Critical Editions
(1851 - Date)

Introduction .... Oehler (ANF) .... CSEL .... CCL ...Sources Chrétiennes

None of the early editions is a critical edition in the modern sense. With Oehler's editions we enter the world of the modern critical edition, where the text is established in accordance with predefined criteria, in a hopefully more systematic and scientific way. This page contains the series and collected editions in Latin.

(The pages on individual works show the CSEL/CCL reference, and the most recent English translation).

From Oehler onwards, we are dealing with critical editions in the modern sense, based on a selection of readings based upon stated criteria.

1851-4 : OEHLER : Fr. Oehler, Q.S.F. Tertulliani opera omnia, Leipzig, 1851-1854, 3 vols (editio maior) and also Leipzig, 1854 (editio minor). See Klussmann, in Zeitschr. fur wissensch. Theol. [1860], iii. 82-100, 363-393, and Oehler, in Zeitschr. fur wissensch. Theol [1861], iv. 204-211 Editio Maior Checked. Volumes 1 and 2 contain the works of Tertullian. Volume 3 includes various additional material, including the dissertation by Nicolaus le Nourry which refers to various now lost MSS of the Apologeticum. It also contains indexes. The copies I have seen of this have all suffered from 'foxing' - i.e. brown splotches in the paper. The volumes are octavo but quite thin. The preface to volume I is online.

VOLUME I		page
	Preface	iii-xxiii
	Index Librorum
1.	Ad Martyras	3
2.	De Spectaculis	17
3.	De Idololatria	67
4.	Apologeticum	111
5.	Ad Nationes Libri II	306
6.	De Testimonio Animae	399
7.	De Corona	415
8.	De Fuga in Persecutione	461
9.	Scorpiace	495
10.	Ad Scapulam	539
11.	De Oratione	553
12.	De Patientia	587
13.	De Baptismo	619
14.	De Paenitentia	643
15.	Ad Uxorem Libri II	669
16.	De Cultu Feminarum Libri II	701
17.	De Exhortatione Castitatis	737
18.	De Monogamia	761
19.	De Pudicitia	791
20.	De Ieiunio adversus Psychicos	851
21.	De Virginibus Velandis	883
22.	De Pallio	913
VOLUME II		page
1.	De Praescriptione Haereticorum	1
2.	Adversus Marcionem Libri V	45
3.	Adversus Hermogenem	337
4.	Adversus Valentinianos	381
5.	De Carne Christi	423
6.	De Resurrectione Carnis	465
7.	De Anima	553
8.	Adversus Praxean	651
9.	Adversus Iudaeos	699
	Fragments	742
	Libri Suppositicii	748
	Indices
VOLUME III		page
1.	Life of Tertullian by J. Pamelius	1
2.	Life of Tertullian by P. Allix	37
3.	Dissertation on the Apologeticum, Ad Nationes and Ad Scapulam by Nic. le Nourry	79
4.	Disquisition on the date of the Apologeticum by Io. Laur. Mosheim	490
5.	Q. Septimii Florentis Tertulliani quae supersunt omnia in Montanismo scripta videro.   Edisseruit Godofr. Centnerus	511
6.	De vera aetate ac doctrina scriptorum quae supersunt Q. Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Disputatio by Io. Aug. Noesselt	540
7.	Dissertatio de varia et incerta indole librorum Q. Septimii Florentis Tertulliani by Ioh. Salom. Semler	620
8.	De Tertulliano et eius scriptis Dissertatio by Ioh. Kaye	697

This was the standard 19th century edition, and its text was used for the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation into English by P.Holmes and S.Thelwall printed in various editions and now available on the Internet, and on CD, and in the US printed edition.

• Ante-Nicene Library (Edinburgh) vols VII (1868), XI (1869), XV (1870), XVIII (1870), 1-258, edited by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson. This is what you get if you try to order it from the British Lending Library. Note the different volume numbers! You cannot borrow the Coxe edition, because no library has it, apparently (!).
• Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York and Buffalo) revised by A. Cleveland Coxe in ten volumes. For Tertullian, vols III and IV (1884). Obtainable from amazon.com. Reprinted in the UK in 1980 by T.&T.Clark and available from booksellers such as Waterstones. Electronic versions at CCEL. CD from Logos.

1866-date : Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) edited by the Academy of Vienna from 1866-1957, and sometimes known as the Vienna Corpus. Now being revived under the aegis of the Kirchenväter-Kommission. New work is being undertaken, including the monster task of documenting the text tradition of St.Augustine, which has already led to the discovery of new letters. A second edition of other authors is proposed.

The volumes were issued in paper covers, so tend to appear in a variety of bindings (see the picture of my own selection above).

The website is well worth a visit, and run ably and helpfully by Dr. Dorothea Weber. A small selection of the newer volumes (no Tertullian) is available from the CSEL website, at around £40 ($60) each; the others from the publishers Verlag Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, to whom in the first instance applications for permission to reproduce material should be directed. A text editor for editing classical texts is also available from the CSEL site, although I've not looked at it yet.  I have found that it is possible to obtain out-of-print copies of some of these volumes from www.bibliofind.com for around the same price.   However I don't have volumes 70 or 76 (yet).

Much of the work on Tertullian has been superseded, but the prefaces remain of interest. Volumes relating to Tertullian are:

• Volume 20 (A. Reifferscheid and G. Wissowa, Vienna, 1890):  Part 1.  This contains works only found in the Codex Agobardinus or (at the time) only found in an early edition.  Note that Waszink states in the English preface to his 1948 edition of De Anima that the references to the edition of Gagny/Mesnart (B) in the apparatus of De Anima were very inaccurate.

	Preface, by W. Hartel and G. Wissowa	v-xiii
	Index of Sigla	xiv
	Index Librorum	xv
1.	De spectaculis	1
2.	De idololatria	30
3.	Ad Nationes	59
4.	De testimonio animae	134
5.	Scorpiace	144
6.	De oratione	180
7.	De baptismo	201
8.	De pudicitia	219
9.	De ieiunio adversus psychicos	274
10.	De anima	298-396

• Volume 47 (Emil Kroymann, Vienna, 1906),  Part 3.  Kroymann states in his preface that he deliberately patterned the contents of this volume on the first volume of the 'Cluny' collection.

	Preface	v-xxxv
	Index of Sigla	xxxvi
	Index Librorum	xxxvii
1.	De patientia	1
2.	De carnis resurrectione	25
3.	Adversus Hermogenem	126
4.	Adversus Valentinianos	177
5.	Adversus omnes haereses	213
6.	Adversus Praxean	227
7.	Adversus Marcionem	290-650

• Volume 69 (Heinrich Hoppe, Vienna, 1939), Part 2a.

	Preface	v-viii
	De Codicibus Apologetici (etc)	ix-xlvii
	Sigla and bibliography	xlviii-li
1.	Apologeticum	1-121

• Volume 70 (Emil Kroymann, 1942), Part 2b.  The preface ends with a personal note, in which Kroymann apologises for the long delay in producing another volume, and explains that the unfortunate circumstances in which he had found himself after the Great War had been responsible.  Somehow it is sad to think of Kroymann, now an old man, still working on the task for which he had done so much in his youth, and which he may have known he would not live to finish.  Contains a revised stemma.

	Preface	v-xlv
	Index of Sigla	xlvi-xlvii
	Index Librorum	xlviii
1.	De praescriptione haereticorum	1
2.	De cultu feminarum	59
3.	Ad uxorem	96
4.	De exhortatione castitatis	125
5.	De corona	153
6.	De carne Christi	189
7.	Adversus Iudaeos	251-331

• Volume 76 (V. Bulhart and J.W.Ph. Borleffs, 1957), part 4.  This completed the Vienna edition.  The preface contains a long discussion of the features of Tertullian's Latin.

	Preface	vii-lvi
	Index of Sigla	lvii-lix
1.	Ad martyres (Bulhart)	1-8
2.	Ad Scapulam (Bulhart)	9-16
3.	De fuga in persecutione (Bulhart)	17-43
4.	De monogamia (Bulhart)	44-78
5.	De virginibus velandis (Bulhart)	79-103
6.	De pallio (Bulhart)	104-125
	Corrigenda	126
	Preface 2 (Borleffs)	127-137
	Index of Sigla	138-139
7.	De paenitentia (Borleffs)	140-170

The notes and prefaces are all in Latin. Vols 47, 69 and 70 each have up to 50 pages of material on mss. The general opinion on Kroymann's readings is "brilliant, but unsound" (to reapply the words of P.G.Wodehouse), and CCL has revised some of them.

1953-date : Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, (Abbreviated as CCL or CCSL) Turnhout, 1953-date. Vols I and II relate to Tertullian, and are edited by Dom Eligius Dekkers.  All the text is in Latin.  The idea was to reprint the best available editions, and revise them where necessary.  Dekkers therefore revised many of Kroymann's somewhat eccentric readings in CSEL.

Each volume is about $120, although there are special offers at conferences, etc. 

Here's the table of contents.  The page numbers run sequentially through both volumes.

Preface	v
Select Bibliography	x
Stemma for the Cluny collection	xxvii
Table I, on 3 A3 sheets	(after xxvii)
Table II, on 1 A3 sheet
I.     Ad Martyras     ed. E. Dekkers	1
II.    Ad Nationes     ed. J. G. Ph. Borleffs	9
III.   Apologeticum    ed. E. Dekkers	77
IV.    De Testimonio Animae     ed. R. Willems	173
V.     De Praescriptione Haereticorum     ed. R.F.Refoulé	185
VI.    De Spectaculis     ed. E. Dekkers	225
VII.   De Oratione     ed. G.F.Diercks	255
VIII.  De Baptismo     ed. J.G.Ph. Borleffs	275
IX.    De Patientia     ed. J.G.Ph. Borleffs	297
X.     De Paenitentia     ed. J.G.Ph. Borleffs	319
XI.    De Cultu Feminarum     ed. E. Kroymann	341
XII.   Ad Uxorem     ed. E. Kroymann	371
XIII.  Adversus Hermogenem     ed. E. Kroymann	395
XIV.   Adversus Marcionem     ed. E. Kroymann	437
VOLUME II Continues with the following:
XV.    De Pallio     ed. A. Gerlo	731
XVI.   Adversus Valentinianos     ed. E. Kroymann	751
XVII.  De Anima     ed. J.H.Waszink	779
XVIII. De Carne Christi     ed. E. Kroymann	871
XIX.   De Resurrectione Mortuorum     ed. J.G.Ph. Borleffs	919
XX.    De Exhortatione Castitatis     ed. E. Kroymann	1013
XXI.   De Corona     ed. E. Kroymann	1037
XXII.  Scorpiace     ed. A. Reifferscheid and G. Wissowa	1067
XXIII. De Idololatria     ed. A. Reifferscheid and G. Wissowa	1099
XXIV.  Ad Scapulam     ed. E. Dekkers	1125
XXV.   De Fuga in Persecutione     ed. J.J. Thierry	1133
XXVI.  Adversus Praxean     ed. E. Kroymann and E. Evans	1157
XXVII. De Virginibus Velandis     ed. E. Dekkers	1207
XXVIII.De Monogamia     ed. E. Dekkers	1227
XXIX.  De Ieiunio adversus Psychicos     ed. A. Reifferschied and G. Wissowa	1255
XXX.   De Pudicitia     ed. E. Dekkers	1279
XXXI.  De Fato and other fragments     collected by A. Harnack	1331
XXXII. Adversus Iudaeos     ed. E. Kroymann	1337
APPENDIX
Adversus omnes Haereses     ed. E. Kroymann	1399
De Execrandis Gentium Diis     ed. R. Willems	1411
Carmen adversus Marcionem     ed. R. Willems	1417
INDICES
Index of Scripture References	1457
Index of Writers	1495
Index of Names	1497
Index of Things and Words	1509
Table of chronology of the works	1627
Table of Contents	1629
Additions and Corrections	1631

The CCSL series have been digitised onto CD-ROM as part of the Belgian CETEDOC project, together with other material. There is a WWW site about them, under www.brepols.com. However the CD-ROMs are less easy to use than those of Migne, since the interface is rather hostile and also in Latin! None of the introductory material has been included either. Available at the Bodleian library in Oxford, and the Cambridge University library, and doubtless other places too.

1949 - date : Sources Chrétiennes, published by Les Editions du Cerf. An ongoing series of critical editions in Latin and French, currently at more than 400 volumes, which is intended when complete to include all the Fathers of Antiquity.

From the site:

The " Christian Sources" series published by the Editions du Cerf was born in the 1940s following the encounter between Jesuit Fathers from Lyon, France (Fontoynont, de Lubac, Daniélou) and the Dominican Fathers of the Editions du Cerf.

The aim of this collection is to print the entire works of late Antiquity Christian authors, otherwise known as the Fathers of the Church. Already, 390 volumes, filing shelves 18 meters long, have been printed. Once the final objective is achieved, 900 books will have been published. Origen, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom are among some of the more frequently published authors. ...

All translations include a detailed introduction, notes, and a critical commentary.

Naturally some of the works of Tertullian have already appeared. As time has gone on, the size of each volume has swollen (some are now two volumes!), and the prefatory matter with it. Completely up to date. The first two volumes were less detailed, but are now being revisited to bring them into line with the later ones. Every volume reviews the text tradition, in quite a lot of detail, although where necessary reference is made to an earlier volume.

The notes and commentary are primarily philological rather than theological.  These are the best available texts of the works listed.

The Tertullian volumes are:

I have all of these except #35.  #35 and #46 are out of print.  The others can be obtained from www.amazon.fr, or direct from the Cerf if you can speak French and order by telephone.

#46 (De praescriptione haereticorum) reprints the text from CCSL, but only a small apparatus, curiously.  The Adversus Marcionem are  in collaboration with Cl. Moreschini, using a revision of his text (1971).  Moreschini examined afresh the MSS, discovering errors in Kroymann's apparatus, and published articles on the subject.  The translation and notes are by Rene Braun.

This page has been online since 11th December 1999.

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