Jacques Paul Migne

Jacques Paul Migne (; ; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French Catholic priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood.

The Patrologia Latina and the Patrologia Graeca (along with the Monumenta Germaniae Historica) are among the great 19th century contributions to the scholarship of patristics and the Middle Ages. 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 and studied theology 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, , Despite his insurance contracts, Migne was only able to retrieve a pittance.

Shortly afterwards, Georges Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, forbade the continuance of the business and even suspended Migne from his priestly functions. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 inflicted further losses. Then from the curia of Pope Pius IX 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 series that have made his reputation were Patrologiae cursus completus, Latin series (Patrologia Latina) 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 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 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 volumes in 218 parts Patrologia Graeca, 161 volumes in 166 parts Greek Fathers in Latin, 81 volumes in 85 parts 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