The Edition of the Old-Latin Texts of the Actus Apostolorum

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wilhelm Blümer
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology ; Protestant Theology ; Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2010 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 182538103

The Latin bible translations, which began to emerge in the 2nd century AD, can be reconstructed, localised and dated by means of manuscripts as well as of quotations found in the works of the Christian authors. With regard to the text of the Acts of the Apostles, we are faced with a variety of different text types, which were influential until the Middle Ages and underwent various revisions eventually leading to a relatively homogeneous Vulgate text. Since 2002, this complex history of transmission has been the subject of a close examination, whose results will be published in the Vetus Latina series under the patronage of the Archabbey in Beuron. In 2009, the Vetus Latina Institute provided photographs of the manuscripts extant today. Due to the DFG funding, these manuscripts were collated, i.e. their text was decoded and entered into a digital database; this task was accomplished within the grant duration. As recommended by the DFG reviewers, we have gradually been making these collations accessible online (http://nttf.klassphil.uni-mainz.de/196.php) for the scientific community since 2013 with the permission of the VL Institute. The international response to this release showed that it was justified to invest additional time and effort in reviewing and harmonising the collations before their publication; this procedure had led to an adjustment of the original schedule (after consultation with the DFG, the due date for this task was postponed from summer 2013 to January 2014 without causing any further expenses). Additional funding, if granted, will enable us to complete the online publication (so far, collations for chapters 1 to 12 have been released online) and will make possible the involvement of the student researchers within the editing process. The completion of editing the 1st chapter (publication in 2014) will provide them with a template including all the technical details needed to execute the complex preparatory work, which will be revised during the editing process: 1) Generating the so-called Schemata: Based on the main witnesses (i.e. the witnesses which best represent the respective text type), the lines for every single text type have to be arranged in a Schema on the basis of the collations. This has already been carried out up to chapter 9. 2) For every single verse, the orthographic apparatus lists all manuscripts, their lacunae or illegible passages, orthographic mistakes and peculiar spellings. 3) The Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster has made the range of variants found within the Greek textual tradition accessible to us. Thus, if a Latin version can be traced back to a verifiable Greek Vorlage, this relation is documented as well (the student researchers are proficient in both languages). 4) The witness apparatus contains the patristic evidence (consisting of all church father citations and obvious allusions) in alphabetical order for every single verse; it is constructed on the basis of databases.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Institution: Universität Münster; Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung; Vetus Latina-Institut