THE plan of this work, as suggested by the General Editor, through Dr. Riddle, was a "complete synopsis" of the literature relating to the works included in The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Its purpose is to furnish a guide to a farther critical study for those who have been stimulated by the present quickened interest in the study of the Church Fathers in America, and especially to open the field of modern German critical scholarship. This latter idea was a design particularly cherished by the Editor-in-Chief.
The treatment is one which the author's own method of study, and eleven years' experience in furnishing tools for College and Seminary students and professors, suggests as, on the whole, the most practical: i. Monographic; 2. By (a.) Editions chronologically arranged; (b.) Translations, ancient and modern, each language chronologically arranged; (c.) Literature alphabetically arranged.
A full method would include also a synopsis of: (1.) Manuscripts; (2.) Sources. Toward these the author had made some collections, but found it impossible to complete in the limited time at disposal. The references to the "Veterum testimonia" in Migne, Galland, and elsewhere, partially supply the place of a synopsis of sources, and the author hopes to carry out his design, formed some years since, and publish in some shape, within a few years, a synopsis of mss. of Ante-Nicene Literature with references to published descriptions where any exist.
The alphabetical arrangement has been adopted under Literature, Gebhardt and Harnock's capital monographs to the contrary notwithstanding, as, on the whole, furnishing more easily the information for which men consult such a work. Experience shows that most students use such a bibliography by authors: (1.) One comes soon to know what shade or weight of scholarship, Harnack, or Zahn, or Funk, Lightfoot, or Schaff, and so on, represent, according to their various scholarship or tendence, and his first use of a list is to see who have written on the subject, and where their results can be found. (2.) The views of some one are referred to, and one consults such a list to verify the reference and find where those views are expressed. For this latter use a special effort has been made to supply page-references, as a time-saving device.
The first aim of the work is exhaustiveness. This is peculiarly necessary in the use of American students in order that the scanty and heterogeneous collections on which American scholars must depend for tools may yield all that they have on the subject. It is a constant embarrassment that there is not a single adequate theological library in America, and the student has to use every device to cull what he can from secondary sources. The American student thus works at an immense disadvantage, and must do so until there is somewhere a library which will compare, e.g., with what medical men have in the Library of the Surgeon-General's office.
Literal exhaustiveness is, of course, even more undesirable than impossible. The author has at hand, for example, a very large number of Encyclopędias, Histories of
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Method, (i.) The examination and direct analysis of such standard works and periodicals as were available. (2.) The exhausting of such monographs as could be obtained, e.g., those in Gebhardt u. Harnack's Patres apost. (3.) The exhausting of (a.) the the general bibliographies of Chevalier, Englemann, Hofmann, Oettinger, Winer, Poole, Graesse, Brunet, etc. (b.) The patrologies.of Walch, (Caillau), (Clarke), Busse, Permaneder, Alzog, Nirschl, (Schmid). (c.) The articles in the Encyclopaedias of Herzog-Plitt-Hauck, Schaff-Herzog, Lichtenberger, Wetzer u. Welte (first edition), M'Clintock and Strong, Ersch u. Gruber and the Britannica, and the dictionaries of Smith, Smith and Wace, Hoefer and Michaud. (d.) The literary histories of Teuffel, (Ebert), Schonemann and Reuss. (e.) The church histories of Schaff, Kurtz, Hergenrother, (Hase), (Hagenbach), (Bapheides). (f.) The foot-notes of various monographs, and general works, e.g., "Supernatural Religion."
In addition to these all the minor sources available have been used, especially in the vexatious and difficult matter of the Editions and Translations. In the matter of the later literature the most fruitful source has been the periodical literature, especially the twelve volumes of the Theol. Literaturzeitung.
Purely bibliographical references (i.e., to Graesse, etc.) are in general omitted. Chevalier and Darling are no exception to this rule, since they contain brief notices of the authors. A few works of very little critical value have been admitted, either because they are in English, where there is scanty English literature, or because of some subject where there is little literature, or for some other reason, e.g., Waite, Stowe, Blackburn, etc.
The fulness and accuracy of titles are limited by the necessity of doing so much of the work from secondary sources. The author has verified and enlarged as far as time and tools would permit, and, while regretting defects which must exist, can only say that most of the titles are the result of the collation of several references, and embody the corrections of innumerable mis-citations.
Abbreviations. The abbreviations adopted are those of the references themselves, or such as have become the familiar forms. The forms of English periodicals are usually those of Poole's Index, although in many cases these are lengthened for readier recognition. The citation of German periodicals is very various, but a guide is given by cross-references in the list in the Appendix.
The Appendix includes supplemental matter introductory to the study of Patrology or aiding in the use of the foregoing Synopsis; (1.) A full list of works on Patoology, in which a special effort has been made to straighten the editions of the earlier modern works, -- a bibliographical Chinese puzzle. (2.) A very limited list of works quoted in the Synopsis which seemed to need enlarged titles or descriptions, and especially where the edition which is quoted is not the latest, as in the case of Wetzer u. Welte, Hergenrother, and Westcott's Canon. (3.) A full list of periodicals referred to in the Synopsis. This is included, although it falls very far short of the ideal symmetry which the author would like, and which might be secured with time, 1. Because of the need of such a list in the lack of uniform reference, 2. As a contribution in one of the most deficient fields of theological literature, -- the bibliography of theological periodicals.
The author has worked with the very practical purpose of furnishing just what he found
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May the very practical and direct results of modern, critical patristic scholarship stimulate those who love Him who is the Truth, to a more eager, unwearied, unremitting, humble, unprejudiced study, in His Spirit, of every circumstance which confirms and illumines the story of His life on earth, to the glory of His name.
The author takes this opportunity to express his thanks to the Rev. Messrs. Ropes and Gillett of the Andover and the Union (New York) Theological Seminary Libraries, to Mr. Whitney of the Boston Public Library, and very particularly and warmly to Mr. Cutter of the Boston Athenaeum Library, for special favors in the use of works of reference, and to the various helpers whose interest in the work has contributed to increased accuracy.
ERNEST C. RICHARDSON.
Hosmer Hall, Hartford, July, 1887.
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