The Discoveries of Manuscripts from Late Antiquity

This book offers an anthology from the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Patristic Studies, “The Discoveries of Manuscripts from Late Antiquity: Their Impact on Patristic Studies and the Contemporary World”, which took place in San Juan, Argentina, in March 2017. The aim of this event was to analyze and assess 20th- and 21st-century discoveries of manuscripts from Late Antiquity. Indeed, complete libraries of manuscripts, as well as individual documents of great importance for our understanding of historical authors and situations, have come to light after having been buried for millennia. Just some examples are the incredible discoveries of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic library, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Origen of Alexandria’s homilies, and Augustine’s sermons, among others. Rather than being passive documents, these manuscripts pose numerous questions to specialists from a diverse array of fields, demanding new evaluations of a past that was already thought to be understood and judged.