S. Irenæi episcopi Lugdunensis fragmenta anecdota, Quæ Ex Bibliothecâ Taurinensi eruit, Latinâ versione notisque donavit, duabus Dissertationibus De Oblatione & Consecratione Eucharistiae illustravit, Denique Liturgia Græca Jo. Ern. Grabii […]

Full title: S. Irenæi episcopi Lugdunensis fragmenta anecdota, Quæ Ex Bibliothecâ Taurinensi eruit, Latinâ versione notisque donavit, duabus Dissertationibus De Oblatione & Consecratione Eucharistiae illustravit, Denique Liturgia Græca Jo. Ern. Grabii & Dissertatione De Præjudiciis Theologicis auxit Christophorus Matthæus Pfaffius

8vo. pp. [28], 647, [13]. Signatures: *6 **8 A-Z8 Aa-Ss8. Contemporary vellum. Remnants of links. Manuscript spine title “Irenai Fragme[n]ta anecdota.” Manuscript note “(“a”)” on title page verso. Index and addenda on final sequence of pagination. Printer's device on title page. Engraved initials, tailpieces. Includes bibliographical references (printed footnotes) and index. Greek and Latin translation in facing columns in first part, otherwise mostly Latin with some Greek and Hebrew.

First edition of the famous Pfaff forgeries of St Irenaeus. Four new textual fragments of Saint Irenaeus, the second-century Church Father, were first circulated in 1715 by Christoph Matthaeus Pfaff (1686-1760), a second-generation theologian of Tübingen, as discoveries made at the Royal Library at Torino. They handily confirmed his own pietistic belief that "the core of Christianity was the simple teachings of Christ, while 'quarrels' and 'schisms' arose chiefly from a misguided belief in the vital importance of particular dogmas or observances" (A. Grafton, Forgers and critics: creativity and duplicity in Western scholarship. London, 1990, p. 32). William Whiston welcomed the work enthusiastically and translated it into English (see Bib# 4656316/Fr# 1412 in this collection), but the forgeries were definitively exposed by Scipione Maffei over the next two decades (see also Bib# 4103032/Fr# 1414). Pfaff himself replied at length to the sceptics (see Bib# 4103031/Fr# 1413), and never confessed to the forgery, though Adolf von Harnack in 1900 effectively proved him the perpetrator.

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