. 1 part 1 of Harnack’s Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, in a cheap reprint.  Even that reprint is not simple to find; but part 2 was so full of useful information that I feel obliged to obtain a copy. 

I need to write to Sebastian Brock, the Syriac scholar, and ask him about the report I read in an article from the 1960’s suggesting that some of the lost Syriac mss. from Seert might yet be found, buried in the ground in 1915.  If no-one has ever followed that up, I ought to write to the Time Team TV programme, suggesting it.  Their use of geophysical search technology might well recover the lost books, if they are still there. 

One task that I was not relishing was changing the Greek in footnotes in the Eusebius volume that I have commissioned into unicode.  I’ve passed that out to someone, for money.  Blessedly, he’s done the first chunk, and made a very nice job of it.  I am very grateful — my lingering cold leaves me too weak to do much, leaving me feeling like an old man (!), and I can earn the money to pay for such work more easily than I can do the work myself.   If only I could hire someone to edit the book for me!

I’ve also written to Claudio Zamagni asking about how he formatted his manuscript of the Greek/French Eusebius, to submit it.  Did he, I asked, set it up with facing Greek and French pages, at that stage?  I really know so little about this side of things that it is hard to get started with setting up the book to be typeset.  I wish,  I wish, that I didn’t have to print a text as well as a translation.

One thing I discovered this week is that the Luxor Hilton hotel has reopened.  First reports from TripAdvisor are positive.  In fact it was open before Christmas, but I didn’t know about it.  I think I might stay there for a week next winter, just before Christmas.  I have truly missed the heat of Egypt this winter!  More snow here today, which is very trying.

Someone owes me a transcription and translation of some bits of Christian Arabic from Sbath’s Vingt traites.  I must try to remember who, and prompt them. 

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The Latin introduction to the Coptic catena published by Paul de Lagarde

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The translator of the fragments of Eusebius found in the Coptic catena published by Paul de Lagarde — I’m never sure whether to write “de Lagarde” or “De Lagarde” — has asked for a translation into English of his preface, written in Latin.  I have hastily asked Andrew Eastbourne for a construe, and he has kindly said he will produce one in a few days.

The preface contains non-Latin material.  So here I am, OCRing it.  Chunks of it are in English, although containing misleading information.

According to de Lagarde, Joseph Lightfoot mentions the catena ms. in A plain introduction to the criticism of the New Testament by F. Scrivener, Cambridge, 1874, p. 335, and says:

The volume, *Parham 102, described in the printed Catalogue (no. 1, vellum, p. 27) as a MS of the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark, is really a selection of passages taken in order from the four Gospels with a patristic catena attached to each. The leaves however are much displaced in the binding, and many are wanting. The title to the first Gospel is + [coptic], etc. ‘The interpretation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew from numerous doctors and luminaries of the church.’ Among the fathers quoted I observed Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Clement, the two Cyrils (of Jerusalem and of Alexandria). Didymus, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Evagrius, the three Gregories (Thaumaturgus, Nazianzen and Nyssen), Hippolytus, Irenaeus, Severianus of Gabala, Severus of Antioch (often styled simply the Patriarch), Symeon Stylites, Timotheus, and Titus.

In the account of this MS in the Catalogue it is stated that ‘the name of the scribe who wrote it is Sapita Leporos, a monk of the monastery, or monastic rule, of Laura under the sway of the great abbot Macarius,’ and the inference is thence drawn that it must have been written before 395, when Macarius died. This early date however is at once set aside by the fact that writers who lived in the sixth century are quoted. Prof. Wright (Journal of Sacred Literature vii. p. 218), observing the name of Severus in the facsimile, points out the error of date, and suggests as an explanation that the colophon (which he had not seen) does not speak of the great Macarius, but of ‘an abbot Macarius.’ The fact is, that though the great Macarius is certainly meant, there is nothing which implies that he was then living. The scribe describes himself as [coptic], I the unhappy one (talaipwroj) who wrote it’ (which has been wrongly read and interpreted as a proper name Sapita Leporos). He then gives his name [coptic] (Theodorus of Busiris?) and adds, [coptic], ‘the unworthy monk of the holy laura of the great abbot Macarius.’ He was merely an inmate of the monastery of St Macarius; see the expression quoted from the Vat. MS lxi in Tattam’s Lexicon p. 842. This magnificent MS would well repay careful inspection; but its value may not be very great for the Memphitic Version, as it is perhaps translated from the Greek …

And I think there is a note in the ms. which reads:

Mr Rt Curzon brought this volume from the Coptic Monastery of Souriani on the Natron Lakes, to the west of the villiage of Jerraneh, on the Nile; in the month of March. 1838. It consists of 254 leaves of vellum, which contain 2 indexes, and the Gospels of St Mathew, & St Mark, with the commentaries of St Cyrill, St Chrysostom, Eusebius, Gregory the Patriarch, Titus, &c.

The leaves are not in their proper places, the two Gospels being mixed together, they have been put together just as they came over, to prevent their being lost. The name of the scribe who wrote this MS, is Zapita Leporos, a monk of the monastery of sic Laura, under the rule of the Abbot Macarius. Macarius of Alexandria, Abbot of the Monks of Nitria, died according to the Art de verifier les Dates; either in the year 395, or 405. it would therefore apper sic that this manuscript must have been written before the end of the fourth century, in which case it is the most antient book in existance sic with a date, several of the Syriac MSS which were brought to England from the same monastery in which this was discovered, are supposed to be of equal antiquity, the earliest of those which have any date given in them, is a quarto of Eusebius, which was written in the year 411. it is now in the British Museum, it seems however that this manuscript is even more antient, as it was probably written about the year 390.

These little snippets of information, or misinformation, may make us smile but they do show scholarship emerging from ignorance, little by little.

Update 10 Feb 2024.  The translation was uploaded as part of the errata for the Gospel Problems and Solutions, so here.

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Working on Eusebius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The cold that I have had over the last couple of weeks has fairly thoroughly disrupted my work schedule on editing the Eusebius.  We all take the energy we have for granted; until it vanishes under the onslaught of a virus.  

Now I have the translation of everything, aside from the Coptic; but it all needs licking into shape.  I need someone to retype the bits of Greek in the footnotes into unicode, and generally work it all together.  I am reluctantly concluding that I will not have the time to do this.

Is there anyone out there with editorial skills (and familiarity with Greek letters!) willing to help me, for money?  If so, please get in touch!

I’ve also had a contract for use of the Greek text of part of the work from the Sources Chretiennes, which I have managed to read and is really quite sensible.  I need to get onto that too.

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An Armenian catena on the Catholic epistles

Posted on by Roger Pearse

My learned Armenian correspondant Seda Stamboltsyan has been looking in the electronic catalogue of the Matenadaran at Yerevan for us.  She reports at least one Armenian catena in the catalogue, which includes material by Eusebius.

Doing so was not entirely straightforward, as the search tool is somewhat cranky.  You have to get the exact word correct — searching for “euseb” will not bring up “eusebius”.  Since the endings will vary, depending on case, this is a little bit of a pain.  But typing “eusebi” (genitive case) gave 53 results; “eusebios” produced 14.  Among them was this entry:

667662
     Խմբագիր մեկնութիւն է. վկայութիւններ են բերուած հետեւեալ հեղինակներից՝ Կիւեղ Աղեկսանդրացի, Պիմեն, Սեւեռիտոս, Ներսէս, Յովհան Ոսկէբերան, Բարսեղ Կեսարացի, Իսիքիոս Երուսաղէմացի, Դիոնեսիոս Աղէկսանդրացի, Որոգինես, Թէոդորիտոն, Ապողինար Լաոդիկեցի, Եւսեբիոս Կեսարացի, Դիդիմոս, Ամոն, Տիմոթէոս, Աթանաս, Եփրեմ Ասորի։

Translated:

“[Manuscript number] 667662
This is a collective commentary [i.e. catena]. Testimonies are brought from the following authors: Cyril of Alexandria, Pimen, Severitos, Nerses, John Chrysostom, Basil of Caesarea, Hesychios of Jerusalem, Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen, Theodoriton, Apolinarius of Laodicea, Eusebius of Caesarea, Didimus, Amon, Timothy, Athanasius, Ephrem the Syrian.”

Clicking through gave more info.  Folios 1-235 are commentaries on the Catholic epistles, and the authors above are for this.  Plainly this is a catena.  There was also a bit of bibliography: “cf. Vienna N 48 (Tashian, Bibliography, 234-243). Also: PO, t43, N193.”  The shelfmark is Mashtots Matenadaran ms. N 1407. Date: 1596. The place where it was written is not mentioned. Scribe: Priest Pawłos (Paul).

Seda reminds us that not all the manuscripts in the Matenadaran have been catalogued to this level of detail yet.  Four volumes were published, and the electronic catalogue is based on these.  The fifth volume has just been published, but not yet incorporated into the online catalogue.  However there are about 17,000 mss. in the Matenadaran.  Each volume is around 500 mss, so there is a considerable distance still to go.

There is a brief catalogue of all the mss, but it doesn’t go to this level of detail.

PO 43 does indeed contain a publication of an Armenian catena on the Catholic epistles:

Volume 43. La chaîne arménienne sur les Épîtres catholiques. I, La chaîne sur l’Épître de Jacques / Charles Renoux…

So there is a publication with French translation in PO 43/1 (N193), Turnhout 1985; 44/2 (N198), 1987; 44/1-2 (205-206), 1994; 47/2 (N210), 1996.   I queried the manuscript numeral, as that didn’t look like a shelfmark to me.  (It’s probably the electronic catalogue’s database primary key!)

Seda Stamboltsyan tells me that she has been doing  translations from Classical Armenian into modern Armenian, also editing and proofreading texts in Armenian, preparing critical editions of Classical Armenian texts.  I think those of us that are illiterate, at least in Armenian, can be very grateful to her for her efforts!

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Manuscripts of Eusebius’ “Vita Constantini”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A researcher from a Canadian film company wrote to me, saying they were doing a documentary on Constantine, would be in Rome and was there an original or an old copy of this work there, because they wanted to film it.  I went and looked in the GCS 7 volume online, and I thought I’d share the results.

The Mss of the “Vita Constantini” and the “Oratio ad sanctum coetum” are

1)

  • V. — Vaticanus 149 [XI S.].
  • R. — Vaticanus 396 [XVI S.].

IIa) 

  • J. — Moscoviensis 50 [XI S.].

IIb):

  • M. — Marcianus 339 [XII vel XIII S.].
  • B.  — Parisinus 1432 [XIII S.].
  • A.  — Parisinus 1437 [XIII vel XIV S.].

IIc):

  • E. — Parisinus 1439 [XVI S.].
  • D.  — Parisinus 414 [XVI S.].
  • Sct. — Scorialensis T-I-7 [XVI S.].

IId)

  • N. — Marcianus 340 [XIII S.).
  • P. — Palatinus 268 [XIII S.].
  • G. — Parisinus 1438 [XV S.].
  • Sav. — (only Vita books I-III) Savilianus [XV S.] = N + M.
  • Scr. — Scorialensis R-II-4 [XVI S.] = C + ?

Mss. called “Parisinus” will be in the French National Library. Marcianus is a library in Venice.  Palatinus is a sub-collection in the Vatican library (books originally from the library in Heidelberg of the Rhineland Palatinate, and transferred to the Vatican as part of the settlement of the 30 Years War).  Scorialensis is the Escorial in Madrid.  Cantabrigiensis = Cambridge University Library in the UK. Ottobonianus is another Vatican sub-collection (made up of the books once owned by the long-dead Cardinal Ottoboni).

It’s not a bad collection, for an ancient Greek text.  Fourteen mss, one of the 11th century.  Apparently they all have gaps in, tho!

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A fragment of the Didache in De Lagarde’s Coptic catena?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I was looking at the introduction to Catenae in evangelia aegyptiacae quae supersunt by Paul de Lagarde (1886; available at Lulu here).  This is a publication of a Coptic catena on the four gospels, which contains a fair number of fragments of Eusebius, and that is why I was reading it.  But then I noticed something more. 

In the list of authors quoted, there is [didache twn apostolwn], given as p.73, line 7.  A fragment of Chrysostom starts on line 10.  So it’s only a short chunk.  There’s no label against the passage (hence the brackets) which belongs to a chunk starting “Epiphanius” on line 1.

I don’t follow Didache scholarship, but I wonder whether this fragment has been noticed by scholars?

PS: I wonder how many people know of this bibliography of published Coptic texts, here: P. Cherix, Petite bibliographie des textes coptes litteraires edites?  I encountered it just now, looking for stuff on De Lagarde.  The site, http://www.coptica.ch/ seems to be very useful indeed.  Here are links to texts; studies; manuscripts; and a mass of bibliographies.  Wonderful!

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Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

More news on Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel problems and solutions.  I’ve had an email from the lady who has been translating the coptic fragments of this work from Delagarde’s catena.  Apparently this is now close to completion.  She also tells me that Delagarde’s intro is interesting, and should be translated.  This I will put elsewhere, as she is tied up.

One issue I have not explored is transcribing the coptic.  I don’t know if it will be hard to do; I would think not.

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