A Symposium on Text Editing and Translating

A SYMPOSIUM ON TEXT EDITING AND TRANSLATING Chairman: Dr. James P. Reilly, Pontifical Institute, Toronto. Participants: Fr. Gedeon Gal, O.F.M., General Editor, Ockham Edition ; Prof. Francis E. Kelley, Associate editor, Ockham Edition; Dr. Alfred Freddoso, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame. Dr. Reilly It is indeed an honor to have been asked to chair a plenary session at this international colloquium on Ockham and in particular to chair a plenary session which is a symposium on editing, translation, and concordance of Ockham's works. The edition of the Opera Theologica et Philosophica of William of Ockham, so ably begun by Fr. Philotheus Boehner but unfortunately terminated by his untimely death, has been brought to fruition by a dedicated group of editors two ofwhom, Fr. Gedeon Gal and Dr. Francis Kelley, will address you. But it would be fitting also to take note ofthe editors present here at this conference: Dr. Girard J. Etzkorn, Fr. Romuald Green, Dr. Rega Wood; and those no longer at the Franciscan Institute who have made contributions: Fr. Joachim Giermek, Dr. Stephen Brown, Fr. Ángelus Gambatese; and the outside collaborators: Francesco Del Punta, Carlo Grassi, Gerhard Leibold, Fr. Vladimir Richter who is here and Fr. Joseph Wey; and along with the deceased initiator ofthis project other members who contributed who are now deceased: Fr. Eligius Buytaert, Fr. Gaudens Mohen, Fr. Innocent Dahm, Leon Baudry and Ernest A. Moody. It is fitting also to note the other participants here on the panel who will address various aspects ofthe transmission of these editions now that they are completed. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the first speaker ofthis symposium and editor of the texts ofWilliam of Ockham, Fr. Gedeon Gal, OFM. 48A Symposium on Text Editing and Translating Fr. Gedeon Gal First of all I would like to present to you Opera Philosophica V, which just arrived from the printer by overnight mail. They covered it, but they did not succeed in binding it. They were too much in a hurry. It is a volume of 740 pages and contains books 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of Ockham's Commentary on the Physics of Aristotle. It was prepared by the staff of the Franciscan Institute, with the collaboration of Gerhard Leibold of the Grabmann Institute of Munich. I am so glad it is here, and in a few weeks we will have all the copies really bound. It may seem a bold statement, but it is a fact that critical editions of the works of medieval philosophers and theologians were initiated by Franciscans. In 1870, the Minister General of the Friars Minor, Bernardino da Portogruaro, a Bonaventure scholar, came to the conclusion that there was a crying need for a new edition of St. Bonaventuras Opera Omnia. He wanted it finished by 1874, the sixth centenary of Bonaventure's death. The General assigned the task to his favorite disciple Fedele da Fanna, a young friar from the Province of Venice. Fedele da Fanna soon realized, and succeeded—not without difficulty—in convincing the General that a simple reprint or even a revised edition would not be sufficient. In the Roman edition printed in 1599, 94 works appeared under the name of Bonaventure. One hundred fifty years later in the Venice edition, they reprinted the same works, but labeled 16 ofthem dubious and 50 spurious. Among scholars there were quot capita tot sententiae. So, rebus sic stantibus, a critical edition was needed. The first step required to produce a critical edition was the discovery and examination of all the surviving manuscripts of works attributed to Bonaventure. Such a daring enterprise would have been impossible anytime before the 19th century. But now, as Fedele da Fanna said, "Thanks to the fast trains, in the morning you were in Rome in the evening in Florence," it was relatively easy to visit all the libraries of Europe which hold medieval manuscripts. Fedele da Fanna outlined his project, printed it and sent a copy to all the libraries where he or his collaborators intended to go, asking the help and collaboration of the librarians. He received a favorable answer from almost all of them. At the same...