The Rule of Saint Benedict and its commentators, Cassian’s Institutes and the Sayings of the Desert Fathers: the Latin and its translation side by side, line by line. Every text is retyped from public-domain editions published before 1962; where no old translation has yet been verified, the Latin is given alone.
Title page of the Solitudo sive Vitae Patrum eremicolarum, engraving by Jan Sadeler after Maerten de Vos, 1594. image source — Public domain
Each text is retyped, then checked against the printed edition before it is approved. Only approved texts are published; the others are marked “in preparation”. Found an error? Write to us with the reference.
Latin text: Hunter Blair’s edition, The Rule of St. Benedict, Fort Augustus, 1906, without the editor’s bracketed Scripture references and notes. Standard verse numbering. · English translation by Cardinal F. A. Gasquet († 1929), London, 1925.
Commentary on the Rule Dom Edmond Martène, Maurist (1690)
Dom Edmond Martène OSB, Congregation of Saint-Maur († 1739), Commentarius in Regulam S. P. Benedicti, Paris, 1690; text transcribed from the reprint in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. 66, Paris, 1859. Latin. Published in stages: only the chapters checked against the scans are given. No verified translation is offered at present.
The commentary appears under each verse, on the pages of the Rule: Prologue
approved · FR
Commentary on the Rule Dom Paul Delatte, Abbot of Solesmes (1913)
Dom Paul Delatte OSB, Abbot of Solesmes († 1937), Commentaire sur la Règle de saint Benoît, Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 1913 (1913 pagination; text of the revised reprints, from the University of Toronto scans). French.
The commentary appears under each verse, on the pages of the Rule: Prologue
Latin text: De institutis coenobiorum, ed. M. Petschenig, Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 17, Vienna, 1888, checked against the scans; without the critical apparatus. · English translation by E. C. S. Gibson († 1924), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11, New York, 1894. Gibson left Book VI untranslated.
Latin text: Conlationes XXIIII, ed. M. Petschenig, Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 13, Vienna, 1886, checked against the scans; without the critical apparatus. · English translation by E. C. S. Gibson († 1924), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 11, New York, 1894. Gibson left Conferences XII and XXII untranslated.
The Sayings of the Elders (Verba seniorum, Book V)
Latin text: Verba seniorum, Book V of the Vitae Patrum, translated from the Greek by Pelagius, deacon of the Roman Church, in H. Rosweyde’s edition as reprinted in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. 73 (1879 reprint), cols. 855–988, checked against the scans; without the editor’s notes and cross-references. · English translation by James O. Hannay († 1950), The Wisdom of the Desert, London, Methuen, 1904 — a selection, sometimes free: sayings he did not translate are given in Latin only. His captions and seven sentences he added himself (V.2.9, V.3.6, V.7.8, V.7.31, V.10.88, V.15.7, V.16.11) are not reproduced: the text given is an edited excerpt.
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