DCHindley

One of my pet peeves with the online websites that post the text of the 9 volumes (not including an index) of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, published in several editions, is that the volumes are NEVER EVER cited correctly.

The reasons for this are several, but primarily because those modern publishers who issue reprints have purposely eliminated the US copyright notices. Perhaps they don't want you to know that the translations were made just after the time of the US Civil War.

They started as translations commissioned by two editors, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, who raised the money to hire qualified translators by selling subscriptions. They published about 4 volumes a year for the 6 years between 1867 and 1872, for a total of 24.

These were published originally as The Ante-Nicene Christian Library:

Vol.	Ante-Nicene Christian Library/Editors	Yr	Pub	Authors/Works Contained
1	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	1	1867	Apostolic Fathers (Roberts, Donaldson, Crombie)
2	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	1	1867	Justin Martyr & Athenagoras (Marcus Dods, Geo Reith & B P Pratten)
3	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	1	1867	Tatian, Theophilus & Clementine Recognitions
4	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	1	1867	Clement of Alexandria v1
5	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	2	1868	Irenaeus v1 (Alexander Roberts & W. H. Rambaut)
6	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	2	1868	Hippolytus of Rome v1 Refutation of All Heresies & Commentaries
7	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	2	1868	Tertullianus Against Marcion
8	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	2	1868	(Writings of) Cyprian (v1)
9	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	3	1869	Irenaeus v2, Hippolytus v2 & Fragments of 3rd Century
10	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	3	1869	Writings of Origen (De Principus, 3 Letters, Against Celsus Bk I)
11	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	3	1869	Writings of Tertullian v1
12	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	3	1869	Clement of Alexandria v2
13	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	4	1869	Writings of Cyprian v2, Novatian & Minicius Felix, etc
14	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	4	1869	Writings of Methodius etc
15	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	4	1870	Writings of Tertullian v2
16	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	4	1870	Apocryphal Gospels, Acts & Revelations
17	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	5	1870	Clementine Homilies & Apostolical Constitutions
18	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	5	1870	Tertullian v3 & Extant Works of Victorinus & Commodianus
19	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	5	1871	Seven Books of Arnobius Adversus Gentes
20	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	5	1871	Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius of Alexandria & Archelaus
21	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	6	1871	Lactantius v1
22	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	6	1871	Lactantius v2, Test of 12 Patr & Fragments of 2nd & 3rd century
23	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	6	1872	Origen Contra Celsum (Bk II-VIII)
24	Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson	6	1872	Early Liturgies & Other Documents (Syriac, Clemens Alex)

"Wait a dig-dog minute!" you may exclaim, "Didn't you Just say there were only 9 or 10 volumes?" Yes I did. Thirteen years after the final Edinburgh volume was published they were re-published in the USA as The Ante-Nicene Fathers. The editor of the "American Edition," A. Cleveland Coxe, consolidated them into 8 volumes more or less chronologically, plus an Index volume, published between 1885 & 1887 by a couple of US publishers, primarily Christian Literature Publishing Co of Buffalo, NY. But you may still say: "Hey, didn't you say 9 volumes plus an Index? But you mention only 8 here!" True, true, true. The American Edition sold so well that several additional editions were issued, although essentially identical. In the 1896 edition, they added a supplemental volume.

Vol.	Ante-Nicene Fathers/Editors	U.S.©	Authors/Works Contained
1	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1885	The Apostolic Fathers; Justin Martyr; Irenaeus
2	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1885	Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas: Tatian; Athenagoras; Theophilus; Clement of Alexandria
3	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1885	Latin Christianity: its founder, Tertullian. I. Apologetic; II. Anti-Marcion; III. Ethical
4	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1885	Tertullian, IV. Ethical (cont'd); Minucius Felix; Commodianus; Origen (De Principus, 3 Letters, Against Celsus)
5	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1886	Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
6	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1886	Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and minor writers, Methodius, Arnobius
7	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1886	Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic teaching and constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies
8	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1886	The twelve patriarchs, Excerpts and epistles, The Clementina, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac documents, Remains of the first ages
9	A. Cleveland Coxe, American Edition	1887	Bibliographical synopsis, by Ernest C. Richardson. General index, by Bernhard Pick
10	Allan Menzies, Fifth Edition	1896	Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron of Tatian, Apocalypse of Peter, Visio Pauli, Apocalypses of the Virgin and Sedrach, Testament of Abraham, Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, Narrative of Zosimus, Apology of Aristides, Epistles of Clement (new translation of 1 Clement originally in volume 1, plus the recently discovered 2 Clement), Origen's Commentary on John, books I-X, and Commentary on Matthew, books I, II, and X-XIV

Now you might say: "But the Online versions and BibleWorks say the editor was Philip Schaff!" Due to the incredible success of the ANF series under Coxe, T & T Clark began an ambitious project they called The Nicene & Post Nicene Fathers (NPNF), in two series. Schaff was actually hired to edit the first series, The Nicene Fathers, featuring St Augustine & St Chrysostom. For the second NPNF series, The Post Nicene Fathers, featuring other writers like Eusebius, etc, Schaff was joined by Henry Wace to edit The Post Nicene Fathers series. Truth be told, Philip Schaff never had anything to do with the Ante Nicene Fathers series.

Why is this so? Because people are CARELESS about what they read and publish.

Don't YOU do the same! Cite them correctly.

I must now fire up the grill ... :wave:

DCH

stephan huller

I am actually very guilty of doing just what you condemn here.

DCHindley

While I am sure that someone somewhere has already noted the publication dates for the original 24 volume ANCF series and/or the 10 volume ANF series, I have never found it online.

If one is lucky, an online text drawn from one of these two editions might attribute the text to Roberts, Donaldson, Roberts-Donaldson, or Schaff.

One site I browsed (there are probably more) did correctly indicate that Coxe was one of the editors of the 10 volume ANF series.

Even CCEL, which has digitized the American Edition (ANF) into Unicode, lumps the 10 volume ANF series with the two NPNF series and attribute the editing of all of them to Philip Schaff (check the Author Index). Online links to the digitized books correctly identifies the editors in the title pages but CFCEL has eliminated the year of publication from the bottom of the page.

Roger Pearse, bless his heart, does not indicate the editors of the three series but links to the digitized copies from CCEL.

FWIW, I may have been wrong about ANCL publisher T & T Clark's involvement in the publication of the ANF "American edition." At first they saw the ANF series as a blatant violation of their copyright under common law, even though the ANF editors duly acknowledged the source of the translations they had republished (I.e., no royalties were paid). I do believe they got past that and sponsored the NF&PNF series.

Another note: The digitized versions that are online almost to a "t" omit the original volume 9 (the Index) and attribute the supplemental volume 10 (I think this was not released until 1896!) as volume 9. So if you quote Origen's Commentary on Matthew book 1 and attribute it to volume 9 of the ANF series, you will be wrong!

Despite these series being absolutely indispensable as a source for people who are hungry to learn about early Christian literature, the online and reprint situation is a horrible mess!

DCH

stephan huller

No for some reason I have the hardback edition of that book which begins with the Gospel of Peter and the Diatessaron and the two works of Origen (Comm on Matthew, John). For the life of me I can't remember whether it says it is 'book 9' or 'book 10' - my memory is confused by the ccel.org list.

James The Least

Nice work, DC. Us bibliophiles appreciate the effort!

DCHindley

My copy of the Volume with the Gospel of Peter etc. says "VOLUME X." Some reprints say Volume IX but I think they jigger with the numbers. The only way to really be sure is to log onto Archive.org. The original series of 8 volumes published between 1885 & 1886 was supplemented by an Index volume in 1867, called Volume IX.

The "Fifth Edition" of 1896 included an additional supplemental volume containing Apocryphal Gospels and the commentaries of Origen, edited by Allan Menzies (I've gone back and fixed the post with the lists). At that time it was labeled Volume "X".

I now see that the early 20th century Scribner's Sons reprint of the "Fifth Edition" of 1896 numbers the supplemental volume "IX" and does not number the Index volume at ali (although it only covers the first 8 volumes).

DCH

Roger Pearse

The history of the contents of the ANF and NPNF is confusing beyond measure, I agree. Citations are a difficult one.

Some years ago I read a history of T. & T. Clark, which makes it plain that the ANF was a pirate edition. Before WW1 US publishers commonly pirated British books. (Indeed Ace books, as I understand it, pirated the Lord of the Rings, in the 1950's!) This may give rise to some curious reflections about the modern, extremely extensive, claims of US publishers on the subject of copyright.

A UK publisher really had no recourse in this situation. On the other hand a US publisher would quite like to sell his pirate goods in the large UK and imperial market, and would very much like to ensure that the legitimate publisher didn't arrange for another US publisher to sell a rival edition. And sometimes an author found that large pirate sales in the USA actually increased his reputation and made it possible to do very profitable book tours (Augustine Birrell refers to this). So it was possible to come to some kind of terms, which would get some kind of money back for the original publisher.

All the content in the ANF, and NPNF stuff is pirated from T. & T. Clark publications. The ANCL was a series; the items included in the NPNF were all issued independently, and not in a series, and collected by the US pirates. The latter also got the epicopalian bishop of New York to "edit" the results, to arrange the contents, and draw up what was included and what not (note the absence of any Cyril of Alexandria) adding extra notes ("elucidations") which turned out to be very anti-Catholic. There are some pithy comments about this, accessible in the (Catholic) Dublin Review from the period.

In fact the US edition was definitely a superior product, and readers preferred it, and UK readers wanted to buy it. The terms reached with T. & T. Clark in the 1880's (some 20 years, remember, after the ANCL was originally issued, and so presumably was out of print) were evidently satisfactory to the latter, who undertook to print it themselves. It was so successful that it remains in print to this day, I believe, 130 years later. I saw complete sets for sale in Mowbrays bookshop in Cambridge (long vanished) opposite Kings College in the 1980's. In those days it was far beyond my means.

The index volume was indeed vol IX originally. Vol. X was new finds. The two were naturally reversed in recent reprints.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

PhilosopherJay

Hi DCHindley,

Fascinating stuff. Much appreciated. Thanks, D.C.

I wonder if anybody has any idea of the Pre-Nicene material around that was left out of this collection? How much has been discovered in the last 150 years since this work was done?

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

Roger Pearse

In English we are exceedingly fortunate, in that, as far as I know, everything ante-Nicene exists in translation.

The main omission by the ANCL team was the homilies of Origen. They were, indeed, willing to do these also; but they couldn't get enough subscriptions for it. I myself commissioned the translation of the homilies on Ezekiel; someone else brought out a translation while we were in mid-stream.

The discovery of Melito, De Pascha, is the main one that comes to mind since. It's here. There have not been many. Also a couple of works by Origen from Toura: "the dialogue with Heracleides" (which I see is here).

Not a lot.

PhilosopherJay

Hi Roger,

Interesting, thanks for this.

I am surprised that so little has been discovered of early Christian works in the last 150 years.

The work attributed to Origen, "dialogue with Heracleides" quotes from Dionysius. I assume that would be a reference to the 5th/6th century writer we now call Pseudo-Dionysius. That would make the work post 6th century.

I think Melito's work is really important. It clarifies Tertullian's rantings against the Roman Church for supporting the idea that the Father "God" himself was incarnated as Jesus. Apparently that was the orthodox idea before it became heretical.

Warmly,

Jay Raskin