On the Writings Circulated under the Names of Dionysius the Areopagite and Ignatius of Antioch: Two Books

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Original title: De scriptis, quæ sub Dionysii Areopagitæ et Ignatii Antiocheni nominibus circumferuntur, libri duo A two-book Latin treatise of patristic criticism and ecclesiastical history, printed at Geneva by Jean-Antoine and Samuel de Tournes, with a dedicatory epistle to Samuel Bochart dated Paris, 1 November 1665. Daillé argues that the mystical corpus circulating under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite and the letters ascribed to Ignatius of Antioch are subdititia — substituted writings fabricated long after the deaths of the martyrs to whom they are falsely attributed. Book I assembles the Dionysian dossier: a chain of silence among earlier writers, the novelty of the nine angelic orders, Hypatius of Ephesus's rejection of the books at the collation of 532, a dating of their publication to about 520, arguments from diction, style, liturgy and ecclesiastical offices, and a dismissal of the identification of Dionysius with Saint Denis. Book II treats the Ignatian letters as a 'two-bodied' corpus, tracing silence through Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian and Origen, first certain attestation in Eusebius, and growth from six letters to twelve and fifteen, with numbered arguments on anachronistic titles, rites and terminology, notably the distinction of bishop from presbyter. Two appendices extend the same method: a censure of the pseudo-Cyprianic De cardinalibus operibus Christi and a brief admonition on Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin renderings of Origen, urging that what is Rufinus's be separated from what is Origen's. The work also includes chapter synopses, an index, addenda and errata. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

• Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here
• View the original source file

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