Article,
Eusèbe de Césarée face à l'essor de la littérature chrétienne au IIe siècle: Propos pour un commentaire du IVe livre de l'Histoire Ecclésiastique
ZAC, (2007)doi: 10.1515/ZAC.2007.016.
Abstract
The article presents the current work on a commentary about the 4th book of Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica. After presenting the most important editions and bibliographical tools the article proposes the need of a detailed chronicle gathering together all the dates of the Historia Ecclesiastica, the Chronica and of other informations (e.g. about the emperors). For the analysis of language the article shows the rich vocabulary of Eusebius and the high quality of stylistic variation. The use of sources has to be analysed in a very careful manner. So, for example, the Martyrium Polycarpi, is not simply used, but Eusebius mixed two extracts with a kind of paraphrase. The comparison of the Martyrium Polycarpi with the text of book IV shows the “re-écriture” of Eusebius. So the article ends stating the several methods and strategies which should be taken into account for a commentary about Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica.
