Tag: Eusebius

I had intended to try to get the Eusebius book out in September.  I have just realised that this must be impossible. 

I have quite a list of things which depend on others.  The Greek can’t be proof-read any sooner than 20 September, and it may be later.  I can’t proceed without the approval of the Sources Chretiennes, who are all evidently on holiday.  Coptic corrections will be needed; and then corrections at proof.  There needs to be a book cover, there needs to be a website, and all manner of other things. 

If I have to hunt for jobs in September, as I do, then that will interfere.  And if I start a job, for the first three weeks I won’t be able to do anything else.  Starting a job is very stressful, without having urgent corresp

So … we may as well all relax.  If it comes out in December, so be it. It will take as long as it takes. 

I’m supposed to be on holiday — indeed I must spend a few days NOT working on projects!  Perhaps later this week.

I’ve just emailed Les editions du Cerf about getting their approval for the manuscript of the Eusebius book.  This was a condition of them allowing me (on very generous terms) to use the Greek text of the Abridged Selection printed by Zamagni.

I’ve processed all the revisions to the Greek text of the fragments into  the PDF — which was truly horrible to do.  I would have got the editor to do it differently, had I realised what he was doing.  Oh well, that’s experience.

Now I have to go through the other issues in my file of corrections and deal with those.

I’ve also heard back from Carol Downer, the leader of the UCL Coptic Reading Group, who did the Coptic translation.  Apparently there will be some more corrections from there, although they sound minor to me and we might do them at the proof stage.

The next stage, after these corrections, is to explore printing physical copies and getting the translators to check them (and doing so myself).  You can only do so much on-screen.  I need to talk to Lightning Source, who are the print-on-demand people I was recommended to use. 

I also need to enter the book in the British Library “cataloguing in progress” system.  And … no small point … get a cover designed.  Wonder how to do that!

UPDATE: All the corrections I know about are now added as stickies to the PDF file.  There are quite a few, but it will probably take the typesetter less time to pop them in than it took me to add them to the file.  I am very impressed, tho, by Acrobat’s co-working facilities.  They are ideal for this.  Adam McCollum, who did the Syriac, has replied very quickly on some formatting issues; and I’ve checked a query about the Arabic text back with the original edition. 

I’ve now emailed the PDF of the whole book back across to Bob Buller, who will probably deal with it at the weekend.  It’s another definite step forward!

Rejoice!  The whole Eusebius Gospel Problems and Solutions is now in typeset form, with page numbers etc!  This is a massive step forward, and all credit is due to Bob Buller who did the job, did it very quickly and efficiently, and turned a bunch of word files into something professional.

Of course it has to be proof-read and so forth, but suddenly we have a BOOK before us.  I feel mightly encouraged by that!

Postscript from the Coptic group.  Apparently something is wrong with biblical references in their section and will need to be re-read (which will happen very slowly, I suspect).   Curses, curses!  But at least we’re now amending the final version, which is most cheering!

UPDATE: I thought I’d just check the page count — 412 pages, plus xiv pages of intro.  Phew!  That is a MUCH bigger book than I expected.

Bob Buller, who is typesetting Eusebius’ Gospel Problems and Solutions, has just sent over the typeset version of the Latin fragments and translation.  He tells me he’s starting in on the Syriac now.  After that, only the front matter — a few pages — remains!  At that point I’ll send in the collected corrections — not a vast pile — and then we’ll print some proof copies for the various translators to have their say on. 

The Arabic material that arrived earlier was all fine, according to Adam McCollum who translated it.  I’ve replied to Bob’s queries on the Latin myself.  The Coptic translator has yet to reply — the question is merely as to the placement of two quotation marks, tho.

Bob Buller, who is heroically typesetting the manuscript of the Gospel Problems and Solutions of Eusebius, has sent over another chapter.  This time it’s the Arabic text and translation.  It looks very good, and the manuscript is probably now 70% done. 

The chapter containing Coptic fragments has been sent to the Coptic team for inspection and insertion of a couple of quotations.

I had not observed that the Scheherazade font used by the translator was not actually installed on my PC.  Since I don’t know Arabic, it looked fine to me!  But Bob has found some other font.  We’ll see if the author of that chapter is happy with it. 

At some point I need to send a copy of the manuscript to the Sources Chretiennes.  This was a condition of using their Greek text for the Abbreviated Selection / ecloge.   I also need to get a website up, with eCommerce facilities, and to get some fliers together.  And I know that the translator of the Greek and Latin wants to do a proof-read of the whole thing.  So … it’s all delays.

I had hoped to have the book out by now.  But I’ve not done the job before, and everything is new and unfamiliar.  I shall try not to let the job run on.