Thanks Dave. Good start.
Yep. A great deal of work to dig out the earliest extant mss for the entire collection of the "Fathers". They are often commented upon in the translator's introduction.
Some of the manuscript databases have this info however in many cases the databases are related to a specific set of collections with the result that mss outside of their domain are not included.
Ha ha. It's a research project for someone.
You'd think that Biblical Historians would have by now got themselves a concordance for the earliest extant ms for each of the works of the "Fathers". They most fastidiously know about the earliest extant mss for the canonical NT and for the apocryphal NT but the "Fathers" have somehow slipped away from, or be removed from, the really interesting stuff (
) on the table.
EARLIEST EXTANT MANUSCRIPTS FOR THE "CHURCH FATHERS"
SUMMARY LEVEL DATA
5th Clement I and 2
0462 - Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiastica) - Syriac; Greek = 11th century
0800 - Suetonius (De vita Caesarum) *
0800 - Tertullian (Apologeticum plus) *
914 Eusebius "Against Hierocles"
914 Eusebius "Praeparatio Evangelica"
9/10TH Lucian of Samosata
10th Socrates Scholasticus:
10/11 Origen: the Manuscripts of the "Philocalia"
13th - Cyril of Aleandria "Against Julian"
1364 - Saint Justin ("Omnibus edition")
1350 - Hippolytus ("extremely crabbed hand") - C14
10/11th Irenaeus - (Latin not Greek) Claremontanus - Earliest Latin manuscript of Latin AH (C14 it)
DETAILED DATA
5th Clement I and 2
Codex Alexandrinus.
Suetonius
Caesars (De vita Caesarum); that we know the Caesars at all is due entirely to the survival of one book that emerged in north-central France, late in the 8th century or very early in the 9th, to serve as the archetype of all the extant manuscripts.
The Transmission of Suetonius’s Caesars in the Middle Ages - Robert Kaster, Princeton University
13th - Cyril of Aleandria "Against Julian"
Prosphonema, Books I-X.
F Scorial. gr. 467 (C.III.12.; End of the 12th century.-1st half of the 13th., paper), f. 1r-223r
M Marc. gr. 123 (14th, paper; in the 15th in the possession of Cardinal Bessarion [1403-1472]), f. 1r-153v
Saint Justin
Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies By Justino (Santo.)
Dated 11 September 1364, the "parisinus graecus 450".
"It is a sort of omnibus edition of Justin."
914 Eusebius "Against Hierocles"
The work is referred to by Photius in his Bibliotheca in the 9th century as codex 39.
'Arethas' codex, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, where it has the shelfmark Codex Parisinus Graecus 451 (A). This manuscript was copied at the request of Archbishop Arethas of Caesarea in 914, and was designed as a collection of apologetic works from earliest times down to Eusebius. (See MSS of Eusebius PE for details). It is often the only manuscript for many of the second century apologists, although it does not contain Justin, Theophilus, the letter to Diognetus or Hermias.
914 Eusebius - the Manuscripts of the "Praeparatio Evangelica"
Codex Parisinus Graecus 451. Parchment. The "Arethas" codex.
Written by Baanes for Arethas, then Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Tertullian
http://tertullian.org/manuscripts/index.htm
The works of Tertullian come down to us in various medieval manuscripts, none older than the late 8th century.
The manuscripts sometimes contain only the Apologeticum, often together with works not by Tertullian.
The other manuscripts contain a selection of his works.
•The 8th century Codex Parisinus, Bibl. Nat. Latinus 13047 (Adv. Iud, Fulda text)
•The 8-9th century Codex Petropolitanus Latinus I Q v. 40 (S) (Apol)
•The 9th century Codex Agobardinus (a.k.a. Codex Parisinus Bibl. Nat. Latinus 1622) (A) (Various)
•The 9th century Keppel fragment (of a Corbie Ms. Spect.)
•The 9th century Codex Parisinus Latinus 1623 (Π) (Apol)
Lucian of Samosata
https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/luci ... _intro.htm
Chief manuscripts :--
g group--
Vaticanus 90 (G), 9/10th century.
Harleianus 5694 (E), 9/10th century.
Laurentianus C. S. 77 (F), 10th century.
Marcianus 434 (W), 10/11th century.
Mutinensis 193 (S), 10th century.
Laurentianus 57, 51(L), 11th century (?).
ß group--
Vindobonensis 123 (B), 11th century (?).
Vaticanus 1324 (U), 11/12th century.
Vaticanus 76 (P).
Vaticanus 1323 (Z).
Parisinus 2957 (N).
Socrates Scholasticus:
https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manu ... cus_he.htm
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana 10th
Origen: the Manuscripts of the "Philocalia" - 10th
https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manu ... ocalia.htm
Codex Venetus Graecus 47.
The Philocalia is a collection of extracts from the works of Origen,
assembled by St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen. Since most of
Origen's works are lost, following the condemnation of "Origenism",
and the text tradition of surviving works somewhat slender,
it is a work of the highest value.
Hippolytus
an extremely crabbed hand of the fourteenth century, is full of erasures and interlineations, and has several serious lacunae.
Irenaeus
10/11th Claremontanus - Earliest Latin manuscript of Latin AH (C14 it)
13th CE Armenian ms, 6th century translation (Books 4 and 5 of AH)
1526 Erasmus Latin edition uses sources not in three mss; Thinks Irenaeus was a Latin author (No Greek!)
1713 Pfaff publishes Turin manuscript in Greek; Harnack declared it a forgery
Eusebius HE
Greek = 11th century
Syriac = 462 CE
A Syriac translation of the Church History survives in two ancient manuscripts, and there are also some fragments in other manuscripts. Curiously the later manuscript is the better text, the other having some corruptions. Since one manuscript dates to 462, yet shows evidence of being copied many times, and an Armenian translation was made from the Syriac at the start of the 5th century, it is reasonable to suppose that it was translated from Greek either during the life of Eusebius himself or soon after (W. Wright, A short history of Syriac Lit. p. 62).
The colophon on f.123v states that it was written in A. Gr. 773, that is AD 462, by a certain Isaac for someone whose name has been erased. It was probably written at Edessa. Book 6 is not present, and books 5 and 7 are missing a lot, because of the lacuna. On f.1 there is a simple drawing of the cross, coloured brown, and beside it a note which states that the book was given to the monastery of St. Mary Deipara (in the Nitrian desert in Egypt) by one Sahlun, a priest from Harran.
CLASSICAL WORKS:
************************
Homer Iliad --- c. 400 BC
Herodotus History === 10th C
Sophocles Plays === 3rd C BC
Plato Tetralogies === AD 895
Caesar Gallic Wars === 9th C
Livy History of Rome === Early 5th C
Tacitus Annals === AD 850
Pliny, the Elder Natural History === 5th C fragment
Thucydides, History === 3rd C BC
Here's a transcript from a recent you-tube discussion related to the "Fathers":
faced by patristic and other scholars is confronting the fact for example that almost all our patristic manuscripts are medieval and later.
Is Jason BeDuhn correct in what he says above? Are people who work on patristic material
by confronting the fact for example that almost all our patristic manuscripts are medieval and later?
