Month: August 2010

What’s in that “Eusebius book” I’m commissioning?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve been reminded that the Eusebius project has been running so long that many people may not recall what it contains.

Eusebius wrote a work on Gospel Problems and their Solutions.  This covered disagreements at the start of the gospels, and at the ends.  The work is lost, but a substantial selection in abbreviated form was discovered by Angelo Mai in the 1820’s and chunks quoted verbatim appear everywhere in Greek medieval gospel commentaries.  In addition there are bits of it in Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Coptic translation.  No critical edition of all this has ever appeared, nor any translation into English.  A critical text and French translation of the Abbreviated Selection (ecloge in epitome) did appear last year from Claudio Zamagni, who is attacking the problem.

The book contains an English translation of all these, with minimal notes.  It won’t contain a commentary — a huge task for what is already a lengthy book — but it will contain the original text, facing the translation.  This will be reprinted from wherever the best text is, and will include the Sources Chretiennes text (but not notes) from the recent edition by Claudio Zamagni.

The idea is to make this largely forgotten work as widely available as possible.  So I — or rather my company — shall sell printed copies initially, especially to libraries.  Once that drops off, the translation (but obviously not the text, because I don’t own all of it) will be made available online, perhaps under some open source license.  The earnings from the sales will make it possible for me to commission another translation of some untranslated text.

Share

Eusebius book again

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The Eusebius book is still coming along.

The ISBN agency have been sending me bumpf about customers ordering copies via themselves, as a free service, which is odd since I never asked them to.  I need to read all their tosh first and see what it all amounts to.   I also need to get a company website set up for “Chieftain Publishing”, which I will get done professionally, and have some ideas about.  And someone has to design the book cover.  I’m not sure what considerations apply for the latter.

I have a digest of changes — fairly short so far — to apply in proofing.  My thinking on proofing — I’m open to suggestions! — is that when we have the whole book setup, I will send the PDF to one of the online printing houses and produce a copy for each of the proofers, which we can go through in perfect bound form — a dummy, effectively.  I don’t know about most people, but I don’t work that effectively on-screen at this sort of thing.  I’m not quite sure that the fragments will look right with Greek with no footnotes and English the way it is, and some redistribution may be necessary. 

I also need to see how the book appears in the ISBN catalogue.  I hope they got it right!.  The British Library CIP record needs to  know the number of pages, so I can’t do that yet.  I just realised that sections 01-04 are 254 pages all by themselves <wince>.

The hardback is registered to be £50 (although I could change that), and I was thinking of a paperback at £30; and perhaps a “popular paperback containing maybe only the Abbreviated Selection in translation, perhaps with a more paraphrased translation to sell through Catholic bookshops or something with a rather more popular-style cover and contents.  But the important thing is the first two.

In the end, it will go online (minus whatever belongs to other people, such as the Greek text).  But let’s see how many printed copies we can sell first.  The idea of the project, of course, is that if we can recover most of the cost of commissioning the whole thing, then I can send the money around again and commission some more.  And the printed text serves a useful purpose, making the book available to the academic community as well as the general reader.

Share

Cheap flights to Luxor

Posted on by Roger Pearse

If you want to go to Egypt, there is some rather good news.  EasyJet is to start flights to Luxor from Gatwick.  Jane Akshar’s blog tells us:

 EasyJet to start Gatwick flight to Luxor – www.travelweekly.co.uk: “Services will depart Gatwick twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday, with passengers bound for the Valley of the Kings and Nile cruises.

At present, only charter carriers serve Luxor. Thomson, Thomas Cook and Monarch each fly once a week from Gatwick, while charters also operate from Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

EasyJet’s flights will raise capacity sharply.

Its pricing, leading in at £127.81 return including tax, is likely to take business from existing carriers on the route.

When I go to Luxor, I fly that route.  EasyJet may be budget, it may be cheap and cheerful.  But let me tell you, as one that has flown by the charter airline First Choice (now merged with Thomson) that NOTHING could be as uncomfortable as First Choice.  I am by no means the tallest of men (nor, I should add, a rival of Napoleon), but five hours in one of their over-cramped seats was unendurable a second time.

What I want is a carrier  that actually allows me to travel in comfort.  If EasyJet can manage this, they will wipe the floor with the charter airlines.

Jane Askar also raises the issue of renting a flat in Luxor.  This might be rather more comfortable — I don’t know — than staying in hotels such as the Jollie Ville (which is rather shabby in the rooms, despite its reputation).  One reason I did not return to Luxor last year was that the memory of the upset stomach of the previous year lingered.  Indeed it still lingers, so I probably won’t go this year either.  Believe me, it is no fun at all to be afraid to break wind except when sat on the loo! 

But how does one eat, if living in a flat?

 

Share

Would you like to buy some volumes of the Patrologia Graeca?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

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 theologian

You 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.

Share

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Lots of work this afternoon.  The translator writing direct to the typesetter with instructions caused quite a flurry!  But the situation is now under control and I’m back in the middle, vetting and batching up changes.  It’s quite impossible for anyone  to do something like typesetting with two people issuing instructions anyway.

So it meant that this afternoon I had to boil down all the emails and turn them into something sensible.  I ended up using features of Adobe Acrobat which I have not used before.  What I did was right-click in the area I needed to change, and choose “Add sticky”.  This put a postit-like box on the page, which I could position in the margin and add notes in.  I also highlighted text that was changing.

This is a very good way of sending corrections to the original language.

Another thing that came in was a revised translation of the first four letters of Isidore of Pelusium.  I commissioned a sample of these, but it wasn’t very satisfactory.  This version is much better, and the footnotes are good.  The English is still a bit tortured, tho.  I’ve gone through it and marked up queries and so forth in blue.  I think the result might well be do-able, tho.  A couple of sentences had no main clause, tho, which is worrying (and might be a feature of Isidore’s text, which is very abbreviated).

I also had an email from the chap in India who transcribed a bunch of Syriac text for me for the web a while ago.  Apparently he’s on the market again.  I think I’ll get him to do the letter of Mara bar Serapion.  It might be interesting if he could translate some Syriac for me.  But people whose first language is not English tend to have difficulty with this.

Life is pretty busy for me at the moment.  In real life I am trying to get a new job, and the agency I am dealing with are being very difficult to deal with.  I was supposed to start on Monday; after weeks of delay, after sitting here all day twitching, the contract was emailed to me at 5:50 pm!  And when I look at it… it’s not what I was supposed to get.  Indeed it’s horrible in places.  So I’m rather tired and hope everyone will make allowances.

Share

Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

This evening has mostly been spent with the PDF’s which contain proof copies of the book.  No more has been typeset — we’re still with just the ecloge plus the Greek fragments of the Ad Stephanum.  But layout tweaks and minor changes abound.

One interesting issue of consistency has arisen.  For the ecloge we are simply reprinting the Sources Chretiennes text, and noting changes in the footnotes to the translation.  But for the fragments it looks as if we incorporated some of the translator’s suggestions, rather than just reprinting Mai / Migne.  Obviously we can do one, or the other, but we should decide!

So it looks as if we will go with the latter — contractually we can’t mess with the SC text — and the translator will be revising the text accordingly.

This raises the interesting issue of how to report changes.  I have found Adobe Acrobat “stickys” — postit-like notes you can add on the PDF — a very effective way to do this.  But it may mean that I have to purchase a number of licenses! 

The translator also has started to write to the typesetter directly.  I’ve had to step in and ask him not to.  Obviously with three people involved, unless all changes come through me we will quickly end up in chaos!  I hope he won’t be upset!

Next week I have to go back to work, so my ability to do a lot of this may be attentuated.  But the typesetter has been doing a super job, and at last the book is coming together.

Share

Lots of UK university theology departments to close?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A story from the Church Times here makes entertaining reading for those of us who were active Christians at college, and had to endure the incubus of university “theology” students — impious, drunken, debauched, vicious and perpetually determined to corrupt or insult Christians.  Apparently the secular establishment won’t pay the bills any more! 

UNIVERSITY theology departments are facing a turbulent autumn with rounds of staffing cuts and closures.

The Student Christian Movement (SCM) said that it was “very con­cerned” over the plans of some uni­versities to axe courses and shed staff. Redundancies are likely to occur in departments across the country, as the higher-education sector suffers from swingeing government spend­ing cuts. 

The “Student Christian Movement” is a tiny group of non-Christians, the dead remnant of pre-WW1 student work which abandoned its principles then, and withered in consequence.  Christian students at UK universities belong to the Christian Unions.

I suspect that most Christians will be pleased to read this.  After all, I can’t count the number of anti-Christian TV programmes, always introduced by a “theologian”, which were dedicated to showing how Christianity was rubbish.  Now those people will have to go and find an honest job.   Who says the recession is all bad?  It’s a great cleanser of nonsense.  As Auberon Waugh used to say, it’s sad but one can’t help laughing.  

We do need to remember, tho, that all this is not theology; it is bad theology.  It isn’t theology at all, in truth — but heresy dressed up in a spurious cloak of intellectual achievement, and funded solely for the purpose of bashing the Christians.  There is such a thing as real theology. 

But the trick of convincing people that believing in Christ is unintellectual is an ancient one, back to Celsus and Julian the Apostate.  At least the death of these horrible departments — and just why should we as taxpayers pay for fake faculties? — can only be a good thing.  I wish Oxford and Cambridge schools of Divinity were next.  They serve no public good that I can see.

Share

The plague and famine under Hisham – from the Chronicle of Zuqnin

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The translation continues:

Of the drought and famine that also took place on the earth in those days.

At that time, God sent us on these most cruel and terrible plagues: the sword, captivity, famine and pestilence, because of our sins and the misdeeds that our hands had engaged in.

“Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not incline towards this people. Send them away from before me, and let them withdraw. What if they say to you: Where shall we go? [You shall tell them:] Thus says the Lord: To death he who [is destined] to death; to the sword he who [is destined] to the sword; [34] to famine he who [is destined] to famine; to captivity he who [is destined] to captivity. I will send four plagues upon them, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to eat, the birds and beasts of the earth to devour and tear in pieces, and I will deliver them over to the earthquake.” This is what Jeremiah, taught by revelation, has left us. He himself said: “The cry of Jerusalem has gone up before me. The great have sent the small to the water; they have come to the cisterns and have found no water: they have returned with empty vessels, they have been confused and distressed, and they have covered their heads. Because of the works of the earth there has been no rain; the labourers have been confounded, and have covered their heads; the does have given birth in a desert, and they have abandoned their young because there was no grass; the wild asses are keeping to the roads: they have sucked the air like dragons and their eyes are dim because there was no grass.” In truth, all these things which the prophet said were fulfilled in the present time.

This is the carnage that the armies of Arabs have made between them. They have drowned the earth in their blood; the birds, the beasts and even the dogs are filled with their flesh. Men pillage one another. The plague ravages them, so that if someone goes outside the sword stops him; if he stays at home, plague and famine take him. One hears on all sides only sadness and bitterness.

First, the rain that used to descend to earth during the winter has been held back and has not fallen. All the seeds have been dry and nothing has sprouted, so that there has been a great famine throughout the region, so much so that wheat rose to eight or seven qephîzè for a dinar: and yet none is for sale. Some governors sent men who seized wheat wherever they found it, either in houses or in silos, and sent it to him. Men were oppressed to death by the famine, especially the owners of wheat who had not experienced [35] the test of famine and whose corn had been seized by the authorities, so that they died of hunger. Thus the famine was felt even more by the rich than the poor. It also spread throughout the country, so there was no place better preserved than another from its ravages: everywhere was the same oppression. The wild beasts, as well as domestic animals that live on grass, perished because there was no grass. So there was great distress upon men and upon all flesh because of the famine which had not its equal in our time, nor in the time of our fathers. The fountains and streams were empty and the rivers dried up.

Upon the death of Hisham miseries were multiplied upon the earth. All the miseries, and especially the plague and famine, befell us because of our many sins.

 Note how the famine was worsened by seizing grain from those who had it. 

This is why Africa starves.  If what a  man saves will be seized by others, then the poor man has no incentive to save.  Anything he saves will simply be stolen by the local “Big Man” — a concept unknown under the honest colonial administrations.  In consequence everyone does the bare minimum they need to stay alive.  So when drought comes, as it always will, they starve.  Security of property is essential to human life.

Share

More from the Chronicle of Zuqnin

Posted on by Roger Pearse

 The story continues:

In the year 1047 (735 736), `Attiq rebelled and embraced the sect of the Harourites.

When he rebelled and embraced the sect of the Harourites, he did as the Arabs used to do when they abandon their women and all they have. He went with twenty companions to Sigara. Hisham heard this, and commanded Qaliu and Zohair, generals of the cavalry at Sigara, to march against him and bring him to battle. These, after receiving the order, assembled a large army and went out in pursuit. They met him in the desert at Sigara itself. He asked them to wait until tomorrow to start the battle. As they had with them a large army and the rebels were few, they despised them even though thirst was felt in their camp, because water was lacking in the desert and, again, the light was fading.

 [31] `Attiq, who looked at them all with contempt, was a brave man as were his companions, and he had made this proposal to them by guile. When night fell and they had eaten and drank, they slept unsuspectingly, while `Attiq and his companions took their weapons, fell upon them in the first watch of the night and killed them all. The Lord turned the sword of each against his neighbour and each of the companions of `Attiq passed among them like the stonemasons and like those who drive the plough. With the exception of a few who mounted their steeds and fled, no one escaped; they all perished by the sword. The army chiefs themselves, Zohair and Qaliu, fell among the dead.

In the year 1052 (740-741), the Emperor of the Romans, Leo, died after a reign of twenty-five years and was succeeded by his son Constantine, who reigned thirty-five years.

At that time, Hisham, king of the Arabs, built a bridge over the Euphrates, opposite Callinicus.

In the year 1053 (741-742), one Sunday there was a great and terrible earthquake. All through the night of this Sunday, the noise it was producing was heard, sound like the bellowing of a bull. When the time came for Mass, all the people ran to the church. But the church of Maraq was overthrown by the violence and force of an earthquake which happened suddenly, and it crushed all the people who were assembled there; no one left alive, except the priest who was at that moment offering the sacrifice. The hill on which the church of Maraq was built shook with rumbles and noises for about thirty days.  [32] In the year 1054 (742-743), the great bridge over the Tigris, near Amida, was overthrown. The winter had been hard; heavy snow fell from the sky and had accumulated on the land for many days, so that all flesh was nearing its end. The animals and especially birds perished. Then came cold and rigorous weather, wind and rain for a long time; the snow melted and the ground was thoroughly soaked by the water as it was covered with melting snow. There were floods in all rivers, especially in the Tigris. On this river the banks broke and violent flooding resulted which destroyed many men and countries. It carried with it a lot of wood and the water pressure was so powerful that large trees piled up against the great bridge and heaped one upon another for five or six miles upstream. Thus, due to the violent impact of the timbers and the strength of the flood, the bridge broke and was overturned by the waters. It was not restored, because when Hisham, after gathering the workers and masons with everything needed to rebuild it, was hastening to rebuild it, he was surprised by death and left the work unfinished.

At the same time Edessa was also flooded. There was in fact a great and violent flooding in the river, which crosses the city and called the Daishan.  The waters came in abundance into the city, so that the storm drains in the eastern wall of the city were blocked. The waters did not manage to knock down the wall and flooded back, rising in an extraordinary way, they spread through the streets of the city and destroyed all the shops. Many houses collapsed; but because it happened during the day, nobody died in the flooding: the inhabitants had fled, abandoning their homes.  [33] The breach of the canal also caused great harm throughout the plain of Edessa and Harran.

In the year 1055 (743-744), Hisham, king of the Arabs, died, and after him, Walid [II] reigned eight months.

The tyrant Yezid, `Abbas and Ibrahim, who were brothers, and their parent `Abd al-Aziz, the son of Haddjadj, rose up against him and killed him with the sword near the town of Qore. Yezid [III] ruled after him for six months, but the country did not obey him and he was unable to send governors into Mesopotamia. On the death of Yezid, his brother Ibrahim took his place. That same year, discord arose throughout the country, because of the tyranny of `Abbas and his brother against Walid, whom they had put to death by the sword. As they reigned although royalty did not belong to them, the Arabs would not obey them, especially those in Mesopotamia. But everyone stayed at home and watched over his own affairs. Dissension and brigandage reigned throughout the country and nobody could leave home.

Share

Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Good news and bad news.  The good news is that the Bob the typesetter has done all of the ecloge — the abbreviated selection from the full work published by Angelo Mai — and the fragments of the “To Stephanus”.  This is great progress, and looks good.  He’s raised some interesting issues along the way.

The less good news is that it turns out that, while getting the Greek typed up, I managed to forget to include four of the fragments!  Eek!  Thankfully Tom who typed a lot of these is willing to help out again, and save  the day.

I need to spend some more time with the stuff the ISBN agency sent me, but no time today or probably tomorrow.

Another issue is the cover.  I haven’t really thought about this yet, but it needs to be designed.  Also I need to get some testimonials from scholars in the field for the back cover (and probably pay for them).  Finally I need to get a website up to sell the things.  Much still to do, still to do.

Share