# J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae Graecae

Welcome to the electronic version of Migne's Patrologiae Graecae. PG contains more than 160 volumes of Greek material (with Latin translations) relevant to the study of the history of the Christian Church from its beginnings through the Council of Florence in 1439.

J.-P. Migne, a priest from 1824-1833, moved to Paris and began the work of assembling an enormous body of early texts from 1833 till his death in 1873. His work consists of the The Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca (Paris, 1857-1866), 161 volumes (a.k.a PG), and the Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina (Paris, 1844-1855), 221 volumes (a.k.a PL). (The latter is a collection of the writings of the "Latin fathers," from Tertullian in the third century to Innocent III [d. 1216]. The texts are written in Latin, which became the official language of the western church, displacing Greek by ca. 200 CE.)

PG is a collection of the writings of the church leaders who wrote in Greek, including both the Eastern "Fathers" and those Western Christians who wrote before the Latin takeover of the West in the third century. It includes, for example, the early writings collectively known as the Apostolic Fathers, such as the Epistles of Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas, the church historian Eusebius, the controversial theologian Origen, and the Cappadocian Fathers Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. PG's coverage extends to 1439, the date of the Council of Florence.

The texts are generally interlaced, with one column of Greek and a corresponding column on the other side of the page that is the Latin translation. Where the Greek has been lost, such as in Irenaeus, the full text appears only in Latin, and the extant Greek fragments of the work are interspersed throughout the Latin text. In one instance, the original is preserved in Syriac only and translated into Latin.

The electronic edition of PG (Electronic PG) is now made available electronically for the first time by the Religion and Technology Center. Electronic PG has been created using the first edition of PG, the preference of the majority of scholars. In 1868 a fire destroyed Migne's workshop, including his plates and stereotypes. All editions reprinted after 1868 are highly suspect and should not be trusted without comparison to the first. For more information, see J. Quasten, Patrology (4 vols.), 1:14-15, and Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Frank Cross, s.v., "Migne."

To access the newly created Tables of Content, which feature more extensive accessiblity to the contents of each volume of PG than Migne's originals, click on the links below. To browse through each volume, click either next or prev. To view specific columns, enter the number of that column in the area labeled Go to column and click OK (most volumes of PG are enumerated as columns rather than pages). To return to the Table of Contents at any time, click Contents. To view a printable page, click the link entitled Printable Page.

For more information on Electronic PG, go to http://purl.org/reltech/PG.

- PG 45: Gregory of Nyssa