Confessions (la)
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~170,000 words · 791 passages
Cite this work
- APAAugustine. (n.d.). Confessions (la). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/confessiones-latin
- MLAAugustine. "Confessions (la)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/confessiones-latin.
- ChicagoAugustine. Confessions (la). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/augustine/confessiones-latin.
What it is about
Augustine's account of his own life, told to God: his youth in Carthage, the years of doubt, the conversion in a Milan garden, and the questions of what time is and what memory is.
Context and history
Written around 397-400, when Augustine was already bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa. It is the first great introspective book of Western literature: no one before had examined their own inner life at this depth, or written it down addressing God directly. The conversion it recounts — the summer of 386, a child's voice singing 'take up and read' — is among the most influential scenes ever written, and the whole genre of modern autobiography owes it its existence.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) S. AURELII AUGUSTINI CONFESSIONES POST EDITIONEM PARISIENSEM NOVISSIMAM AD FIDEM CODICUM OXONIENSIUM RECOGNITÆ, ET POST EDITIONEM M. DUBOIS EX IPSO AUGUSTINO ILLUSTRATÆ. * * * * * OXONII, J. H. PARKER; J. G. ET F. RIVINGTON, LONDINI. MDCCCXXXVIII. * * * * * {vii} MONITUM. Quum Patrum studium omni fere tempore in Ecclesia Anglicana floruerit, mirum sane accidit, non nisi unum S. Augustini opusculum[1], quod sciam, idque historici tantum argumenti, typis apud nos unquam mandatum fuisse. Auspicatius ergo a nullo alio exordium sumpturam fore Bibliothecam hanc Patrum duximus, quam ab ipso Augustino, neque opera ejus selecta quam ab ipsius Confessionibus, tum quia indolem Sancti Patris, ingenium, vitam, mores optime declarent, tum vero quia iis, qui pietati gnaviter studuerunt, nunquam non (si modo licuerit) in manibus versatæ sint. Operi tam insigni, et sæculorum plus quam tredecim quæ id in succum et sanguinem pietatis suæ converterunt, suffragiis, amore, studio, comprobato, non est quod immoremur; id ergo paucis tantum exponemus, quod in hac editione præstare voluerimus. Et nos quidem editione Benedictina contenti fuissemus, quam certe, (si in hâc vel illa Patrum editione minus diligenter egerint Monachi quidam ordinis illius impigerrimi, deque Patribus optime meriti,) solito labore et patientia, summaque cura et fidelitate concinnarunt, præsertim cum recentius adhuc summa cum diligentia denuo recensita sit et emendata; eorum tamen scrupulis occurrere voluimus, quibus suspectum est quicquid Ecclesiæ Romanæ elaboraverint asseclæ, quosque a Patrum studio absterret corruptelarum nescio quarundam suspicio. Quo ergo huic timori mederemur, codices Manuscriptos, quotquot Bibliothecæ nostræ habent, contulimus; et textum Benedictinum pro fundamento quidem ponentes, varias etiam lect