Jacques Paul Migne
Jacques Paul Migne(French:[miɲ];25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions oftheologicalworks, encyclopedias, and the texts of theChurch Fathers,with the goal of providing auniversal libraryfor theCatholic priesthood.[1]
ThePatrologia Latinaand thePatrologia Graeca(along with theMonumenta Germaniae Historica) are among the great 19th century contributions to the scholarship ofpatristicsand theMiddle Ages.Within the Roman Catholic Church, Migne's editions put many original texts for the first time into the hands of the priesthood.
Biography
[edit]Migne was born inSaint-Flour,Cantaland studiedtheologyat theUniversity of Orléans.He was ordained in 1824 and placed in charge of the parish of Puiseaux, in thediocese of Orléans,[2]where his uncompromisingly Catholic and royalist sympathies did not coincide with local patriotism and the new regime of theCitizen-King.In 1833, after falling out with his bishop over a pamphlet he had published, he went to Paris, and on 3 November started a journal,L'Univers religieux,[2]which he intended to keep free of political influence. It quickly gained 1,800 subscribers and he edited it for three years. (It afterwards became his co-editorLouis Veuillot'sultramontaneorgan,L'Univers.) Migne was, until June 1856, owner of the dailyVérité(formerly theJournal des faits), which, being limited to reproducing other newspapers, described itself as the impartial echo of all opinions.
Migne believed in the power of thepressand the value of information widely distributed. In 1836 he opened his great publishing house, theAteliers catholiques,atPetit-Montrouge,in Paris's outlying14th arrondissement.He published numerous religious works in rapid succession meant for lesser clergy at prices that ensured wide circulation, and bypassed the bookselling establishment with direct subscriptions. These works were reproduced from the best available texts, generally without requesting permission. His publishing house was complemented during theSecond Empireby painter artists' workhalls for the decoration of churches: three of their main works, in the style ofEugène Delacroix,still remain in the choir of the church of SaintJohn the BaptistofAudressellesinPas de Calais,France. TheAteliersalso produced and sold a variety of religious items.
In time, theAteliers catholiquesbecame the largest privately held press in France. However, on the night of 12–13 February 1868, a devastating fire, which began in the printing plant, destroyed Migne's establishment. "Five hundred thousand plates, stacked in piles, melted in an instant; they are now enormous blocks on the most bizarre forms," reportedLe Monde illustré.[3]Despite his insurance contracts, Migne was only able to retrieve a pittance.
Shortly afterwards,Georges Darboy,Archbishop of Paris,forbade the continuance of the business and even suspended Migne from his priestly functions.[4]TheFranco-Prussian Warof 1870 inflicted further losses. Then from thecuriaofPope Pius IXcame a decree condemning the use ofMass stipendsto purchase books, which specifically called out Migne and his publications.
Migne died in Paris. He died without ever regaining his former success and hisImprimerie Catholiquepassed in 1876 into the hands of Garnier Frères.[4]
A complete edition of patrology
[edit]The best known of his publications are:Scripturae sacrae cursus completus( "complete course in sacred scripture" ) which assembled a wide repertory of commentaries on each of the books of the Bible, andTheologiae cursus,each of them in 28 vols, 1840–45;Collection des auteurs sacrés(100 vols., 1846–48);Encyclopédie théologique(171 vols., 1844–46).[2]
However, the three great series that have made his reputation werePatrologiae cursus completus,Latin series (Patrologia Latina) in 221 vols. (1844–55); Greek series (Patrologia Graeca), first published in Latin (85 vols., 1856–57); then published with Greek text and Latin translation (165 vols., 1857–58). Though scholars have always criticised them, these hastily edited, inexpensive, and widely distributed texts have only slowly been replaced during a century and a half with more critically edited modern editions. The cheap paper of the originals has made them fragile today, but the scope of thePatrologiastill makes it unique and valuable when modern editions do not yet exist. It is a far more complete collection of Patristic and later literature than anything that has appeared subsequently. To create so much so quickly, Migne reprinted the best or latest earlier editions available to him. In thePGthe Latin translations were often made in the renaissance before any Greek text had been printed, and so do not necessarily match the Greek text very accurately. The indexes themselves are useful for locating references in thepatristicwritings.
The collection is available throughGoogle Booksand archive.org.
Summary of publications
[edit]Migne'sAteliers catholiquesemployed 5 steam-powered presses, and by 1854 some 596 workers.[5]On average, it published a book every ten days for thirty years. In summary these were:[6]
- Patrologia Latina,217 tomes in 218 volumes
- Patrologia Graeca,161 tomes in 166 volumes
- Greek Fathers in Latin, 81 tomes in 85 volumes
- Scripturae sacrae cursus completus,25 volumes
- Theologia cursus completus,25 volumes
- Démonstration évangeliques des plus célèbres défenseurs du Christianisme,18 volumes
- Orateurs sacrésin two series, 66 and 33 volumes
- Première encyclopédie théologique ou série de dictionnaires sur toutes les parties de la science religieuse,50 volumes
- Nouvelle encyclopédie théologique,53 volumes
- Troisième et dernière encylopédie ecclésiastique,66 volumes
- Summa aurea de laudibus B. Mariae virginis,13 volumes
References
[edit]- ^Claude Langlois and François Laplanche (1992).La Science catholique: 'L'Encyclopédie Théologique' de Migne (1844-1873) entre apologétique et vulgarisation.Paris: Cerf.
- ^abcChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 426.
- ^Bloch, R. Howard (1994).God's Plagiarist: Being an Account of the Fabulous Industry and Irregular Commerce of the Abbe Migne.University of Chicago Press. p. 105.
- ^abKirsch, Johann Peter (1913)..In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^Bloch (1994),pp. 13–14.
- ^Bloch (1994),pp. 1–2.
External links
[edit]
Works by or aboutJacques Paul MigneatWikisource- Brief biographyindependent research (in French)
- Migne Patrologia GraecaIndex of Authors / Download links
- Faulkner University Patristics ProjectA growing collection of English translations of patristic texts and high-resolution scans from the comprehensivePatrologiacompiled by J. P. Migne.
- Documenta Catholica OmniaPDF's of much of thePatrologia Latina
- Polytonic Greek OCR of PG from the Lace repository atMount Allison University:vol. 45,vol. 46
- Works by Jacques-Paul MigneatProject Gutenberg
- Works by or about Jacques Paul Migneat theInternet Archive
- Patrologia Graeca- patristica.net
- Adalbert Hamman,"Un grand éditeur du XIXe siècle",Le Monde,7 January 1975
- L'abbé Jacques-Paul Migne- website on life and works of Migne
- The "Links Galore" spreadsheet contains lists of links to scans of volumes for three of Migne's series:
