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The Patrologia Latina Database is an electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, published between 1844 and 1855, and the four volumes of indexes published between 1862 and 1865. The Patrologia Latina comprises the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. The database contains the complete Patrologia Latina, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indexes. Migne's column numbers, essential references for scholars, are included.
This latest release of Patrologia Latina Database provides a number of improvements:
- a single character internal wildcard
- search history with ability to combine searches
- ability to mark records and e-mail durable URLs and bibliographic information for specific volumes
- ability to limit searches to a range of volumes
Note re: Medieval and Modern Authors: the main chronological sequence of authors in Migne's Patrologia Latina runs from about AD 200 to AD 1216, although Migne did incorporate medieval texts written after 1216 where these were traditionally attached to an earlier work, often as a commentary or an introduction to it.
It is impossible to consider the later medieval texts as secondary even though they fall outside the main chronology of the Editorial Board. Migne conceived the series, not as stratified into primary and secondary texts, but as illustrating the progress of a unified theological tradition. While wanting to respect Migne's evident wishes, the Editorial Board has felt it necessary to distinguish roughly between the medieval and modern authors. This division allows you to either exclude modern texts from your search or search exclusively within the modern texts.
The Editorial Board has categorized authors as medieval and modern according to modern scholarly practice by taking the year 1500 as a guide. Although this year cannot definitively mark the end of the'medieval' and the beginning of the 'modern' age, it does capture the sense of the two terms for modern scholarship. |
