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When early Christians began to study the Bible, and to write their own history and that of the Jews whom they claimed to supersede, they used scholarly methods invented by the librarians and literary critics of Hellenistic Alexandria. But Origen and Eusebius, two scholars of late Roman Caesarea, did far more. Both produced new kinds of books, in which parallel columns made possible critical comparisons previously unenvisioned, whether between biblical texts or between national histories. Eusebius went even farther, creating new research tools, new forms of history and polemic, and a new kind of library to support both research and book production. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book combines broad-gauged synthesis and close textual analysis to reconstruct the kinds of books and the ways of organizing scholarly inquiry and collaboration among the Christians of Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Palestine. The book explores the dialectical relationship between intellectual history and the history of the book, even as it expands our understanding of early Christian scholarship. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book attends to the social, religious, intellectual, and institutional contexts within which Origen and Eusebius worked, as well as the details of their scholarly practices--practices that, the authors argue, continued to define major sectors of Christian learning for almost two millennia and are, in many ways, still with us today. (20070323)
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ch r i st i a ni t y and the t r a nsf o r mat i o n of the b o o k Christianity and the Transformation of the Book orig en , e u s e bi u s , a n d th e li b r a ry o f ca e s a re a Anthony Grafton Megan Williams t h e belk n ap pres s of h arvard u n ivers it y pres s Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Designed by Annamarie Why First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grafton, Anthony. Christianity and the transformation of the book : Origen, Eusebius, and the library of Caesarea / Anthony Grafton, Megan Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-02314-7 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-674-03048-0 (pbk.) 1. Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260–ca. 340—Books and reading. 2. Hexapla. 3. Christian literature, Early—History and criticism. 4. Libraries and scholars. 5. Books—History—To 400. 6. Libraries—Israel—Caesarea—History— To 400. 7. Caesarea (Israel)—Intellectual life. I. Williams, Megan Hale, 1969– II. Title. BR67.2.G73 2006 270.10922—dc22 2007273343 To Peter Brown Contents Illustrations ix Preface xi Cast of Characters 1 xiv Introduction: Scholars, Books, and Libraries in the Christian Tradition 1 Origen at Caesarea: A Christian Philosopher among His Books 22 2 Origen’s Hexapla: Scholarship, Culture, and Power 86 3 Eusebius’s Chronicle: History Made Visible 133 4 Eusebius at Caesarea: A Christian Impresario of the Codex 178 Coda: Caesarea in History and Tradition 233 Abbreviations 246 Bibliography 247 con t en ts Notes 291 Acknowledgments 354 Index 357 viii Illustrations The ecclesiastical scholar and his patron, from Johannes Trithemius, Polygraphia (Oppenheim, 1518). Courtesy of the Princeton University Library. 3 Wall painting from the “banker’s house” at Pompeii, showing at least three different kinds of writing surfaces. Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY (ART162496). 9 Codex Amiatinus,