Epistula Polycarpi: Editions and translations

HULCE version of Epistula Polycarpi Edition

Introduction

The history of the editions of Epistula Polycarpi may be summarized by focusing on the works that mostly influenced the scholarship. In 1498, Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (Jacobus Faber Stapulensis; c. 1455 – 1536) published in Paris the first edition of the Latin text of the Ignatian long recension and the letter of Polycarp as an appendix to his edition of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings. For almost 150 years, the following editions of Ignatius and Polycarp leaned on his text, and his book was reprinted in Strasbourg (1502, 1527), Paris (1515), Basel (1520), Cologne (1536) and Venice (1537).

The Greek manuscripts of the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp were circulated in 16th-century Italy, but the publishing of editions started in northwest Europe. In 1633, the Belgian Jesuit scholar Pierre Halloix (1572 – 1656) published a synopsis of the Greek and Latin text of the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp in his Illustrium ecclesiae orientalis scriptorium.   In Oxford, the exiled archbishop of Ireland, James Ussher (1581 – 1656) basically used the Greek text of Halloix for his edition in 1644. The present division of the letter in fourteen chapters stems from Ussher’s division of the letter of Polycarp in fourteen passages. 

The Greek-Latin editions of Halloix and Ussher were dominant for some 200 years. During this time, particularly the Protestant scholars became accustomed to including the letter of Polycarp in the writings of the apostolic fathers. In the middle of the 19th century, William Jacobson (1803 – 1884) and Albert Dressel (1808 – 1875) studied manuscripts in Italy and included previously unknown manuscripts in their editions.

Theodor Zahn (1838 – 1933) was the first scholar to recognize that the Greek manuscripts of these letters belong to two different families (α and β)Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828 – 1889) could build upon the work of Dressel, Zahn, Funk and others, his introductions to the manuscripts of these letters surpassed the work of his predecessors in clarity, pervasiveness and scope. Excepting the affordable edition of Hefele, Lightfoot’s edition was the first edition to discard the Latin text of Polycarp as parallels for the Greek text (1.1-9.2 and the parallel text of Eusebius for ch. 13); this practice soon became a rule for modern editions.

The work of Lightfoot has remained the last text-critically exhaustive edition. Soon after the death of Lightfoot, J. R. Harmer reworked and published it as a shortened and practical version in 1891, which was reprinted several times. The revised edition prepared by Michael Holmes (2007) has become a new standard edition in the global village. In German speaking world, the handy edition of Funk (Die apostolischen Väter, 1901) has been reprinted several times. Even with its very simple textual apparatus, it has served as the major edition of German scholars. 

Renaissance editions of the Latin texts

Translations

Greek-Latin editions from the 17th century to 1860's

Modern critical editions

Saavutettavuusseloste

HULib Critical Editions 2023