Source Collections
Acta Sanctorum. 67 vols. Antwerp and elsewhere: Société des bollandistes, 1643-1941. The world's oldest on-going scholarly research project. These volumes attempt to provide a universal scholarly treatment of at least the earliest lives of saints. Available at Tech on microfilm.
Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti (A.D. 500-1100). 9 vols. Ed. Luc d’Achery and Jean Mabillon. Paris: Louis Billaine, 1668- 1701. 2nd ed. is Venice: Sebastian Colet & Joseph Bettinelli, 1733-40. Vols. 1-2 and 3(1) of the Venice edition are rpt. in Matascone: Fratres Protat, 1935. The AOSB editions of Benedictine hagiographical texts are organized century by century, so that they have been used for chronological studies of Benedictine saints. Not at Texas Tech.
Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, 59- vols. New York: Newman Press, 1961-.
The Ante-Nicene Fathers. 25 vols. (9 vols. in some reeditions). Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Edinburgh : T. and T. Clark, 1867-73. More common is the American reprint of the Edinburgh edition / revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and occasional notes, by A. Cleveland Coxe (Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmanns, 1956-1957). These translations are widely available in print and electronically. Some Web sites permit term searching. See also Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (listed below).
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina. 168+ vols. Turnhout: Brepols, 1953-. Or Continuatio Medievalis, 213+ vols., 1966-. Both series come with many fiche concordances. Now the CETEDOC database makes them and other materials searchable (Its ambition is to provide a universal portal to ancient and medieval Christian texts. For an overview of the whole cluster of related patristic and medieval editions and studies, see BREPOLS.
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum [CSEL]. 95+ vols. Vienna: Akademie der Wissenschaften, etc., 1866-.writings of Christian Latin authors covering the period from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, i. e. from the late second century to Bede the Venerable who died in 735. The volumes published thus far contain more than one third of all the writings that fit these parameters.
Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Data Base of the 8th to 10th Century. A database of information on Byzantine culture and society drawn from Greek hagiographical texts of the 8th - 10th centuries. Included in the database are Greek text files of most of the vitae, brief introductions to each vita, chronological information on each saint, plus a comprehensive bibliography of editions and secondary sources. Disks, with a Web version in progress. .
English Historical Documents. 13+ vols. Edited by David C. Douglas et al.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1953-. Vols. 1 and 2 in second edition.
The Fathers of the Church. 110+ vols. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1947-.
The Fathers of the Church: Medieval Continuation. 7+ vols. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1989-.
Library of the Palestinian Pilgrim's Text Society. 12 vols. 1887-97, reprinted New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1971.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Latina, 221 vols.; Graeca-Latina, 158 vols.; and Graeca Latine Tantum, 81 vols. The Patrologia Latina has a confused publication history. It conatins the works of the Latin Church fathers from 200 to 1216 (with a few additional attached items). Available at Tech on microform. Available in an electronically searchable version from Chadwyck Healey.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica [MGH]. A society founded in 1819, following the Napoleanic wars, dedicated to the publication of critical editions of the most important texts for the medieval history of Germany (broadly defined). Publishing from Hannover and elsewhere: Hahn and other presses, from 1826-, it has produced several hundred volumes of editions, in a variety of series based upon historical genre. A couple of these series are cited individually below. Texas Tech has almost a full run of all MGH editions in hardcover, as well as a partial run of the society's journal Deutsches Archiv. Many MGH series are now electronically searchable.
MGH Scriptores in folio. 38+ vols. (1826-). This is the original MGH series, containing a huge collection of medieval chronicles and other narrative historical works.
MGH Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum. Edited by Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison. 7 vols. in 8. Hannover: Hahn, 1885-1920. These are source editions (although vol. 7 has appended an unparalleled list of legendaries) containing good critical editions of the surviving more historically-oriented hagiography of the Merovingian saints.
Recueil des historiens des croisades. Edited by the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres. 5 vols. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1875-1881. Latin, French, Greek, and Arabic histories of the crusades. At Texas Tech on microfiche.
Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores or Chronicles and Memorials or Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages [also known as the Rolls Series]. 97 vols. London: Public Record Office, 1857-91. Texas Tech has most but not all of these volumes in hard cover; there is also a microfilm run.
A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. 14 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985-89; 2nd Series. 14 vols. Ibid., 1890-99. See The Ante-Nicene Fathers (listed above).