Volker Henning Drecoll: Improving the text. Collecting and emendating Augustine’s work in the Carolingian era

The new critical edition of De gratia et libero categorizes the text of Lyon, BM 608 and Paris BN lat. 9544 as the result of an editorial emendating work that is combined with a collection of Augustinian texts on grace and predestination. This can be clearly seen in comparison with the fragments of Eugippius. A copy of Lyon BM 608, Paris BN lat. 2095, shows the ongoing emendating work in the ninth century. One of the manuscripts used in the corrections of Paris BN lat. 2095 is Paris BN lat. 12210, a manuscript that tried to produce a supplement for those parts that are absent from the old uncial Corbie manuscript (Paris BN lat. 12205) from the 6th or 7th century. The corrected text of Paris BN lat. 2095 was often reproduced in a considerable number of manuscripts, thus the editorial work of the Carolingian era can be observed here in detail. By taking into account the manner of this text production, new light can be shed on general decisions how to establish the Augustinian text in a modern critical edition.