As of June 2024, 166 new works have been added to the Library of Latin Texts. Furthermore, eight texts have been reorganized or replaced by a more recent edition. Since December 2023, over 2.8 million words have been added to the database. Consequently, the LLT now contains 12,070 works (among which 5,804 are diplomatic charters), totaling over 161.7 million words.
Patristic era
First, we have updated the text of Jerome’s Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, which now contains the commentaries edited for the Series Latina of the Corpus Christianorum by Msgr Gryson in 2020 and 2023.
Furthermore, we have continued our programme to incorporate the sermons falsely attributed to Saint Augustine. This has resulted in the addition of 31 pseudo-Augustinian sermons or sets of sermons, most of them from Late Antiquity or the Early Middle Ages. These include, among other texts, the so-called Apocrypha Priscillianistica and a series of sermons from the ‘School of Saint Augustine’.
A third major project for the Patristic Age has been to make available the extensive series of (usually fairly short) commentaries on the Apostle’s Creed from Late Antiquity. More information about these expositiones symboli, as they are called, can be found in the overview works by Liuwe H. Westra (The Apostles’ Creed: Origin, History and Some Early Commentaries [Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia, 43], Turnhout, 2002) and Susan Keefe (Explanationes symboli aevi Carolini [Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 254], Turnhout, 2012).
Middle Ages
After ten years of gradual progress, the complete Opera omnia of Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471) are now available in the LLT. Celebrated as Doctor Ecstaticus, Denis was one of the most prolific theologians of his age. He wrote over 150 works, mainly commentaries (on the Bible, several Patristic authors, and Peter the Lombard’s Sentences), but also theological treatises, sermons, and religious poems.
Over the last few updates, we have gradually been introducing the works of another famous Carthusian as well, Adam of Dryburgh (c. 1140–c. 1212). The current update sees the addition of some of his more famous works, such as the De quadripertito exercitio cellae and his treatise on the way of life of the Premonstratensian canons – Adam had indeed entered the Order of Prémontré before becoming a Carthusian.
From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries onwards, the Catholic Church saw the rise of the mendicant orders, with the Dominicans, or the Order of Preachers, being one of their prime examples. The current update of the LLT features the text of their oldest Constitutions, according to their reconstruction by Father Thomas. These Constitutions are commented upon by Humbert of Romans, the order’s fifth General Master, the majority of whose works can now be consulted in our database as well.
Finally, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries would see the pinnacle of scholasticism, which brings us back to Denys, who was still heavily influenced by this philosophical school. In this realm, the current update also includes Radulphus Brito’s Quaestiones super Librum Ethicorum Aristotelis, as well as the anonymous Franciscan Logica ‘ad rudium’, that kicks off our project of integrating Brepols’ entire Artistarium series in the LLT.
Neo-Latin literature
We end our chronological overview with two Neo-Latin texts. The first are the Sylvae lyricae, a collection of occasional poetry composed by the German poet Jakob Balde (1604–1668), and inspired by the ancient Roman poet Statius’ Silvae.
Secondly, in preparation for the University of Leuven’s six-hundredth anniversary that takes place next year, we have added to our database the Historiae Lovaniensis libri XIV, a history of Leuven and its university written by Joannes Molanus (1533–1585) in the sixteenth century, but only published two centuries later by P. F. X. de Ram, the then-rector of the university.
More information
Of course, this overview can only give a glimpse of the various recent additions to the LLT. Therefore, we invite our users to consult the list of new works (“New titles 2024”) and the full list of authors and titles (“All titles”).