RESOURCES FOR CHRISTIANITY IN LATE ANTIQUITYDictionaries
and Encyclopedias | Bibliographic Aids | Collections
of Texts
|
This is only a selection of the resources available. I have generally excluded items which are more general (The Encyclopedia of Religion), and more specialized (Dictionnaire de droit canonique), as well as biblical resources and those of a philological nature (Greek and Latin dictionaries). All books are in the Rockefeller Library. |
DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS |
|
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church. 3rd ed. (O.U.P., 1997). A good, general, one-volume resource. A good place to look first. More specialized for the early Church and Late Antiquity are:
Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (New York: Garland, 1990)
Encyclopedia of the Early Church (New York: O.U.P., 1992) 2 vols.
New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967-1979). 17 volumes, incl. index and supplements. For fuller articles than the Oxford Dictionary can give you. For some subjects it may still be useful to look in the original edition:
The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Appleton, 1907-1912) 15 vols.
Dictionnaire d'histoire et de gÈographie ecclÈsiastiques (Paris: Letouzey et AnÈ, 1912- ) 25 vols. (A to iria ...),
ongoing One of the great foreign encyclopedias. The recent volumes are very current, but for subjects not yet covered you will need to resort to the older works, which can still be very useful:
Dictionnaire d'archÈologie chrÈtienne
it de liturgie (Paris: Letouzey et AnÈ, 1907-1953) 15 vols. in
30.
Dictionnaire de thÈologie catholique (Paris: Letouzey et AnÈ, 1923-1950). 15 vols. in 30, plus 4 vols. of indices.
Dictionnaire historique de la papautÈ (Paris:
Fayard, 1994) Up-to-date and very complete. A similar useful book in English is The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, by J.N.D. Kelly (Oxford University Press, 1986) REF BX955.2.K45 1986
The Coptic Encyclopedia (New York: Macmillan, 1991). 8 vols.
|
BIBLIOGRAPHIC AIDS |
|
L'AnnÈe philologique. (Paris: "Belles Lettres", 1924- ). Ongoing. REF PA2.A56x The major index for finding articles in classical studies, includes subjects up to about 600 C.E. More specialized, but lagging in its timeliness is:
Bibliographia patristica (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1956- ). Ongoing. There is a very nice supplement to this, which is useful for finding information on concepts: Hermann Josef Sieben, Voces: eine Bibliographie zu W–rtern und Begriffen aus der Patristik (1918-1978) . (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1980 ). Z7018.S4S53
ATLA Religion Database (formerly the Religion Index, Chicago, 1949- ) Available on FirstSearch at: http://www.brown.edu/cgi-local/oclc/fs.ATLAReligion.scr Ongoing. The paper (discontinued) is at REF 1-Size BL1.R28x.
Clavis patrum graecorum (Turnhout: BrÈpols, 1974- ) 5 vols. and supplement. This and the following items are useful for finding editions, translations, and secondary scholarship on authors and their works. They will refer you to the editions in the major collections listed further below.
Clavis patrum latinorum.. 3rd ed. (Turnhout: BrÈpols, 1995).
This and the following titles, published by the Bollandists, are tools for locating the major editions and secondary scholarship on saints' lives.
Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels: Bollandists, 1898-1949). 2 vols. and supplement.
Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis (Brussels: Bollandists, 1954).
|
COLLECTIONS OF TEXTS |
|
Acta sanctorum (Brussels, 1643- ). 68 vols. and ongoing. 2 Size BX4655.A2 1965 This massive collection of saints' lives is edited by the SociÈtÈ des Bollandistes. The Lives are arranged by the calendar of their feast days, and can be found by looking in the BHG, BHL, or other reference works. Scholarsh ip devoted to updating the collection is published in the Bollandists' journal Analecta bollandiana (BX4655.A3).
Patrologia graeca (Paris, 1857-1928) 161 vols. plus indices.
The PG and PL, edited by Jacques-Paul Migne, were the results of a great project to reprint the major works of early Christian history, creating a very useful collection of works that might otherwise be hard to find. It is st ill useful for just that purpose, although the texts he used were not always the best, and they were printed quickly and sloppily. You must beware of errors, from simple typographical to mistaken attributions. It is important to check recent reference w orks to find better editions or current information. The PL is also available in an online version: http://PLD.CHADWYCK.CO.UK/ (or linked from the Library's web-site).
Corpus christianorum (Turnhout: BrÈpols, 1953- ) This is a project to create modern critical editions of the kinds of works found in the PG and PL. There are several sub-series, some of which are: Series graeca (1977- ) 36 vols., ongoing. Classed separately. Series latina (1953- ) 176 vols., ongoing.
Classed separately. A very useful series because it includes modern critical editions (sometimes reprinted from the CCSL or CCSG) with French translation on facing pages.
Texte und Untersuchungen (Berlin, 1883- ) 143 vols., ongoing.
Patrologia orientalis (Paris, 1907- ). 48 vols., ongoing.
Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium (Paris, 1955- ). 568 vols., ongoing. |
TRANSLATION COLLECTIONS: |
|
Ancient Christian Writers (New York, 1951- ) 57 vols., ongoing. BR60.A5
These last two are available electronically at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library:
http://www.ccel.org/ (also
linked from the Library's Patrologia Latina page).
|
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES |
|
Some of the following resources may be linked at the Library's web-site: http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/ ECOLE Initiative -- Encyclopedia of Early Church History http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/ Includes articles and texts.
This has some very good links to other sites, and includes a list of useful discussion groups.
Despite its title, this site is much broader in scope, and includes links to texts, articles, and other web-sites, as well as information about discussion groups. The resource itself is actually split among several sites, two of which are: ORB Late Antiquity. Internet Medieval Sourcebook http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
This site has links to translations of many texts.
Like the other medieval studies sites, this has useful links for Late Antiquity as well, although the emphasis here is clearly on the Latin West.
This has links to many translated texts, including the entire corpora of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (listed above). There is a link from the Library's Patrologia Latina page (see below).
Includes the entire text of Migne's Patrologia latina (listed above). It is linked from the Library's web-site, which includes some introductory information and some other links.
compiled by William S. Monroe
|
Last Updated: 9,489
You are the 9,490 visitor since June 5, 2000.