On Migne The Great

This post is for all of you who have not actually seen a physical copy of Migne’s Latin and Greek works. It is a sight to see.

I visited the library at DTS today to take some pictures of a volume, as I mentioned yesterday that I would. Since I had my camera I figured I would take some pics of the set of Migne that DTS owns. It’s hard to realize how much Migne published without seeing the actual output. Following is a view of the bookshelf from the right (and look on the right-hand bookshelf), then from the left (look on the left-hand bookshelf). The black volumes are his set of Latin printings, the red are his Greek.

That is a lot of books, is it not? Migne published more than 160 volumes of Greek texts and over 200 volumes of Latin, both of Church Fathers and Christian writers. This work was all done in the 1800’s, so all of this is public domain material. I bet these are some of the only printings of some of these works, and some have never been translated into English.

So what do they look like a little closer up? Well, I aim to please. The following is a picture of some of his Greek volumes:

Here are some of his Latin:

The pic I went to the library for today is the following:

Migne is the man! I can’t think of much that would be better to have at a library than this.


Nick Norelli 2008-06-30 10:16:02


It's a beautiful thing.


Eric 2008-07-01 07:12:49



Roger Pearse 2008-07-02 05:16:04

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The wall of volumes at Cambridge University Library is just as impressive.  It's an amazing piece of work, all done by one man.  Most of it has never been translated into English.

But of course it's more available today than it has ever been, with volumes on Google books and the transcriptions by Catholic and Greek scholars.

If I were a dot-com billionaire, I would probably fund a complete translation.  I calculate that at 10c a word it would cost $20 per column, and most volumes have 1000 columns, so a volume should cost $10,000 to translate?  There are 220 odd volumes in the PG, so that would cost $2.2m, or thereabouts.  Even if we doubled it, at $5m to translate all of this into English, it wouldn't be a lot, would it? 

Eric 2008-07-02 09:10:29


If you find your millions, count me in. I would certainly be game. Know any rich people? Five million is a lot of money, but it would be worth it. Of course even at that price, for most, this would be more of a labor of love than a lucrative profession. But I guess that is generally the case for those involved in this subject matter!

Roger Pearse 2008-07-03 04:12:33

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Once I'd thought of this, I thought I'd ask the same question at Neonostalgia.com, and also in the academic LT-ANTIQ forum.  You'll be amused to learn that at least one person asked why I didn't just learn Greek and Latin instead!  The Ivory Tower strikes again...

Eric 2008-07-03 07:31:02


Well, that is a good point. And since Latin and Greek books aren't the only important books to read not written in English, I guess everyone in the world should go ahead and master Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Syriac, French, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Dutch. Of course that is only a start. I'm sure we all have the time and mental capacity to do this, right? :)

Interlocutor 2008-07-08 04:22:14

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Does anyone know what percentage of PG and PL have been translated into English roughly? Also, PG/PL is not exhaustive itself is it or does it pretty much contain all the writings of the CFs?

Kent 2008-07-09 07:11:31

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If there is enough interest, Logos Bible Software is hoping to make the Patrologia Cursus Completus, Series Graeca available in a fully-searchable, fully-referenceable electronic format, with links to Philip Schaff’s Early Church Fathers. And more of Migne’s volumes to follow, if we receive enough orders for the Series Graeca.

This was made available for pre-order on the Pre-Pub page barely an hour ago.