A useful article: via here: https://twitter.com/WillNoel/status/404219313877684224
Tag: Manuscripts
Infra-red light can “remove” spilled ink from digital images of books?
An interesting email on the Ethiopian literature email list:
List members may value knowing that one of the positive results of the imaging of the 1513 first Ge’ez book – Psalterium Æthiopicum – Rome, Potken,
http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/psalter1513/was the use of Infra Red imaging to ‘remove’ spilled ink. Please see:-
This is a printed text; but no doubt the same would apply to manuscripts. These are days of miracles and wonders indeed.
A new 4th century fragment of Justin Martyr!!!
Via Brice C. Jones I learn that the new volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (vol. 73) contains a parchment fragment of the 4th century, with 6 lines from Justin Martyr’s First Apology on it! The reference is P.Oxy. 5129.
This is quite a find, since the apologies of Justin are known to us only from ms. Paris graecus 450, written in 1364. It is by no means unusual for Greek texts to be preserved only in manuscripts of the 14-16th centuries; what is unusual is to get a shred of a manuscript from antiquity.
Jones gives a photograph, transcription and translation. It’s a shame that it’s so very short; but how very exciting too!
Some notes on the transmission of Salvian’s “Ad Ecclesiam” and Letter 9
There is an entry for Salvian in the continuation of Jerome’s De viris illustribus by Gennadius, written ca. 470 AD. It forms chapter 68, and may be given in the NPNF translation:
Salvianus, presbyter of Marseilles, well informed both in secular and in sacred literature, and to speak without invidiousness, a master among bishops, wrote many things in a scholastic and clear style, of which I have read the following: four books On the Excellence of virginity, to Marcellus the presbyter, three books Against avarice, five books On the present judgment, and one book On punishment according to desert, addressed to Salonius the bishop, also one book of Commentary on the latter part of the book of Ecclesiastes, addressed to Claudius bishop of Vienne, one book of Epistles. He also composed one book in verse after the Greek fashion, a sort of Hexaemeron, covering the period from the beginning of Genesis to the creation of man, also many Homilies delivered to the bishops, and I am sure I do not know how many On the sacraments. He is still living at a good old age.
The “Against Avarice” is of course the Ad Ecclesiam, listed by content rather than addressee — the text given in the Sources Chretiennes edition[1] has “four books”. The “On the Present Judgement” is the De Gubernatione Dei. The two works alone have come down to us.
A portion of the book of letters has also survived, in a single 15th century Italian manuscript containing only 7 letters, the last of which (numbered letter 3 in our editions) is incomplete. This manuscript exists today divided into two fragments;
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Paris, BNF lat. 2174, fol. 113-115 (the ms. otherwise contains De Gubernatione Dei);
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Berne, Bibl. mun. E 219, fol. 1-8, a stray quaternion of the same manuscript.
Salvian letter 8 is transmitted with the works of Eucherius of Lyons.
Letter 9 is transmitted with the Ad Ecclesiam (but not always). Only a few manuscripts preserve the Ad Ecclesiam.
There are two medieval inventories that mention copies of the Ad Ecclesiam that existed in the middle ages. The catalogue of the abbey of Saint-Riquier, made in 831, lists a copy. So does the well-known 10th century catalogue of the abbey of Lorsch. Both catalogues may be found in G. Becker, Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui, 1885. Saint-Riquier is §11, p.26: 102. Timothei libri IV et tractatus Peregrini contra haereticos et epistolae Theophili ad episcopos totius Aegypti in I vol.; Lorsch is §37, p.108: 359. Timothei ad ecclesiam libri IIII et Peregrini lib. I pro catholicae fidei antiquitate. et epistolae Theophili Alexandrinae urbis episcopi contra Origenistas et aliae epistolae paschales in uno codice. It is obvious that some relation exists between these two copies.
The surviving manuscripts are as follows (notes abbreviated from the SC edition):
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A. Paris, BNF. lat. 2172 (9-10th c.), from the abbey of Saint-Thierry of Reims, where it was still in 1480; later it belonged to Pierre Pithou, who edited Salvian in 1580; and later still in the Colbert and Royal collections. Folios 1-65 contain the Ad Ecclesiam. Letter 9 is not present. The opening words of Ad Ecclesiam, “Timotheus minimus servorum dei … Amen” are formatted as if they were the title, but preceded by the words “incipit liber primus”, out of sequence. Fol. 65v onwards contains the Commonitorium of Vincent of Lerins, with the title: Incipit tractatus Peregrinui pro catholicae fidei antiquitate aduersus profanas omnium haereticorum nouitates; then various letters of Theophilus of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Jerome.
- B. Paris, BNF. lat. 2785 (10th c.). It starts with letter 9, headed Incipit epistola Saluiani ad Salonium. Then follows the Ad Ecclesiam, beginning with the opening words and then the incipit of book 1. This work is followed by excerpts from Ambrose and Augustine; and then the Commonitorum, with almost exactly the same incipit as A.
- b. Paris, BNF. lat. 2173 (12th c.). The beginning of the manuscript is lost; it starts part way through Ad Ecclesiam I, 4. After Ad Ecclesiam, there are the same excerpts from Ambrose and Augustine; then the Commonitorium, and then letters of Jerome in the same order as in A.
- C. Berne, Bibl. mun. 315 (11th c.). This contains a crudely abridged (by about 20%) and interpolated version of the Ad Ecclesiam, made in the 6th c., and preceded by a letter headed: Incipit prologus Timothei episcopi operis sequentis. After the final words of the prologue — and it would be interesting to know what this says — appear the words, explicit prologi, incipit liber Timothei episcopi.
- p. Edition of Jean Sichard, Basle, 1528, entitled Antidoton contra diversas omnium fere seculorum haereses. On fol. 181v-182v is the editio princeps of letter 9, with the title: Salviani episcopi Massiliensis in librum Timothei ad Salonium episcopum praefatio. The Ad Ecclesiam then follows, with the title Timothei episcopi ad Ecclesiam catholicam toto orbe diffusam. Then follows the Commonitorium, and then the letters of Jerome found in A and b; note that letter 99, incomplete in b, is complete in Sichard. Sichard gives no indication of what manuscript he used, but it was probably the now lost manuscript of Lorsch.
A, B, and b are all related to one another, as is fairly obvious from the similar contents of each physical volume. The text found in these shares certain errors and omissions, not found in the abbreviated text in C, nor in the full text in p. No doubt these are related to the French Saint-Riquier manuscript in some way.
C and p are not related to each other, nor to the common ancestor of the Paris mss. p. is derived from the German Lorsch manuscript, while C has its own transmission from a 6th century epitome of the text.
So we have essentially three families here; a French family, a German family, and the peculiar C manuscript. Yet the French family is split: A does not include letter 9; B does (and the start of b is lost so we can’t tell if it did contain it). The peculiar C ms. does not have it, and instead a substitute prologue was composed, which could suggest that a 6th century copy existed where there was no letter 9 as a preface, or alternatively that its omission was part of the activity of the 6th century editor. The German family represented today by Sichard’s edition (p) does have it.
But the witness of the French family is confusing. If the common ancestor of the French mss. did not contain letter 9, then where did it come from and why did it get attached to the work? We know of no independent circulation of the letter, after all. On the other hand it is easy to see that a short piece on the first folio might get detached, and thus a tradition started without this piece. It would seem easiest to suppose that the French family common ancestor did indeed begin with letter 9, and that the ancestor of the B/b branch of its children omitted it, or suffered the loss of a leaf at the start.
All this tends to suggest that the Ad Ecclesiam was sent forth by its author with Salvian’s letter 9 to Salonius at the front. Yes, the 6th century abbreviator omitted it, composing his own preface; but an abbreviator might do that anyway. Yes, a French manuscript dropped it or lost it; but that happens in transmission. But otherwise letter 9 is found in both the German and French versions of the full text, preceding the work. It is, therefore, most likely in the position in which Salvian put it.
All the same, it is also worth noting that in no case is the letter treated as part of the work, as a prologus. In each case it has a different author. In each case the Ad Ecclesiam is attributed to Timothy. What we learn from this, then, is that letter 9 is not an integral part of the text of the Ad Ecclesiam, as originally set forth; it was an afterthought.
This last conclusion is one that we might have reached anyway from the content of letter 9, and this we will discuss next.
- [1]Georges Lagarrigue, Salvien de Marseille: Oeuvres I. Les Lettres. Les livres de Timothee a l’eglise. SC 176. 1971.↩
Ibn Abi Usaibia – the GAL entry, and the manuscripts
I have finally managed to find some hard information on Ibn Abi Usaibia (translation here), the two editions of the text, and the manuscripts of both. What follows may be hard going; but it is almost entirely hard data.
A google search turned up this site. It gives, thankfully, the GAL reference for Ibn Abi Usaibia, which means that, at long last, I can find the entry. Here is the reference on the website.
BROCKELMANN KARL (1868-1956), Geschichte der arabischen Literatur. Weimar, Berlin 1898 ; Leipzig, C. F. Amelang 1901 [vi-265 p., 23 cm]; Leyde, E. J. Brill 1943 [2e sup.] ; Leyde, E. J. Brill 1996 [augm. et préface de Just Witkam] (I) p. 325-326; (sup. I) p. 560.
I.e. p.325-6 of volume 1 of the 1st edition, plus p.560 of vol. 1 of the supplement.
Here are the corresponding pages (p.397-8) from vol. 1 of the 2nd edition (which has the page numbers of the 1st ed. in the margin):
And from the supplement:
In the interests of googleability, here’s a transcription, with a few extra line breaks to make the detailed info more comprehensible.
10. Muwaffaqaddin a. ’l-`Abbās A. b. al-Q. b. a. Usaibi`a as-Sa`di al-Hazragi, geb. nach 590/1194 in Damaskus, wo sein Vater Augenarzt war, studierte Medizin in seiner Vaterstadt und am Nāsirischen Krankenhaus zu Kairo; besondere Anregung verdankte er dem bekannten Arzt und Botaniker b. al-Baitār (S. 492). 631/1233 wurde er von Salāhaddin an einem neugegründeten Krankenhause zu Kairo angestellt, ging aber schon 632 an den Bimāristān an-Nuri zu Damaskus und 634 als Leibarzt des Emirs ‘Izzaddin Aidamur b. `Al. nach Safad. Dort starb er im Gum. I, 668/Jan. 1270.
Wüst. Gesch. 350, Leclerc II, 187/93. `Uyun al-anbā’ fi tabaqāt al-atibba’ (noch Patna II, 317,2469), in zwei Recensionen, einer v. J. 640/1242 und einer jüngeren mit manchen Zusätzen.
Hsg. v. A. Müller, Königsberg (Kairo) 1884.
Vgl. dens. ZDMG 34, 471, Travaux du VIe congr. intern, d. or. à Leide II, 218 ff., SBBA, phil.-hist. Cl. 1884, S. 857 ff.
and from the supplement:
10. Muwaffaqaddin a. ‘l-`Abbās A. b. al-Q. b. a. Usaibi`a (1) b. Halifa as-Sa`di al-Hazragi, geb. nach 590/1194 in Damaskus, wo er 632/1234 am Bimaristān an-Nuri angestellt wurde; 634 ging er als Leibarzt des Emirs `Izzaddin Aidamir b. `Al. nach Sarhad und starb dort im Gum, I, 668/Jan. 1270.
Nallino, `Ilm al-falah 64ff. K. `Uyun al-anba’ fi tabaqat al-atibba’, Hdss. noch Münch. 800/1, Wien 1164, Leid, 1062/4, Paris 2113/7, 5939, Nicholson JRAS 1899, 912, Fātih 4438, Top Kapu 2859/60, Sehid `A. P. 1923, Yeni 891/2, Köpr. 1104, Dämäd Ibr. 935, Kairo2 V, 275, Mosul 25,42, XIV, 26,78, Rampur, I, 642,176, Bank. XII, 786, Abkürzung Paris 2118.
S. noch Hamed Waly, Drei Kapp, aus der Ärztegeschichte des b. a. Us., med. Diss., Berlin 1911.
(1) So die Hds. Brit. Mus.
This is the origin of the “two recensions” story; there is one made in 1242 AD, and a “younger one, with some additions”. The details may be found in Müller, Arabische Quellen zur Geschichte der indischen Medizin, in the ZDMG 34, starting on p.469 f., which may be found online here. This also gives a list of manuscripts of the two recensions.
The JRAS (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society) article is online, and consists of a list of Arabic manuscripts owned by orientalist Reynold A. Nicholson. The Ibn Abi Usaibia ms. was copied in Constantinople in 1136 A.H. (=1758 A.D.), and has the inscription, “E. Libris Theodori Preston Coll. S. S. Trin. Cant. Socii Damasci 1848”, and a note stating that Mr Preston purchased it in Damascus for 900 piastres. I wonder where his manuscripts are now.
The supplement gives a further list of manuscripts — supplemental to that in the ZDMG article –, as does the webpage with which we started:
- Ms. Cod. Arab. 800, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek preußischer Kulturbesitz
- Ms. Cod. Arab. 801, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek preußischer Kulturbesitz
- Ms. 715, Universitätsbibliothek, Leipzig
- Ms. 4781, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library
- Ms. Ar. 2113, Paris, Bibliothèque de France
- Ms. Ar. 2114, Paris, Bibliothèque de France
- Ms. Ar. 2115, Paris, Bibliothèque de France
- Ms. Ar. 2117, Paris, Bibliothèque de France
- Ms. Ar. 2118, Paris, Bibliothèque de France
- Ms. 2859/1, Istanbul, Topkapi Saray
- Ms. 2859/2, Istanbul, Topkapi Saray, daté 1334
So we’re getting some real, useful information at last here. Curious that the GAL mentioned a British Museum manuscript in the footnote as the source of the author’s full name, but does not give the shelfmark for it! It is, no doubt, British Library Add. 7340, an exemplar of the longer recension, mentioned in the ZDMG article.
The Muller edition of Ibn Abi Usaibia is only in my hands in a rather rubbish-looking reprint, which I suspect is incomplete. I wish the original was online!
Syriac and Manichaean-related materials on a British Library blog
Via MedievalEgypt on Twitter I learn of a valuable post on Manichaean-related materials in the British Library, here, by Ursula Sims-Williams:
One of the most important sources in the British Library is the Syriac manuscript Add.12150 which contains the treatise Against the Manicheans by Titus (d. 378) of Bostra (Bosra, now in Syria), translated from Greek. This codex is additionally important, being the oldest known dated Syriac manuscript, in near perfect condition, and copied in Edessa in the year 723 of the Seleucid era (AD 411).
The final page of Titus of Bostra’s treatise Against the Manicheans. Vellum, dated AD 411 (Add.12150, f.156r).
The article goes on to discuss the manuscript of the Prose Refutations by Ephraim the Syrian, and the efforts of Charles Mitchell to edit these. I well remember digitising his translation and uploading it, years ago. He was a casualty of WW1.
I hope that the BL Asian and African Studies blog will do more on Syriac materials!
The Codex Agobardinus of Tertullian is online at Gallica!!
A red letter day, this. I learn via Twitter and the Florus blog that some more Latin manuscripts have appeared on the French National Library Gallica.bnf.fr site. Among them is the oldest and most important manuscript of the works of Tertullian, the Codex Agobardinus (Paris lat. 1622). It may be found here. 100Mb of joy!
This manuscript was something I always wanted to see, from my earliest interest in Tertullian and Patristics, back in 1997. Eventually I worked out how I might get a reader’s pass for the BNF, and, very nervously, in 2002, I bought an air-ticket for a day trip and flew over to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I went to the BNF in the Rue de Richlieu and persuaded the staff to allow me access. And I held it in my hands!
I looked at it for an hour, and then handed it back. I got a very old-fashioned look from the serving woman, who seemed to resent the idea that I should order a manuscript out of the vault for so short a time. Why didn’t you use a microfilm, she wondered? How dare I! But I also needed to visit the other BNF site, in my limited time. And I didn’t fly to Paris to look at a microfilm! I was, of course, immensely privileged to be able to see a manuscript at all.
Now, 11 years later, the world can look at this rare and precious volume. It’s the oldest copy of Tertullian’s works. It was probably written at Fulda in the 9th century. It contained the only copy of Ad Nationes, for instance. And … it once contained more works, all now lost. A table of contents at the start (below) lists works that no man living has seen; de spe fidelium, de paradiso, de superstitione saeculi… how we would like to read these!
It makes me feel humble, somehow. So many things in the world are worse than they were. But for the learned, this is a time of miracles and wonders!
Coptic monastery set alight; fate of Coptic manuscripts unknown
There have been vague reports on twitter for a few days of a 4th century Coptic church, the “Virgin Mary church”, being burned by the Moslem Brotherhood’s thugs in Egypt. Today I find something solid, and it looks grim.
From Jihadwatch.org:
Ancient Egyptian Christian Monastery Set Aflame
As Muslim Brotherhood supporters continue their jihadi rampage on Egypt’s Christian churches—several dozens have now been attacked—it’s important to remember that their hostility is not simply directed to churches, but any and every expression of Christianity, including crosses, Bible stores, and even remote monasteries.
Most recently, for instance, early Thursday morning (Egyptian time), hundreds of pro-Morsi rioters set fire to the Virgin Mary Monastery, also known as Muharraq Monastery, in Quwsaya, Asyut—one of the oldest monasteries in the world, which held many ancient Coptic manuscripts, likely now all turned to ash. Its flames reached surrounding Coptic Christian homes, setting some 15 aflame.
The news link above leads to an Arabic language site, but we can use Google translate to get the gist:
Supporters of imprisoned president set fire to the Muharraq Quisya centre in Assiut.
Sparked hundreds of supporters of President Mohamed Morsi, isolated in Assiut, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the fire in the Diocese monastery Muharraq Qusiya center , and the flames spread to more than 15 homes adjacent to the Copts. The civil defense forces are trying now to control the fire that broke out in the monastery of the oldest monasteries in the archaeological world.
This comes after the establishment of thousands of supporters of President isolated march night protest through the streets of Center City Qusiya condemn the decision of the curfew and the imposition of emergency law, in addition to resolving Aatsami “fourth Adawiya” and “Renaissance” by force by the police and military forces and the accompanying casualties.
In a related development, a number of supporters of President Mohamed Morsi, isolated fired two shells from guns “mortar” on a police station Sahel Selim, east of the Nile Assiut Governorate, in an attempt to storming resulted in the demolition of the center and interface wall. Military sources said that the car tracked armored and armed forces on their way to the police station amid heavy exchange of automatic weapons fire between the security forces and a number of supporters of President orphaned. The sources said that it had been determine where it launched a missile village “Boit” east of the Nile and the reinforcements being sent military and police, sources reported that there were casualties among the security forces Safwat.
The Al-Muharraq monastery has an English language website here, and a short Wikipedia article here. The Tour Egypt site has a long page on it here, which includes something on the library:
The library of the monastery is divided into two main sections. The first section contains thousands of modern books and reference material dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. They cover religion, science and other subjects written in various languages including Coptic, Greek, Arabic, English and Amharic. The second section of the library contains hand-written manuscripts in Coptic and Arabic. Scientifically indexed, these priceless manuscripts date back as early as the 13th century.
The monastery website helpfully explains the various names of the monastery, including the name of the “burned monastery”, and “Deir al-Muharraq”.
For a long time the place has been well known as “Virgin Mary monastery”. It has also been reputed as “Muharraq Monastery”, and “Mount Koskam Monastery”.
But it does make clear that the monastery has a manuscript library:
There has been a great interest in Coptic manuscripts whether they are originally in Coptic language or translated into Coptic since the European movement of geographical and scientific discoveries. Travelers, explorers, researchers, scholars and scientists collected manuscripts from ancient monasteries and churches, and took home all what they could during the 17th. century when the Europeans began to take interest in studying Coptic language (stated by Mallon in his introduction to: Coptic Agronomy)
Some famous transcriber monks are:
Hegomen Kuzman (14th. C.) who cared for copying some books of the Holy Bible.
Hegomen Ecluda (14th. C.) (Pope Ghabrial’s brother) copied the Coptic lectionary.
Hegomen Yohanna (19th. C.) from Etleedem copied 64 manuscripts within 48 years. He was worthily called the father of transcription.
Some important manuscripts in the monastery have been printed and published.
However the main churches are apparently 19th century.
The Coptic Encyclopedia has an article on Dayr al-Muharraq (why on earth can’t the Arabs organise among themselves a standard transcription of their language?):
Nothing is known for certain about the date of the foundation of this monastery. A sermon attributed to the patriarch THEOPHILUS OF ALEXANDRIA (384-412) credits him with a vision of the Holy Virgin in which she revealed to him that the principal church of the monastery in the place where Mary and her son sojourned during their flight from Herod was consecrated by Jesus himself, assisted by his disciples. Guidi (1917) has published the Oriental versions. The Arabic text is also given in a work entitled Al-La’ali’ (1966, pp. 56-70). A reworking of this sermon is attributed to Zechariah, bishop of Sakha at the beginning of the eighth century (pp. 40-55).
The monastery is said to have been founded by Saint PACHOMIUS (Simaykah, 1932, Vol. 2, p. 121), but the Lives of Pachomius, both Greek and Coptic, do not speak of it. The most ancient source appears to be the HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS of the Egyptian church, which in its list of the places where the Holy Virgin stayed with Jesus in Egypt names Qusqam, but not Dayr al-Muharraq.
The clearest source is without doubt ABU SALIH THE ARMENIAN from the beginning of the thirteenth century (1895, pp. 224-27). He knew the legend of the Holy Family’s FLIGHT INTO EGYPT and of the consecration of this church, but he never spoke of a monastery.
…
A manuscript of the Synaxarion deriving from the library of the Dayr al-Muharraq indicates the feast of the qummus ‘Abd al-Malak on 18 Babah. This saint built or restored the Church of Saint George. He lived in the Arab period, prior to the date of the manuscript (1867, according to Troupeau, 1974, Vol. 2, p. 30).
In 1305 Marqus, bishop of Qusqam, was present at the preparation of the chrism (Munier, 1943, p. 37), and in another manuscript about the same event, Marqus is called bishop of al-Qusiyyah. Since the monastery is only a little over 4 miles (7 km) from this town, he was probably bishop of these two places (Muyser, 1945, p. 158).
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, several monks of Dayr al-Muharraq became patriarchs of Alexandria: in 1370 GABRIEL, in 1378 MATTHEW I, in 1452 MATTHEW II, and in 1484 JOHN XIII.
So the solid evidence is of foundation before 1300.
But what of the manuscripts? I can find no more information online.
It’s so very hard to get useful information, because the BBC and other “mainstream” outlets seem to be ignoring most of the violence, and all of the violence against Copts. Thank heavens for Jihad Watch and its staff, trawling through the Arabic news output.
If anyone has more details, I should be glad to hear it.
Augustine, Letter to Firmus – English translation
An article by Lambot informs me of the existence of an interesting letter by St. Augustine, and a correspondent has let me know that an English translation exists in the Fathers of the Church volume of the City of God, to which the letter relates.[1]
While discoveries of sermons by St. Augustine have never ceased, his correspondence has remained pretty much where the Maurist fathers left it. Only 5 letters have been discovered since the late 17th century; 2 in 1732 by G. Bessel, 1 in 1901 by Dom G. Morin, and finally 2 in 1898 and 1904 by A. Goldbacher, the CSEL editor of Augustine’s letters.
A further letter is found in two manuscripts of Augustine’s De civitate dei, and might reasonably have come to light earlier. The mss. are the Reims 403 (12-13th c.) and Paris Saint-Genevieve 2757 (14-15th c.).
The letter is deeply interesting for what it tells us about the circulation of the works of a major author in his own time.
Here is the letter. I have copied a few of the notes from the Fathers of the Church translation, which I have prefixed with FoC:
To Firmus,[2] My Distinguished and Deservedly Honored Lord, and My Cherished Son, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord.
The books on the City of God which you most eagerly requested I have sent you as I promised, having also reread them myself. That this, with God’s help, should be done has been urged by my son and your brother, Cyprian, who has furnished just that insistence I hoped would be forthcoming.
There are twenty-two sections.[3] To put all these into one whole would be cumbersome. If you wish that two volumes be made of them, they should be so apportioned that one volume contain ten books, the other twelve. For, in those ten, the empty teachings of the pagans have been refuted, and, in the remainder, our own religion has been demonstrated and defended—though, to be sure, in the former books the latter subject has been dealt with when it was more suitable to do so, and in the latter, the former.
If, however, you should prefer that there be more than two volumes, you should make as many as five. The first of these would contain the first five books, where argument has been advanced against those who contend that the worship, not indeed of gods, but of demons, is of profit for happiness in this present life. The second volume would contain the next five books, where [a stand has been taken against those] who think that, for the sake of the life which is to come after death, worship should be paid, through rites and sacrifices, whether to these divinities or to any plurality of gods whatever. The next three volumes ought to embrace four books each; for this part of our work has been so divided that four books set forth the origin of that City, a second four its progress—or, as we might choose to say, its development,—the final four its appointed ends.
If the diligence you have shown for procuring these books will be matched by diligence in reading them, it is rather from your testing than from my promises that you will learn how far they will help you. As for those books belonging to this work on the City of God which our brothers there in Carthage do not yet have, I ask that you graciously and willingly acceed to their requests to have copies made. You will not grant this favor to many, but to one or two at most, and they themselves will grant it to others. Among your friends, some, within the body of Christian folk, may desire instruction; in the case of others, bound by some superstition, it may appear that this labor of ours can, through God’s grace, be used to liberate them. How you are to share it with them you must yourself decide.
For my part I shall take care to make frequent inquiry, God willing, what progress you are making in my writings as you read them. Surely, you cannot fail to know how much a man of education is helped toward understanding the written word by repeated reading. No difficulty in understanding occurs (or, if any, very little) where there is facility in reading, and this gains in scope with successive repetitions. Constant application [brings to fruition] what [through inattention] would have remained immature.
In earlier letters, my distinguished and deservedly honored lord and my son Firmus, you have shown acquaintance with the books on the Academics that I composed when my conversion was yet fresh.[4] Please write in reply how you came to this knowledge.
The range of subject matter comprised in the twenty-two books of my composition is shown in the epitome that I send you.
- [1]Lambot, Lettre inedite de S. Augustin relative au “De Civitate Dei“, Revue Benedictine 51, 1939, p.109-121. The first couple of paragraphs I give below; and Augustine, City of God, Books I-VII (tr. Zema and Walsh), FotC (Washington, 1950) — appendix p. 399.↩
- [2]FoC: Lambot (113f.) collects the evidence identifying the African priest, Firmus. In Epist. 200, Augustine speaks of his intimate friendship with him. The closing paragraph of Epist. 82 (= Jerome, Epist. 116) is one of the texts which reveal Firmus as carrying letters between Augustine and Jerome. A certain Cyprian named there as performing similar service is probably the Cyprian mentioned early in the present letter; cf. Lambot 115 n. 3. From Epist. 184A, addressed to the monks Peter and Abraham, we learn that Firmus was to bring them a copy of the first thirteen books of The City of God.↩
- [3]FoC: Lat. ‘quaterniones.’ The word ‘quaternio’ normally signifies one of the 16-page quires or signatures commonly used in the physical composition of an ancient codex. Here it may well be synonymous with the literary division ‘liber’ (‘book’) ↩
- [4]FoC: The Contra Academicos, translated, under the title ‘Answer to Skeptics,’ by D. J. Kavanagh, OS.A., in the first volume of the Writings of Saint Augustine as found in this series. In discussing this passage, Lambot (114) reminds us that Augustine’s earliest writings were soon eclipsed by the greater works of his maturity. As we learn from Augustine’s Retractations (12), his own copy of the De beata vita showed gaps he could not fill. All but one of his treatises on the liberal arts had vanished from his shelves, though Augustine understood that copies were owned by others (Retract. 1.6). In the De Trinitate (15.xii.21) Augustine discusses the utility of his books on the Academics to anyone ‘who wishes to read them and can do so’ (‘qui potuerit et voluerit legere’)—language which suggests that it was hard to find a copy. Read in the light of this passage of the De Trinitate, Augustine’s request that Firmus write how he came to know the Contra Academicos gains point and, as Lambot remarks, is a guarantee of the authenticity of the letter.↩
Manuscripts online at the Walters Art Museum
A bunch of gospel manuscripts and other items, mostly illuminated, are online at the Walters Art Museum here. Blessedly, the Walters has made the images truly accessible:
This Web page links to complete sets of high-resolution archival images of entire manuscripts from the collection of the Walters Art Museum, along with detailed catalog descriptions. They are available for free under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. Manuscripts images and descriptions were created and are provided through Preservation and Access grants awarded to the Walters Art Museum by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008-2014.
Images are offered in four sizes:
- Master TIFF (600PPI for text pages/1200PPI [or highest resolution attainable] for illuminated pages
- 300PPI TIFF
- JPEG (1800 pixels on the long side)
- Thumbnail JPEG (190 pixels on the long side)
For an animated “turning the pages” presentation of the manuscripts and downloadable PDFs, visit the Walters Art
Well done the Walters! This is what we want. Serious users of the collection do not want to be trapped by some custom “viewer application”.
What of the mss? Well, they aren’t that interesting to us. There is a large collection of Korans, for instance. Here are a few that might be of wider interest:
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93.110, Single leaf from a grammar, Donatus, Aelius, Latin (1400 – 1499 CE)
Browse images | Cataloging in process | art.thewalters.org - W.4, Freising Gospels, Jerome, Saint, d. 419 or 20, Latin (860 – 880 CE, Freising, Germany)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.5, Gospels of Abbot Duden, Latin (1000 – 1099 CE, Werden, Germany)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.7, Reichenau Gospels, Latin (1030 – 1080 CE, Reichenau Abbey, Lake Constance, Germany)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.13, Synonyms of Isidore of Seville, Isidore, of Seville, Saint, d. 636, Latin (1125 – 1175 CE, Germany)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.520, Gospel Lectionary, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (950 – 1000 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.521, “Imperial” Menologion, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1034 – 1041 CE, Constantinople (Istanbul))
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.522, Gospel Book, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, approximately 260-approximately 340., Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1080 – 1100 CE, Constantinople (Istanbul))
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.523, Gospel Book, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340., Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (900 – 999 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.524, Gospel Book, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340., Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (900 – 950 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.525, New Testament, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1290 – 1310 CE, Probably Constantinople (modern Istanbul))
- W.526, Gospels, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1275 – 1300 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.527, Gospel Book, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (975 – 1025 CE, Constantinople (Istanbul))
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.528, Gospel Book, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1200 – 1230 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.529, Gospel Book, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1040 – 1060 CE, Byzantine Empire)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.531, Trebizond Gospels, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1140 – 1160 CE, Constantinople (Istanbul))
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.532, Gospel Book, Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1070 – 1100 CE, Eastern Mediterranean)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.533, Acts and Epistles, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1100 – 1500 CE, Eastern Mediterranean)
Browse images | Manuscript Description | TEI (XML format) | art.thewalters.org - W.535, Gospel lectionary, Greek, Ancient (to 1453) (1594 – 1596 CE, Buzǎu, Romania (text); Moscow, Russia (miniatures))
There are also a bunch of Armenian gospel manuscripts there, which makes me wonder whether we actually have a critical edition of the Armenian bible yet? Metzger deplored the absence of one in his book on the versiones decades ago.
A useful resource, I think.