We all know — or should know — about the massive 19th century 160 volume collection of Greek patristic texts. These come with Latin translations. The whole enterprise was really just reprinting and collecting earlier editions, but J.-P. Migne, who masterminded it, did such a service to the world that his collection has been a standard reference ever since.
I’ve always wondered whether people who know Greek take the volumes to bed with them and browse. After all, how better to improve your Greek than constant reading? But I have never heard of anyone doing this, probably because access to the physical volumes is hard. The printing is also fairly rubbish. Most people probably use Google Books PDF’s (see the links on the right).
Today I received an email from a Greek bunch who are reprinting the lot. Their English is not great, but they’re offering volumes for 22 euros each, I think. I believe they have added supplements of their own.
CENTRE FOR PATRISTIC PUBLICATIONS
5. Patision Str. 104 31 Athens. Greece
Tel. and Fax: 0030 2105243400 tel. 0030 2105234439
Founder – Director: Rev. John Diotis theologianYou can also visit our web site: www.patrologiagraeca.org
I wish them well with this enterprise. The cost per volume is not a lot more than most reprints of material on Google books.
I’ve seen that in the demo of the content of the books (http://patrologiagraeca.org/patrologia/en/patrologia-graeca/demo.html) the little spots, scratches and point of dust are in the same places than in the google books scan version.
How to be sure that their reprint is not just a reprint of the google books version (with some filters applied) and the logo omitted?
Hmm. Well from the sound of it, it probably is!
But resetting the text of the Patrologia Graeca would be an awfully hard enterprise.