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Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of
theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...
works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the
Church Father The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
s, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood. The ''
Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...
'' and the '' Patrologia Graeca'' (along with the ''
Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...
'') are among the great 19th century contributions to the scholarship of patristics and the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. Within the Roman Catholic Church, Migne's editions put many original texts for the first time into the hands of the priesthood.


Biography

Migne was born in Saint-Flour,
Cantal Cantal (; or ) is a rural Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Aurillac. Its other principal towns are Saint-Flour, Cantal, Saint-Flou ...
and studied
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
at the University of Orléans. He was ordained in 1824 and placed in charge of the parish of Puiseaux, in the diocese of Orléans, where his uncompromisingly Catholic and royalist sympathies did not coincide with local patriotism and the new regime of the Citizen-King. In 1833, after falling out with his bishop over a pamphlet he had published, he went to Paris, and on 3 November started a journal, , which he intended to keep free of political influence. It quickly gained 1,800 subscribers and he edited it for three years. (It afterwards became his co-editor Louis Veuillot's ultramontane organ, .) Migne was, until June 1856, owner of the daily (formerly the ), which, being limited to reproducing other newspapers, described itself as the impartial echo of all opinions. Migne believed in the power of the press and the value of information widely distributed. In 1836 he opened his great publishing house, the , at Petit-Montrouge, in Paris's outlying 14th arrondissement. He published numerous religious works in rapid succession meant for lesser clergy at prices that ensured wide circulation, and bypassed the bookselling establishment with direct subscriptions. These works were reproduced from the best available texts, generally without requesting permission. His publishing house was complemented during the Second Empire by painter artists' workhalls for the decoration of churches: three of their main works, in the style of
Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...
, still remain in the choir of the church of Saint
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of Audresselles in
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, France. The also produced and sold a variety of religious items. In time, the became the largest privately held press in France. However, on the night of 12–13 February 1868, a devastating fire, which began in the printing plant, destroyed Migne's establishment. "Five hundred thousand plates, stacked in piles, melted in an instant; they are now enormous blocks on the most bizarre forms," reported . Despite his insurance contracts, Migne was only able to retrieve a pittance. Shortly afterwards,
Georges Darboy Georges Darboy (; 16 January 181324 May 1871) was a French Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Nancy then Archbishop of Paris. He was among a group of prominent hostages executed as the Paris Commune of 1871 was about to be overthrown. ...
, Archbishop of Paris, forbade the continuance of the business and even suspended Migne from his priestly functions. The
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
of 1870 inflicted further losses. Then from the
curia Curia (: curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally probably had wider powers, they came to meet ...
of
Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...
came a decree condemning the use of Mass stipends to purchase books, which specifically called out Migne and his publications. Migne died in Paris. He died without ever regaining his former success and his passed in 1876 into the hands of Garnier Frères.


A complete edition of patrology

The best known of his publications are: ''Scripturae sacrae cursus completus'' ("complete course in sacred scripture") which assembled a wide repertory of commentaries on each of the books of the Bible, and ''Theologiae cursus'', each of them in 28 vols, 1840–45; ''Collection des auteurs sacrés'' (100 vols., 1846–48); ''Encyclopédie théologique'' (171 vols., 1844–46). However, the three great series that have made his reputation were ''Patrologiae cursus completus'', Latin series (''
Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...
'') in 221 vols. (1844–55); Greek series ('' Patrologia Graeca''), first published in Latin (85 vols., 1856–57); then published with Greek text and Latin translation (165 vols., 1857–58). Though scholars have always criticised them, these hastily edited, inexpensive, and widely distributed texts have only slowly been replaced during a century and a half with more critically edited modern editions. The cheap paper of the originals has made them fragile today, but the scope of the ''Patrologia'' still makes it unique and valuable when modern editions do not yet exist. It is a far more complete collection of Patristic and later literature than anything that has appeared subsequently. To create so much so quickly, Migne reprinted the best or latest earlier editions available to him. In the ''PG'' the Latin translations were often made in the renaissance before any Greek text had been printed, and so do not necessarily match the Greek text very accurately. The indexes themselves are useful for locating references in the patristic writings. The collection is available through
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
and archive.org.


Summary of publications

Migne's ''Ateliers catholiques'' employed 5 steam-powered presses, and by 1854 some 596 workers. On average, it published a book every ten days for thirty years. In summary these were: * ''Patrologia Latina'', 217 tomes in 218 volumes * ''Patrologia Graeca'', 161 tomes in 166 volumes * Greek Fathers in Latin, 81 tomes in 85 volumes * ''Scripturae sacrae cursus completus'', 25 volumes * ''Theologia cursus completus'', 25 volumes * ''Démonstration évangeliques des plus célèbres défenseurs du Christianisme'', 18 volumes * ''Orateurs sacrés'' in two series, 66 and 33 volumes * ''Première encyclopédie théologique ou série de dictionnaires sur toutes les parties de la science religieuse'', 50 volumes * ''Nouvelle encyclopédie théologique'', 53 volumes * ''Troisième et dernière encylopédie ecclésiastique'', 66 volumes * ''Summa aurea de laudibus B. Mariae virginis'', 13 volumes


References


External links

*
Brief biography
independent research (in French)
Migne Patrologia Graeca
Index of Authors / Download links
Faulkner University Patristics Project
A growing collection of English translations of patristic texts and high-resolution scans from the comprehensive ''Patrologia'' compiled by J. P. Migne.

PDF's of much of the ''Patrologia Latina'' * Polytonic Greek OCR of PG from the Lace repository at
Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to award a baccal ...

vol. 45

vol. 46
* *
''Patrologia Graeca'' - patristica.net
* Adalbert Hamman

''
Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'', 7 January 1975
L'abbé Jacques-Paul Migne
- website on life and works of Migne * The "Links Galore" spreadsheet contains lists of links to scans of volumes for three of Migne's series: *
''Patrologica Latina''
*
''Patrologica Graeca''
*
''Encyclopédie Théologique''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Migne, Jacques Paul 1800 births 1875 deaths People from Cantal Catholic education Christian scholars Hellenists French Latinists Patrologists French editors 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests French male non-fiction writers