Chronica Tertullianea et Cyprianea 1975-1994: Bibliographie critique de la première littérature latine chrétienne (review)

René Braun, Frédéric Chapot, Simone Deléani, François Dolbeau, Jean-Claude Fredouille, and Pierre Petitmengin, comps. Chronica Tertullianea et Cyprianea 1975-1994: Bibliographie critique de la première littérature latine chrétienne. Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité, 157. Paris: Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, 1999. ISBN 2-85121-169-2. Pp. XII + 629. FF 210; Euros 32,01.

The Revue des Études Augustiniennes began in 1976 to print an annual survey of scholarship on Tertullian that had appeared in the previous year. In the course of their critical survey of books and articles on Tertullian, Braun, Fredouille and Petitmengin offered insights of the most varied kinds on his life, thought, and circumstances, as well as hundreds of corrections to readings of the text of his works. They tried to be universal in their coverage, evaluating books and articles in every modern language; for items in Polish and Japanese they enlisted the help of other scholars (one of whom became Mme. Petitmengin between 1986 and 1987). Their coverage for each year was much more exhaustive than the survey Robert Sider published in The Second Century ("Approaches to Tertullian: A Study of Recent Scholarship," The Second Century 2 [1982]: 228-60), and their comments on each item are far longer, often extending to a page or more and going into details. Each contribution is signed by the chronicler's initials. Sometimes the comments are blunt, but usually the tone is gracious and even occasionally humorous. The members of the team are just as fussy in correcting each other's writings as those of strangers. In 1986 the survey was extended to include Cyprian and the pseudo-Cyprianic writings, Minucius Felix, Novatian, and the acta of African martyrs, especially Perpetua and Felicity. Deléani and Dolbeau were added to the team (Chapot joined in 1995) to help cope with the additional load. In 1991, the biggest year, the team reviewed more than eighty editions, books, and articles. Those first twenty years of Chronica are here republished in a variorum edition with the original pagination at the top of the page and a new pagination for this volume at the foot.

Despite the thoroughness of the chroniclers, there were some items which they missed at the time. Therefore this new volume follows the reprinted Chronica with new material. A "Complément 1975-1994" lists 173 additional books and articles, most of which are furnished with brief critical comments (477-523). There is also a "Supplément 1975-1984" (the running header misleadingly reads "1975-1994"), which lists items that would have been treated had the Chronica in the first ten years extended to Cyprian and the other writers added in 1985 (525-59). There is an index of major reviews of new text editions of these authors which appeared in other journals (561-64) which makes no claim to completeness but is quite helpful. Finally there are indices to the volume itself.

I am amazed by the abundance of the chroniclers' suggestions regarding the critical texts of these authors. Tertullian's text in particular requires extraordinary efforts to establish, and this volume can help one to be sure that one is not wasting time trying to understand an inaccurate text. I also appreciate the thorough coverage of doctrinal issues and the frequent cross-references to studies on the same themes, even those which antedate the coverage of the chronicle.

The annual survey (which continues) is already a great help to readers of the Revue des Études Augustiniennes, but the present volume adds a great deal of value. For one thing, the "Complément" and "Supplément" were not published in the Revue and are made available here for the first time. But much more important are the indices to the volume. There is one for modern authors (573-84...