An email tells me that there is an obituary of Mark Ashton in the Times here. It contains some errors of detail — the church plant at Little Shelford was at the Anglican parish there, and led by one of the curates at the Round. But it does contain much information which I didn’t know. I recall Mark mentioning his time in India in a sermon.
Month: May 2010
3rd British Patristics Conference in Durham in September 2010
A correspondant asks me whether I am going to the British Patristics Conference. I hadn’t even heard of it, although a google search reveals that an email with a call for papers must have gone out in January. The website does not reveal who is organising it, but makes a link to the “Second National Conference” apparently held in Cambridge last year.
The conference will be at St. Johns College in Durham, which is quite a way from Oxford and Cambridge, the traditional seats of patristics in the UK. But the college website suggests that free parking will be available — essential –, and the prices for attendance and accomodation seem reasonable.
Of course it will cost a delegate something to drive 300 miles each way, and not merely in terms of petrol, but in flesh and blood and stress! Thirteen years of neglect and a winter of ice have left the roads in disrepair. But perhaps we should make the effort. Northern scholars have to make those journeys, after all; and really it is good to see patristics moving outside of Oxbridge. The concentration on the latter is probably not good for us, nor for Oxbridge. Oxford are going to charge a fortune for next year’s International Patristics Conference, and Cambridge last year refused to provide parking for proles like me; because they felt they could.
I’ve emailed for some more details. I am tempted to attend, even if it means time off work (and therefore loss of income).
There will be some publishers there as well. I won’t be giving a paper (deadline for abstracts is 30th May, apparently). There’s no real indication of the program, but that’s understandable at this stage. Durham in September might be quite pleasant. Registration is at 13:00 on Wednesday 1st September, concluding on Friday 3rd at 13:00. So there is only one full day of sessions, plus two half days. That sounds about right. A week of them, at Oxford, can be too much.
Works of Cyril of Alexandria not present in the TLG
A correspondant writes that he has been in contact with Maria Pantelia of the TLG about works of Cyril of Alexandria which are not yet in the TLG. He’s sent me the list that he sent in, which is useful anyway as a guide to works by Cyril and their editions. By permission I reproduce it here.
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Cyril of Alexandria’s Missing Works from TLG
Adversus Nestorii Blasphemias Contradictionum Libri Quinque.
Pusey, Epistolae tres oecumenicae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 54-239.
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, vi, 13-106
De recta fide ad imperatorem Theodosium.
Pusey, De recta fide ad imperatorem etc. (Oxford, 1877), 1-153.
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, i, 42-72
De recta fide ad dominas.
PG 76.1201-1336.
Pusey, De recta fide (Oxford, 1877), 154-333
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, v, 62-118
De recta fide ad augustas
PG 76.1335-1420
Pusey, De recta fide (Oxford, 1877), 154-333
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, v, 26-61
Explicatio duodecim capitum Ephesi pronuntiata
Pusey, Epistolae tres oecumenicae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 240-259
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, v, 15-25
Explicatio pro duodecim capitibus adversus orientales episcopos
Pusey, Epistolae tres oecumenicae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 260-381
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, vii, 33-65
Epistola ad Euoptium adversus impugnationem duodecim capitum a Theodoreto editum
Pusey, Epistolae tres oecumenicae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 384-497
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, vi, 107-146
Apologeticus ad imperatorem
Pusey, De recta fide ad imperatorem (Oxford, 1877), 425-456
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, iii, 75-90
Scholia de incarnatione Unigeniti
Portions of this text are only preserved in Latin, but there are quite a few Greek fragments that are extant
Patrologia Graeca 75.1363-1412
Pusey, Epistolae tres oecumenicae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 498-579
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, V, 219-231
Adversus nolentes confiteri sanctam Virginem esse Deiparam
PG 76.255-292
Best edition: Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, I, I, vii, 19-32
Contra Julianum imperatorem
You currently have online books 1 and 2 which were published by Burguiere and Evieux in the Sources chretiennes series, but don’t have books 3-10 which are extant in their entirety. They are printed in PG 76.509-1058
I believe that additional fragments are also published by J. Neumann, Iuliani Imperatoris librorum contra Christianos quae supersunt (Scriptorum Graecorum qui Christianam impugnaverunt religionem quae supersunt) (Leipzig, 1880), 42-63
Homiliae diversae
You already have 8 of the 22 of these homilies included on the site. The ones that you are missing are 1-8, 10, 13, 15-16, 19, 22. Note, however, that ns. 10, 11, and 13 are usually regarded as being spurious.
All of the sermons can be found in PG 77.981-1116.
Also Pusey, St. Cyrilli in d. Joannis evangelium, vol. 3 (Oxford, 1872), 452-476, 538-545 includes some new fragments, and several are included in Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum I, I, ii, 92f; I, I, iv, 14f; I, I, vii, 173; I, I, ii, 102.
Epistulae
Cyril has quite a few extant letters. PG 77.401-981 includes 88 letters, though some are spurious and 17 are actually letters addressed to Cyril. Some of these appear to be on TLG, but most are not.
Five additional letters were published by Schwartz: Konzilsstudien II (Strasbourg, 1914), 67-70; Neue Aktenstücke zum Ephesinischen Konzil 431 (Munich, 1920), 52f, 57f, 67f, 75f.
A number of the epistulae are scattered throughout Tome I, Volume I of Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum.
Also, Pusey published an edition of three of the letters: Pusey, S. Cyrilli epistolae tres oecumincae etc. (Oxford, 1875), 2-53.
Responsiones ad Tiberium diaconum sociosque suos
You have an older version of this text on the site. There is a newer and more up-to-date version in Wickham, Cyril of Alexandria: Select Letters (Oxford, 1983), 132-179
Solutiones
Again, you have an earlier version of this on the site. A better and newer edition is included in Wickham, Cyril of Alexandria: Select Letters (Oxford, 1983), 180-213
Killing the dipsticks of the world
It’s funny how the world can suddenly become a hostile place! I thought people might be amused by the litany of improbable problems that has prevented me from doing something simple this evening.
I got an email today from one of the people I’m working with, saying that they couldn’t work out how to install a unicode font, so could I print some stuff for them and send them out. They don’t want advice, I find. I don’t have much choice, but I cursed when I read this; I’m tired and have much to do.
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I get home after a very long day, dog-tired, fire up the Windows 7 laptop, plug in the Canon i560 inkjet, a couple of years old, and … it won’t install.
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I search out the drivers disk… it says it isn’t compatible.
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I hunt around the web — it’s nearly impossible to find ANY driver. I find pages saying Canon won’t support Win7 for this product. I download the XP driver. It refuses to install.
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Fine, I boot up the Vista machine — and it locks up. I look for my XP machine… and then think, hang on, why am I bothering with all this pain. Let’s just use my laser printer.
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I plug in the laser, print 3 pages and … the toner light comes on and it too refuses to print.
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At that point I give in. I am NOT going to attempt to change toner while stumbling tired.
But I won’t be buying a Canon ever again.
Sorry everyone — if you’re waiting for something from me, I am too frazzled to do it this evening!
More on Philip of Side and the Religionsgesprach
I’ve now got hold of Wallraff’s book with its list of fragments of Philip of Side – thank you to the chap who made that possible – now I must actually look at it, and start seeing what other bits exist. Unfortunately the article is in German, but machine translators are a wonderful thing. I might digest down the list of fragments for public consumption.
I’ve also had an email that part of the materials from the Dialogue at the court of the Sassanids which contains fragments of Philip is already in English, albeit misattributed to Julius Africanus, here.
I also learn that portions of the catalogue of fragments by Katharina Heyden are online in preview form here. Also a related monograph is here.
Progress on Philip of Side
The fragments of Philip of Side’s monster Ecclesiastical History — or more likely, World Chronicle — are being looked at. Most interesting are the bits embedded in the fictional text the Religionsgesprach am Hof der Sassaniden, published by E. Bratke, Das sogennante Religionsgesprach am Hof der Sassaniden (TU 19, 3) Leipzig 1899, 153-164. (Bratke starts on p.448 of the PDF; something about Philip appears on p. 476 of the PDF). These discuss the work, and depict it being brought out in evidence and quoted verbatim! The start of a translation of these bits is most interesting.
Apparently a French dissertation has a critical text and a translation. Does anyone know how one might obtain/buy a copy of French dissertations?
Apparently a catalogue of the fragments of Philip of Side appears here: Katharina Heyden, “Die Christliche Geschichte des Philippos von Side: Mit einem kommentierten Katalog der Fragmente,” in M. Wallraff (ed.), Julius Africanus und die christliche Weltchronistik (Berlin, 2006), pp. 209-243. Does anyone have a copy they could slip me in PDF form? If so, contact me using the form on the right.
Another article that would be of use, if anyone has it, is Katharina Heyden, Die “Erzählug des Aphroditian,” Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 53 (Tübingen, 2009). This relates to the Religionsgesprach, I think.
Thinking about Severian on Genesis
Severian of Gabala ca. 400 preached at least six sermons on the six days of Creation. Six have reached us in Greek; there are rumours of a Seventh in Arabic, although this is unpublished. The sermons are notorious as advocating a flat-earth cosmology, although I suspect this projects back quite a few ideas not present in the texts themselves.
Yesterday I finished translating the first sermon into English from the old French translation of Bareille. Translating a translation is always unsatisfactory, and if I had endless money I wouldn’t dream of it. But it still has some value, if not for the scholar; the ordinary mortal can at least gain a sense of what the text contains and its structure and argument.
However I grew more dissatisfied as I proceeded. I really do feel that a proper translation of these six sermons is necessary and desirable. Nor am I satisfied that Bareille is that accurate. At one point he suggests more or less the opposite of what the Greek says, and what the context makes clear he must mean — I presume a “not” has dropped out of his translation in the printing process.
These sermons are really very interesting. Surprisingly, Severian is not an obscurantist, but a man of a probing and scientific mind. He rejects the appeal to the authority of past writers, and appeals regularly to what can actually be seen, and for original thinking. Admittedly he comes to seriously mistaken conclusions; but they are not self-evidently daft conclusions, given the state of knowledge at the time. He is also preaching to an audience which is hoping to trip him up — it would be very interesting to learn the circumstances under which he felt obliged to preach on this subject.
I will consider commissioning a translation of these from Greek. It’s 70 columns of Migne, which won’t be cheap; but if done well, done once, will always be worth doing. If I can get hold of a copy of the Arabic, I might have a translation made of that as well, and perhaps do the set in book form. If I do that, of course, I would need to get the Greek transcribed.
I’ve never digitised a lot of Greek. So I’ve just emailed Dr. Maria Pantelia at the TLG, on a whim, suggesting that perhaps we might work together on digitising the Greek. If I pay for some of it, perhaps it would benefit both sides. If not, of course, I’ll find another way.
Fancy a scroll of Caesar’s Gallic War?
If so, there is a vendor who is selling a copy of the opening chapters in roll format, here. It’s interesting to see how ancient books really appeared.
Burning past the libraries
Today I drove up past Cambridge on some domestic business. Being in the area, I wondered whether to pop in to Cambridge University library. I didn’t, tho. I didn’t feel the need.
Last night I downloaded 10 volumes of Angelo Mai’s 1825 extravaganza, Scriptorum Veterum Collectio Nova, in which he published the finds he made in the Vatican library at the time. Each was about 1,000 pages.
Volume 1 includes the first publication of several works by Eusebius, including the Quaestiones ad Stephanum / Marinum. About 3 years back I went to Cambridge, and bought photocopies of those pages from that volume. They charged me 25c per page — not cheap but by no means exorbitant in the crazy world of academic libraries. I probably got 100 pages, and paid $25 for them; and was very glad to get them, and to be allowed to get a photocopy. I had to wait a week for them to be done.
And now? I hardly care about those books, because I can get the whole 1,000 pages from Google Books for nothing. It hardly matters what CUL charge for photocopies of those books now; no-one will pay it. How long before they realise that storing the physical books is a waste of time?
It has become acceptable among IT journalists to sneer at Google. But let us not forget the many wonderful things we owe to the owners of that company, and their vision, and the free access to vast amounts of information and services. Those living in unfree countries are robbed at every turn by petty officialdom, under the guise of laws and regulations, which must be obeyed, and hoops must be jumped through and fees paid — ahhhh, fees! — and in the process nothing happens and everyone is impoverished. For even the most enthusiastic will be ground down when he has to ask permission of the lazy and indifferent to do anything.
Google has changed the world, and changed it markedly for the better. I for one am grateful.
Gregory of Antioch – a sixth century figure of whom I knew nothing
Gregory of Antioch began as a monk in the monastery of the Byzantines in Jerusalem, or so we learn from Evagrius Scholasticus. He was transferred by the emperor Justin II (565-578 ) to Sinai. He was abbot there when the monastery was attacked by Arabs. John Moschus mentions he was also abbot of Pharan in Palestine. In 569-70 he became Patriarch of Antioch after Justin II deposed the Patriarch Anastasius. Gregory was an influential figure, who quarrelled with the Count of the East and was subjected to official harassment and “enquiries” in consequence, including a appearance in court in Constantinople some time before 588. The charges were trumped up, it seems, and he was acquitted. When Roman troops fighting the Persians mutinied in the time of the emperor Maurice, Gregory was asked to mediate. When Chosroes II of Persia was obliged to flee to the Romans for safety early in his reign, Gregory of Antioch and Domitian, metropolitan of Melitene, were sent to meet him. His services were evidently acceptable; when Chosroes regained his kingdom, he sent Gregory the cross which had been earlier carried off from Sergiopolis by Chosroes I. After this, Gregory made a tour of the border lands to convert Monophysites to the Chalcedonian definitions. He died in 593-4 from taking a drug, intended to relieve gout. His predecessor Anastasius then become Patriarch once more.
A small number of homilies have reached us, mostly under other names, which are also extant in various oriental languages. He seems to have been a gifted speaker. Three of these homilies (CPG 7385-7) were preached on successive Sundays. The address to the army or oratio ad exercitum (CPG 7388) preserved in Evagrius Scholasticus seems to be by Evagrius himself. Finally there is a homily on the first martyr, Stephen (CPG 7389) extant only in Georgian, which is perhaps a letter rather than a sermon.
The homilies can be found in PG 10, 1177-89; PG 61, 761-4; PG 88, 1848-66; and PG 88 1872-84. The homily of Stephen is in PO 19 (1926) 689-99, with an encomium following in 699-715.