Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writers, Vol. LXII: Ambrose's Exposition of Psalm 118

for the future editor, but it did not make much progress in emending. For the editors themselves admit in the preface that they executed ‘this exposition on the faith of many codices, if not the most ancient, at least very elegantly and accurately written.’ They name, however: a. Vatican. b. Fiscann., Ebrulph. Monastery of St. Evroul-en-Ouche, Montfaucon Bibl. bibl. II p. 1268D., Vindoc. Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Vendôme, Montfaucon l. c. p. 1202D. c. 11th century. c. Reims, of not much inferior note. d. two Sorbonne (cf. supra no. 5 and 12) and Navarric (cf. supra no. 26), one Royal, St. Ouen, Remigius, Theodoric Abbey of St. Thierry near Reims, Montfaucon l. c. p. 1231 E. of the 12th century. e. one German, Colbert, Jumièges of the 13th century. f. one from the monastery of Liessies.

b After the Maurists, Paulus Angelus Ballerinius, canon of the metropolitan church of Milan, edited the works of Ambrose (Milan 1876). He did not have great care for using new codices; he seized those he had found nearby, namely three Ambrosians and one of the church of Novara, all of the 12th century. But even with their help, he was able to emend quite a few things, as appears from his notes, if he had trusted them more. As the matter stands, his edition is a mere copy of the Maurist one, rarely corrected, sometimes even faulty. The titles of the editions "First Sermon etc.", because they lack any authority, I have rejected and replaced them with those which seem to be confirmed by the subscriptions of the codices and the beginnings of the sermons.

M. Ihm, a man who otherwise deserved very well regarding the writings of Ambrose, when he was preparing a new edition, was prevented by death and left only a critical apparatus, both wisely chosen and diligently collected. The rest of the work is almost entirely mine, except that Ihm added a very few notes to his collations for the sake of explanation or emendation and, in Stud. Ambros. (pages 80 sqq.), indicated some places of the ancients whom Ambrose imitates. These I have augmented myself, I have added many places of sacred scripture, I have received others found by A. Engelbrecht, a man very knowledgeable in this matter; I have striven, by frequent meditation, to investigate and restore the genuine words of the writer—which is often very difficult given such a diversity of readings.

Since this part of the Vienna edition of Ambrose is connected by a closer bond to the sixth part, which will contain the Explanation