INDEX OF AUTHORS AND WORKS CONTAINED IN THIS TWENTY-SEVENTH VOLUME
SAINT ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, ARCHBISHOP
PART THREE OF THE WORKS — EXEGETICAL
Epistle to Marcellinus. col. 11 Expositions on the Psalms. 59 On the Titles of the Psalms. 591 Fragments on Job. 1344 — on the Canticle. 1347 — on Matthew. 1363 — on Luke. 1390 — on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. 1404
[index: entries preserved]
From the press of MIGNE, Petit-Montrouge.
ADMONITION REGARDING THE FOLLOWING EPISTLE TO MARCELLINUS ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PSALMS
(Opp. S. Athan. ed. Venet. 1777, t. III.)
The Greek text has been taken from the Prolegomena to volume IV of the Old Testament according to the Septuagint version, which Joannes Ernestus Grabe edited accurately from the Alexandrian Codex; he, among other things, gives this admonition regarding the same epistle: "Furthermore, although in many editions of St. Athanasius, and in the latest one by the most celebrated Montfaucon—the best of all—vol. I, part II, pages 982 through 1003, this little book to Marcellinus has been printed in Greek and Latin, nevertheless, because it is not a little more correct and fuller in our very ancient membranes that are almost contemporary with the holy Father, as will be evident to one comparing them, it has been decided to publish it here anew, though without a Latin version." The Latin version, therefore, has been taken by me from the praised edition of the Works of St. Athanasius by Father Montfaucon; it has, however, been adapted to the Greek text of the Alexandrian Codex in many places where the former did not correspond. An older version of this text was published by the clarissimus of memory Cardinal Thomasius in a book entitled: *Psalterium juxta duplicem editionem*, etc., and in the Preface to the reader he says: "This Latin version, found in a manuscript book not very old from the Vallicelliana library, we bring forth, having reviewed and corrected it according to both Greek examples." Regarding this epistle, the same most famous cardinal says: "The little work of the blessed Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, *On the Book of Psalms*, is celebrated among all the ancients; the blessed Jerome seems to call it *On the Titles of the Psalms* in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers. But since the true work of St. Athanasius *On the Titles of the Psalms*, which we are now bringing into the public light, was still hiding in darkness and had not been published, it is no wonder if that most learned man was deceived along with many others and fell into error, thinking the same work to be *On the Titles of the Psalms* and the Epistle or Little Book to Marcellinus." When the Benedictine Fathers noticed this, they prefaced the Admonition which they placed before this same Epistle to Marcellinus as follows: "Some recent writers think the Epistle to Marcellinus is that work *On the Titles of the Psalms* which is enumerated by Jerome among the Athanasian writings; but since not even a word about the titles or inscriptions of the psalms appears in this epistle, it is manifest to us that a different book is being praised by Jerome, etc." Besides the Second Council of Nicaea, Cassiodorus mentions this most excellent epistle in his book *On the Institution of Divine Letters*, chapter 4: "One should also read the little book of Athanasius, bishop of the city of Alexandria, which he sent to Marcellinus after his illness as a place of sweetest refreshment, which is entitled *On the Book of Psalms*; where, suggesting diverse things, he reveals the virtue of the work itself through most minute discussion, sweetly introducing the diverse trials of men along with their remedies." The praised Benedictine Fathers present the argument of this same epistle in a few words, in this manner: "First, this distinction is made between the Psalms and other books of Holy Scripture: that he who reads others brings forth words not as his own, but as those of the persons whose books they are, or of those who are presented as speaking; but he who recites the Psalms brings forth the words as if they were his own and pertaining properly to himself. Hence the Psalms are divided into various kinds, namely, of praying, confessing, and the like; and then it is indicated in what circumstance, in what condition, and on what occasion each psalm ought to be sung. The whole epistle is concerned with these matters."