Jacques Paul Migne’s Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca forms the largest collection ever published of the extant writings of the Greek Fathers and Doctors of the early and medieval Church. It served as the translation base for Philip Schaff’s Early Church Fathers and has been the bedrock for theological and historical studies of the time period extending from the Apostolic Fathers in the late first or early second century to the fifteenth century.
Between 1857 and 1866, the abbé Jacques Paul Migne, an industrious French priest, published the 161 volumes that make up the Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, roughly translated “Complete Course on Patrology, Greek Series,” and commonly referred to as “Patrologia Graeca” (PG). These volumes contain much of the available witness in Greek to the writings of the Fathers of the early and medieval Church.
An Indispensable Resource for Greek Scholars and Academics
Each volume of the Patrologia Graeca contains not only the Greek editions of the writings of the Fathers, but also lengthy dissertations, introductions, and other supplementary material. Many editions even contain notes on textual variants found among other manuscripts, along with explanatory material written in Latin. In addition to the 161 volumes of the PG (166 print vols.), the Logos Edition also includes the later published index to the Patrologia Graeca compiled by Ferdinandus Cavallera. With it, you can find entries by author, work, date, or subject.
The thirty-eight-volume edition of the Early Church Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff, used many of the Patrologia Graeca volumes as its translation base, but the Patrologia Graeca contains many works of the Church Fathers not translated by Schaff and not available in English.