Eusebius of Caesarea (c.260 – 339/340)′s Ecclesiastical History counts among the leading productions of world literary heritage. The first ‘history’ to be composed by a Christian, it constitutes an invaluable source for the first three centuries of Christianity, up until the ‘Great Persecution’, which Eusebius witnessed directly , and Contantine’s obtaining power. This rich and complex work has however never been the object of a complete commentary. Historians and philologists have now come together to rectify this omission. The commentary stricto sensu will consist of four volumes providing the Greek text of the Ecclesiastical History, a completely new translation and historical, philological and literary observations.
This first volume serves as an introduction to the work and to its commentary. Produced with the collaborative assistance of French and Italian researchers together with a Swiss colleague, it will provide the specialist, students, and the widest public, with the status quaestionis on Eusebius’ biography, the chronology of his works and his intellectual profile; the relations between the Ecclesiastical History and what goes by the name of ‘’Chronicle’’; the literary genre of the work; the various adjustments made by Eusebius himself; the manuscript translation of the Greek text; the ancient Latin, Coptic, Syriac and Armenian versions of the work. The volume also provides a revised index of allusions and quotations in the Ecclesiastical History, and concludes with a reasoned bibliography permitting rapid access to the present state of knowledge regarding the work.
Sébastien Morlet is a Maître de Conférences at Paris-Sorbonne University and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. A Hellenist working in the field of Patristics, he specializes particularly in Eusebius of Caesarea and polemical literature in Late Antiquity.
Lorenzo Perrone teaches the history of Christian literature in Antiquity at the University of Bologna. Founder of the Italian Group for Research on Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition (Pisa, 1994), he has edited the review ‘’Adamantius’’ since it was established in 1995. His researches cover the history of the Holy Land and monasticism in Late Antiquity as well as writers of the Alexandrian tradition, notably Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea.
See http://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/?GCOI=22510100070640