TO THE BENEVOLENT READER, JOHANN LUDWIG SCHULZE
The last volume of this edition has claimed for itself the largest part of our study and labor; in preparing it, we have given every effort to ensure that what Garnerius once gathered in his *Auctarium* should appear more enriched and, where need be, amended. We shall not use a long preface, for we have already warned the reader about many things within the work itself, as the matter required. The first place is held by the *Refutation of the XII Anathemas of Cyril* [a], still remaining from our fourth volume of Sirmondus's edition. All those items from the *Auctarium* of Garnerius which, having not yet found a convenient place, necessarily had to be collected into this volume—for those who use our edition know that some had already been provided in the first volume in the *Commentaries on the Psalms*, and in the fourth volume both in the books *On the Healing of Greek Affections* and in the collection of the letters of Theodoret—will be understood by all who wish to recognize the order in which the pages of our edition correspond to the pages of the previous edition, by means of the table placed below this preface. We were able to fill the gaps that Garnerius had left in the *Hypomnestica to the Psalms* from a transcript of the Vienna codex, and to add others from this and a certain Florentine transcript. That part of the *Auctarium* (pp. 84–153), which pertains to the fourth volume, we could not indeed enrich from codices, but an opportunity has quite often arisen to amend certain passages and to use our own conjectures by means of Photius and Marius Mercator. Garnerius’s five *Dissertations*, which occupy the next place (pp. 133–906), would have caused the occasion for long-winded disputes; but a small book would have had to be written if one wished to spend time refuting all his bolder and occasionally rather unfair conjectures. We therefore preferred to aim at brevity, and, if it were necessary, to argue in a few words against things stated less correctly or unfairly, rather than to launch into a flowery oration against a writer whose faults we know to be present, but whose merits we also know to be great.
The numbers by which these *Dissertations* of Garnerius are distinguished were, in the previous edition, a great source of confusion for readers, as we noted on page 420. Therefore, an amendment was necessary so that the number of the third *Dissertation* would not recur in this edition, for by that name two [dissertations] had been inscribed in the *Auctarium* of Garnerius. The former of these, as the subject matter suggested, we have made an appendix to the second, which treats of the books ascribed to Theodoret either rightly or rashly; to the latter, however, which deals with the faith of Theodoret, we deemed the name of "third" should be assigned. To the second [dissertation], we have subjoined (p. 350 seq.) those observations which Garnerius had added to the letters first published in the *Auctarium*. For we thought this place to be most suitable for them, so that it would not be tiresome for readers to gather, here and there, the materials pertaining to the elucidation of Theodoret’s letters, like scattered limbs. However, we decided that those Dialogues, to which Garnerius had given a place among the *Dissertations*, should be relegated to the end of this volume; a decision which, for the reasons cited on page 420, will, we hope, not displease the readers. The fifth *Dissertation*, which is inscribed *On Theodoret and the Case of the Orientals* and contains nearly two hundred various letters pertaining to the history of Theodoret, had many gaps in the *Auctarium* of Garnerius. For many letters were absent from his previous edition, and whoever wished to read them had to consult those larger collections of the Councils. But since not everyone can draw from these sources, those who are eager and learned readers of these matters—to whom is now offered an entire collection of these letters, enriched with many annotations of Baluze, Mansi, and others, of which we spoke on page 608—will consider themselves relieved of a great burden. The other part of this volume is constituted by those seven *Dialogues against the Arians, Macedonians and Apollinarians*, along with the *Sermons* of Eutherius of Tyana [b], and certain additions to the first and fourth volumes.
A As regards those Dialogues, we have not wished to change the title of the blessed Theodoret, which Garnerius had given them; however, in the preceding pages and on the very threshold of this work, we have already warned, or rather we have recently demonstrated in a Program written in the name of the Academy, in which we proclaimed the holy feast days of the memory of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, by instituting a comparison with the genuine books of our author, that this little book can by no right be claimed for Theodoret. We have been able to emend the Greek text throughout from the edition of Henry Stephens and from the Benedictine edition of the Works of Athanasius. We have also used this most excellent edition of Athanasius to emend several readings in the *Sermons* of Eutherius. Hardouin says in the scholium which exists on page 1117 that there are eighteen of these, but almost all others number them XVII. Hardouin therefore seems to have added into the calculation that proœmial epistle which precedes on page 1118 of our edition.
It remains for us to speak of those things which we have included under the name of Addenda. To both increase and illustrate the first part of the first volume, that excellent *Catena on the Octateuch and the Books of Kings* recently edited at Leipzig in the years 1772 and 1773, which is inscribed *A Chain of Fifty-one Commentators on the Octateuch and the Books of Kings, now for the first time published in print by the care of Nicephorus Hieromonachus Theotokos*, has brought us no small utility. How remarkably he has deserved of the literary field, he who undertook the task of editing this *Catena*, a reverend man now called archbishop in the Venetian territory, we wish to commend to all by our example, and we pray that the studies of others may also be excited to enrich the writings of the Fathers from this new source. B For everyone will understand from those things which we have adduced on pages 1176–1233 that this harvest is abundant (a). Nor is there any longer any reason to doubt the truth of the conjecture into which learned men have fallen, that those *Questions of Theodoret on the Octateuch* and other historical books of the Old Testament, which are in some parts quite prolix and not everywhere sufficiently coherent, were compiled from lesser scholia composed by him to illustrate this or that passage. So that this might appear the more to all, and that we might be useful to those who may one day wish to deserve well by editing our author again, we have deemed that labor neither alien to us nor burdensome, which we have voluntarily imposed upon ourselves in gathering the scholia pertaining to these excerpts. For from these the Reader will understand that one or another of those *Questions* occasionally pertains to several chapters and verses, and consists of many parts, which could not have been searched out and collected in the *Catena* without tiresome labor. Now that this labor is completed, we think we have achieved the result that everyone can very easily know to what each thing is to be referred.
For the Books of Kings, besides the *Catena* already praised, we have used excerpts from the codices formerly Coislinian, described on page 1196, which are owed to the study of the illustrious Lobstein, now attached to the order of philosophers at the Academy of Strasbourg. We have then added, on page 1234 and following, those things which we found in the Viennese and Florentine apographs pertaining to the *Hypomnestica* on the Psalms.
The indices are owed to the study of the illustrious Bauer, Master of Arts and most deserving rector of the school of Hirschberg, who has already earned praise through many specimens of his talent and learning, such as we congratulate him for having increased now that this new labor has been happily completed. The illustrious Bertram, Master of Arts, also brings it about, through his assiduity and exceptional diligence, that many marvel that the printer's errors in this entire work are so rare.
C Among the greatest benefits, however, which I refer as accepted from God, the Best and Greatest, I shall especially cherish this throughout my entire life, that on this day, according to my vow, it has come to pass for me. For with the help of divine grace, which surpasses all our thoughts and praises, the labor has now been brought to an end, continued through eight years and a bit more, amidst many difficulties and vicissitudes. That God may command it to yield to the glory of his most high name and the great utility of others, I humbly pray.
Given at Halle, in the Frederick Academy, on the 26th day of April, in the year of the Reparation of Salvation 1774.
(a) We have recalled this variety of readings expressed from the Leipzig *Catena* to the first volume and have placed them below the text. EDIT. PATR.