The Shepherd of Hermas in Latin : Critical Edition of the Oldest Translation Vulgata

The __Shepherd of Hermas__ is a Greek visionary text written in Rome during the 2nd century CE with the aim to exhort men to change life and repent for their sins, taking advantage of the last chance given by the Lord before world’s end. The __Shepherd__ is a very important witness of history of the early Christian thought and it was so widely-read that it was immediately translated into Latin and other languages. Despite the considerable amount of Greek textual witnesses of the __Shepherd__ (more than twenty-five written between the 2nd and the 14th century), its complete text did not survive until today, therefore its translations in other languages are of crucial importance for the __constitutio textus__. Among the various translations, the Latin __Vulgata__ stands out for its antiquity, accuracy and links with some important Greek witnesses like the Papyrus Bodmer 38 (4th/5th century) and the Codex Athous Grigoriou 96 (14th century). The last critical edition of the __Vulgata__ was made by H.A. Hilgenfeld in 1873 and is still quoted by scholars today. The __Shepherd of Hermas__ in Latin offers a more modern and complete philological study through an investigation of new unknown textual sources from 9th to 14th century and gives new philological and textual data with the aim to replace the accurate but not updated edition of Hilgenfeld.

An die Seite des Corpus der Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller (GCS) stellte Adolf von Harnack die Monographienreihe der Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (TU), die er bereits 1882 begründet hatte und die nunmehr als »Archiv für die ... Ausgabe der älteren christlichen Schriftsteller« diente. In ihr werden vor allem die alten Übersetzungen der im Corpus erscheinenden Schriften teils im Original, teils in deutscher oder einer anderen modernen Sprache gedruckt. Daneben steht die Reihe auch für Voruntersuchungen zu den Editionen und für begleitende Abhandlungen offen.

The Shepherd of Hermas is a very important witness of the early history of the Church. Its Latin translation, the Vulgata, is crucial for any critical edition of Hermas work because no complete sources of the original Greek text survived. Following on the last critical edition of the Vulgata (Hilgenfeld 1873), this work offers a more modern and complete philological study through an investigation of new unknown textual sources. --From publisher's description As an accompaniment to the corpus of the Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller (GCS), Adolf von Harnack created the monograph series Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur (TU) in 1882, which from that time on served as an "archive for the ... editions of older Christian writers". Edited By Christian Tornau And Paolo Cecconi. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Text In Latin; Introduction And Commentary In English.