ETC Interview with Paolo Trovato: Part 1

It’s a pleasure for me to introduce our next interviewee in our ETC interviews series. Today I am speaking with Paolo Trovato who is a professor at the Università degli Studi di Ferrara in Italy. Prof. Trovato is best known for his work on Italian philology and particularly his work on Dante. He publishes widely on range of topics. I first encountered his work through his wonderful book on Lachmann’s method (reviewed here). That book has just been released in a revised edition and that provided a good opportunity for an interview. Enjoy!

Textual criticism is not typically a popular pursuit in my experience. What led you to it in your own work? How did you come to it?

When I was a university student in the seventies, I wanted to became a literary critic and I thought that textual criticism was quite boring stuff. Aging, I went sick with all the silly hypotheses that we continuously utter and read about texts of the past and I decided that the most useful thing I could do for the sake of my studies was to repair the damages of the textual transmission or at least try to do so.

Paolo Trovato’s New Book on Lachmann’s Method

A new book came out last October that I think deserves the attention of NT text critics, especially those working on all things stemmatic. It’s written by Paolo Trovato, a prolific Italian philologist (the same Trovato putting on the summer school).

The book is Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lachmann’s Method: A Non-Standard Handbook of Genealogical Textual Criticism in the Age of Post-Structuralism, Cladistics, and Copy-Text (Padova: libreriauniversitaria.it , 2014).

This is now, in my opinion, by far the best book on Lachmannian stemmatics and should supercede Paul Maas as the first place to turn to understand this classic method of textual criticism. Trovato has done English readers a special service by making a point to include translated quotations from Italian textual critics. This is valuable material that is otherwise inaccessible to students who don’t read Italian. (That said, the French is generally untranslated.) This alone made it worth the price for me. Although focused on classical and medieval works (only Paul Wegner’s Student’s Guide and Epp’s article on classification get a mention for Biblical textual criticism), there is much here by way of principle to benefit any textual critic. Written with verve but also with a thorough knowledge of the subject, it should serve beginning students and seasoned scholars admirably.

You can read the first 30 pages here.

Here is a taste of what caught my attention as I read it:

Historic editions of the Greek New Testament online

Over on Facebook it was observed that Brill was offering a collection of historic editions of the New Testament for sale.

The Critical Editions of the New Testament Online
The Greek Text, Versions, and Transcriptions of Manuscripts
...
This series, earlier published in a microfiche collection by IDC Publishers, makes available for the first time in a single online collection the principal critical editions, lists of variant readings and collections of manuscript transcriptions and collations from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century. In addition, a number of the most useful editions of the ancient versions and of ancillary materials have been included. It begins with the first large collection, compiled by John Mill and published in 1707, and ends with von Soden’s huge work of 1902-13.

The most surprising thing was the price:

As Brill notes, this was previously published (before Brill’s acquisition of IDC Publishers) in a microfiche collection - contained in 853 fiche (Brill uses the same brochure):

But most of them are available for free somewhere on the internet, so I thought it would be helpful to see how many links we could collect here (with help from commenters): (I’ll start with abbreviated titles):

Greek New Testament

Erasmus (1516) (on later editions see Krans): Basel (e-rara): images & pdf; cspmt (pdf); images CSNTM

Complutensian Polyglot (vol five = NT) (1520?): cspmt (pdf); Library of Congress (pdf)

Aldine (1518): cspmt (pdf)

Colines (1534): cspmt (pdf)

Stephanus (1551): images and PDFs at e-rara
Stephanus (1550): images CSNTM; Bibles online (nice images but fiddly orientation)

Beza: for links to the different editions (and other works of Beza) go here (Jan Krans).
Beza (1588): good individual images at CSNTM
Beza (1598): cspmt (pdf)

Elzevir (1624): cspmt (pdf)

Elzevir (1633): cspmt (pdf)

Fell (1675): hathitrust

Mill (1707) good individual images at CSNTM and PDF at Google Books
Mill (rev. by Kuster) (1710) [Google Books] (BSB images & pdf) (SLUB: nice images and pdf) [HT Jan Krans]
Mill (2nd ed. Kuster) (1723) Google Books (BSB images & pdf)

Richard Bentley (1720), Proposals for Printing and his specimen of Rev 22 are at Google Books.

J. A. Bengel (1734) at archive.org (google books) (NB. 1762 Apparatus criticus at MDZ; 1763 at archive.org)

J.J. Wettstein, Prolegomena In Novum Testamentum: Cum Quibusdam Characterum Graecorum Et Latinorum In Libris Manuscriptis Exemplis (1730) [pdf at archive.org] (1764 rev by Semler at Google Books [images & pdf @ mdz])

J.J. Wettstein (1751-2), vol one (1751) at Marburg: images & pdf; vol two (1752) at Marburg: images & pdf [HT Jan Krans]; vol one at archive.org; vols 1(?) & 2 at Stanford/Google Books; hathitrust

J.J. Griesbach, Synopsis Evangeliorum Matthaei, Marci et Lucae. Textum Graecum ad fidem codicum versionum et patrum emendavit et lectionis varietatem adiecit Io. Iac. Griesbach (Halle: Io. Iac. Curt., 1776)  (Synopsis = NT vol 1) [Google Books]
J.J. Griesbach,  Libri historici novi testamenti graece: Epistolas Omnes Et Apocalypsin complectens. Novum Testamentum Graece Volumen II (Halle: Curt, 1775) [MDZ]
J.J. Greisbach, Novum Testamentum Graece. Textum ad fidem codicum versionum et patrum emendavit et lectionis varietatem adiecit Io. Iac. Griesbach (Halle: Io. Iac. Curt., 1777): vol 1 Evangelia et Acta Apostolorum (= Gospels & Acts) [Google Books]

J.J. Griesbach, Symbolae Criticae ad supplendas et corrigendas variarum N.T. lectionum collectiones (Halle) vol. 1 (1785) [Google Books]; vol. 2 (1793) [Google Books]

J.J. Griesbach, Novum Testamentum Graece. Textum ad fidem codicum versionum et patrum recensuit et lectionis varietatem adiecit D. Io. Iac. Griesbach (Halle: Io. Iac. Curt. & London: P. Elmsly, 1796, 2nd edition): vol 1 Evangelia (Google Books); vol. 2: Acta et Epistolas Apostolorum cum Apocalypsi (Halle: Io. Iac. Curtii Haeredes & Londno: Payne & MacKinlay, 1806, 2nd edition) (Google Books) (BSB images & pdf)
Griesbach, Synopsis (1797, 2nd ed.) [Google Books]
J.J. Griesbach, Commentarius Criticus in Textum Graecum Novi Testamenti (Halle) vol. 1 (1798) & vol. 2 (1811) [bound together] [Google Books]
J.J. Griesbach, Synopsis evangeliorum Matthaei, Marci et Lucae una cum lis Joannis pericopis quae omnino cum caeterorum evangelistarum narrationibus conferendae sunt / textum recensuit et selectam lectionis varletatem adjecit D. Jo. Jac. Griesbach. (Halle: Libraria Curtiana, 1809, third edition). [hathitrust]

(Griesbach NT vol 1, 1809 at archive.org; vol. 2, 1809)
(Griesbach NT vol 1, 1818 and vol 2, 1818)
J.J. Griesbach, Synopsis evangeliorum Matthaei Marci et Lucae: una com iis Joannis pericopis quae omnino cum ... (Halle: Officina Libraria Curtiana, 1822, fourth edition). [archive.org]
J.J. Griesbach,  Novum Testamentum Graece. Textum ad fidem codicum versionum et patrum recensuit et lectionis varietatem adiecit D. Io. Iac. Griesbach (rev. D. Schulz; Berlin: F. Laue, 1827, 3rd edition): vol 1 IV Evangelia  [Google Books] [second volume never published]

Harwood, The New Testament (1776; 2 vols) [GoogleBooks] [Biblioteca Nacional de España: good images and dowloadable PDFs]
[also issuu.com/9853355/docs/harwood_vol1
issuu.com/9853355/docs/harwood_vol2 ]

Matthaei (1782-1788) vol. 11: Matthew (1788); vol. 12: Mark (1788); vol 10: John (1786); vol. 1: Acts (1782); vol 5: Catholic Epistles (1782); vol. 3: 1&2 Corinthians (1783); vol. 6: Gal, Eph & Phil (1784); vol. 4: Hebrews & Col (1784); vol. 7: 1&2 Thess and Timothy);  vol.8: Apocalypse (1785).
Matthaei, Novum Testamentum Graece (vol. 1, 1803 [Google Books]; vol. 2, 1804 & vol. 3, 1807 [Google Books]) 

F.C. Alter, Novum Testamentum ad codicem vindobonensem graece expressum (Vienna)
vol. 1 (1787) [Google Books]; vol. 2 (1786) [Google Books] [HT Jan Krans]

J.M.A. Scholz, Novum Testamentum Graece. Textum ad fidem Testium Criticorum recensuit, Lectionum Familias subjecit, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1830; 1836). Biblioteca Nacional de España (both vols)

K. Lachmann, Novum Testamentum Graece (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1831) [archive.org/Google Books]
Lachmann-Buttmann (vol. 1, 1842 [Google Books]; vol. 2, 1850 [Google Books]) (hathitrust)

Tregelles (1857) good individual images at CSNTM     Tyndale House
BNE Tregelles (http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000007427 (all volumes)

Tischendorf (NTG, vol. 1, 1869 [Google Books]; vol. 2, 1872 [Google Books]; Prolegomena (C.R. Gregory, 1890), Part 1 [archive] and Part 2 [archive])
Westcott & Hort (1881) text [GB]; Intro [GB] (US edition with forward by P. Schaff, 1881: archive)
von Soden (1902-13) good individual images of four volumes at CSNTM: one, two, three, four. Also pdfs at cspmt (vol one, two)

Nestle - scans of all the Nestle/Nestle-Aland editions are in the NT.VMR. In the Manuscript Workspace, go to the Manuscripts tab and search for N1, N2, etc. From the 22nd ed. on, search for NA22, etc.

Catalogues

• List of other catalogues
• BL: early printed Bibles
• Darlow & Moule, Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture (London: BFBS, 1903-1911) (hathitrust)
• E. Reuss, History of the Sacred Scriptures of the New Testament
• E. Reuss, Bibliotheca Novi Testamenti Graeci (1872)
• M.Vincent, A History of the Textual Criticism of the New Testament

Major Sites

• Müncheler Digitalisierungs Zentrum Digital Bibliothek
• E-rara (rare books in Swiss Libraries)
• Hathitrust
• Zentrales Verzeichnis Digitalisierter Drucke
• Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek
• Münster Bibelmuseum digitized collection

Worth checking

• Online Books
• Gallica
• Early English Books Online
• Early European Books
• Eighteenth Century collections online