Introduction
See, in general, the bibliographies in M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, iv. 2 (Munich, 1920), pp. 454–457; Otto Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, iv. (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1924), pp. 497–500; Biblio-theque Nationale: Catalogue des ouvrages de s. Augustin conserve’s au departement des imprimés (Extrait du tome v du Catalogue général) (Paris, 1901); Paul Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l’ Afrique chrétienne, tome vii: “Saint Augustin et le Donatisme” (Paris, 1923), pp. 129–146 (“Lettres d’Augustin relatives au Donatisme”) and pp. 279–286 (“Tableau chronologique des lettres d’Augustin relatives au Donatisme”). The longer studies of St. Augustine may often be consulted with advantage, especially that by Portalié in the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, vol. i., cols. 2268–2472, but on the whole they pay little attention to the letters. The best recent general bibliography of studies on Augustine is that of Étienne Gilson, “Bibliographie des principaux travaux relatifs à la philosophie de saint Augustin jusqu’en 1927,” which forms pp. 309–331 of his Introduction à l’ étude de Saint Augustin (Paris, 1929).
I. ManuscriptsOwing to the great number and variety of the manuscripts, no account of them can be attempted here. For full information see Goldbacher’s fifth volume (Corpus Scriptorum Eccl. Lat., vol. lviii.: S. Augustini Epistulae, pars v. Vienna–Leipzig, 1923), pp. xi–lxxx, which supersedes his early study, “Ueber d. Handschriften der Briefe
Introduction
des hl. Augustinus”(Sitzungsberichte der kl. Akad. Wien, Hist.-Phil. Klasse. Bd. lxxiv. (1873) pp. 276–284). For manuscripts of recently discovered letters see Morin, under “Editions,” below, and for an English manuscript see Cowper, H. S., “A thirteenth—century manuscript of the Epistolae of St. Augustine, formerly belonging to Conishead Priory” (Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, N.S. vol. 27, 1926–7, pp. 48–53).
There is an interesting paper by Henri Bordier, “Restitution d’un manuscrit du VIe siècle mi-parti entre Paris et Genève, contenant des lettres et des sermons de S. Augustin” (Mémoires et documents de la Société d’histoire de Genève, tome xvi., 1869, pp. 82–126; also in Études paléographiques et historiques, by L. Delisle, A. Rillier, H. Bordier, Genève et Bâle, 1866).
II. EditionsThe earliest editions (Johannes de Amerbach, 1493; Erasmus, 1528, 1569) possess only a bibliographical interest. The editors of the Louvain edition of the complete works of Augustine (1576) added 29 new letters, some of which are found also as anecdota in the Supplementum to Augustine by Hieronymus Vignier (Paris, 1654–1655). A separate edition of the Letters was given in 1668 by L. F. Reinhart, who added seven more to the corpus. But an epoch-making recension and re-arranging appeared just a hundred years later, in the edition of the complete works prepared by the Benedictines of St. Maur. They added 16 letters, making a total of 270, of which number 53 were addressed to Augustine, the remainder being written by him, sometimes in conjunction with others. These 270 the Maurist editors arranged in four groups, as nearly chronological as they could place them. The first (Epp. i.–xxx.) belongs to the years before his elevation to episcopal rank (a.d 386–395); the second (Epp. xxxi.–cxxiii.) to the years 396–410; the third (Epp. cxxiv.–ccxxxi.)