Marie-Eve Geiger: From Rome to Paris: the Route to the First Edition of the Homilies In principium Actorum 3 and 4

The story told of the first edition of the homilies In principium Actorum seems to settled into the following simple form: homily 3 was first published by Henry Savile in 1612-1613, homily 4 by Fronton du Duc in 1616. But a textual analysis of both editions reveals an exchange between the two famous scholars in which du Duc gives material to Savile and then, in his own turn, makes use of his English colleague's work. Research into handwritten sources (esp. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Suppl. gr. 400 and 590) highlights the additional role of French scholar Jacques Sirmond. He is the key figure in the discovery of these unedited Chrysostomic texts in Rome, where he lived from 1590-1608, as well as in Genoa, which he visited during his trip back to Paris in 1608. The paper aims at an outline of the role of and collaboration between Sirmond and du Duc in the creation of these two homilies' editio princeps and at a fuller, more accurate view of the network of scholars working towards the publication of John Chrysostom’s complete works.