Publication of the Corpus of Shenoute (4th–5th Centuries C.E.), Internet-based (Diplomatic Edition of the Manuscripts) and Printed (Critical Edition of the Works)

Basic data for this project

Description

The goal of the international project “Critical Edition of the Works of Shenoute” is to publish a complete edition, with accompanying trans­lation, of the extensive works of this outstanding Coptic author and monastic leader from late-antique Egypt (ca. 347–465 C.E.), thus making his writings available to a much larger readership than has access to them at present. This prominent saint of the Coptic Church was completely unknown in the West until the late seventeenth century and has emerged only gradually as a significant historical fig­ure. His writings provide invaluable insights into the development of monasticism during its earliest generations, as well as information about the period when Christianity became the dominant, state-sanctioned religion of the Roman Empire. But much of Shenoute’s corpus has never yet been published in any form, and very little of it has been adequately translated. An important aspect of the entire project is to publish the Coptic text of Shenoute’s corpus both electronically, in diplomatic editions of the ca. 100 fragmentarily surviving manuscripts, and in printed form, in a critical edition based on all the manuscript evidence, and to translate his writings into modern languages. The goal of this DFG-funded project is, above all, to complete the edition of the so-called "Florilegium Sinuthianum" and vols. 1 and 2 of Shenoute's "Canons."