PROLEGOMENA TO ST. AMBROSE.

I. LITERATURE.

§ 1. EDITIONS.

All editions of St. Ambrose’s works preceding that of the Benedictines are quite inadequate. The chief ones are:
1. Venice, 1485.
2. Cribellius, 1490.
3. Auerbach, Basel, 1492 (reprinted in 1506 with a full index). These are very faulty editions.
4. Erasmus, Basel, 1527 (reprinted and edited by others in various places, including Baronius in 1549).
5. Gillot Campanus, Paris, 1568.
6. Felix de Montalto (later Pope Sixtus V), Rome, 1580–1585 (reprinted at Paris, 1603).
7. The Benedictines of St. Maur, Paris, 1686–1690 (reprinted at Venice, 1748 and 1781, with additions by Migne, Patres Latini original: "Latin Fathers", Vols. XIV.–XVII.).
8. A new edition by Ballerini, Milan, 1875–1886, based on the Benedictine version, but by no means superior to it.

There is still room for a critical edition of the works of this great Father, which are unfortunately very corrupt; however, in many points, the work of the Benedictine editors is unlikely to be improved upon.
9. There are separate editions of some of St. Ambrose’s treatises, such as the Hexaëmeron original: "Six Days of Creation" and De Officiis Clericorum original: "On the Duties of the Clergy", in the Bibliotheca Patrum Eccl. Latinæ Selecta original: "Selected Library of the Latin Church Fathers", Leipzig, Tauchnitz. The De Officiis has also been edited with significant textual improvements by Krabinger, Tübingen, 1857, and the De Fide and De Pœnitentia original: "On Repentance" by Hurter in the Vienna selections of the Fathers.

§ 2. TRANSLATIONS.

There seems to have been no previous attempt to translate the works of this great Christian Father and Doctor in full.
A few treatises—De Officiis, De excessu fratris Satyri original: "On the Death of his brother Satyrus", De Virginitate original: "On Virginity", and several other short works—appear in German in the selected writings of the Fathers published by Kosel of Kempten. The Epistles were translated into French by Bonrecueil (Paris, 1746). In English, the De Officiis was translated by Humfrey (London, 1637), and the letters appear in the Oxford “Library of the Fathers,” revised by E. Walford (London, 1881). The De Mysteriis original: "On the Mysteries" is featured in a small volume of sacramental treatises published by J. Parker & Co., Oxford, under the supervision of the editor of this volume. A very valuable, though regrettably brief, monograph titled Studia Ambrosiana original: "Ambrosian Studies" (primarily critical) was written by Maximilian Ihm (Leipzig, Teubner, 1889).

§ 3. BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTHORITIES FOR THE LIFE OF ST. AMBROSE.

(a.) Ancient.

Many of his own writings; the life of St. Ambrose by Paulinus a deacon who served under Ambrose, a deacon of the Church of Milan; St. Augustine’s Confessions (V. 23–24; VI. 1–6; IX. 13–16) and many other passages in his writings; St. Jerome’s De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis original: "On Ecclesiastical Writers", ch. 134; and Rufinus.