What is the RTF?

The Répertoire des traductions françaises des Pères de l’Église (RTF) is an indispensable tool for identifying and finding the translations of the works of Church Fathers.

The RTF is a unique source of information for the religious literature of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Although some scholarly editions list the French translations (and those in other languages as well), none of them take into account the partial translations. The database offers for the first time a methodical census.

Professor Benoît Gain (Université de Grenoble Alpes), having read this repertoire in its entirety, has devoted himself to its promotion in order to facilitate scholarly research. In order to make its use easier, he has established a list of acronyms and abbrevations, and he has written a general presentation of the whole database.

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Who are the Church Fathers?

Under the term “Church Fathers” we understand all Christian writers of the first centuries AD – more than 700, including anonymous writings – whose works are preserved in Latin, Greek, Syriac or other languages of the Christian Near East. It is thus the broad definition that has been retained for the present Répertoire des traductions françaises des Pères de l’Église (RTF). The chronological limit extends to the beginning of the ninth century.

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What types of text are referenced in the RTF ?

The texts predominantly consist of literary works spanning numerous genres of prose and poetry: prose includes theological treatises, homilies, sermons, letters, catechetical instructions, and didactic compositions, and poetry encompasses epics, hymns, epigrams (especially epitaphs), and certain theatrical texts.
Also cataloged are canonical and legal documents, such as the laws and decrees of Roman emperors, in addition to a selection of Gnostic writings predating 1945 and the thirteen codices unearthed at Nag Hammadi.

It is also pertinent to catalog all literary forms characteristic of hagiography, liturgy, geography, chronology, and computus. The term “apocrypha” refers to “intertestamentary writings” and “Christian apocrypha,” where the Christian influence is sometimes confined to interpolations in texts originally Jewish or Judaizing.

Fr. Marcotte has adhered to the two Claves (Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti and Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti) in this compilation.

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Key Features

• An irreplaceable research tool for the study of the texts of the Greek, Latin and Eastern Fathers (from the second to the beginning of the ninth century)
• Gives all the references to complete translations of a work and translations of excerpts
• Contains 12,363 sheets:
  • Latin Fathers: 3836
  • Eastern Fathers: 1700
  • Apocrypha: 647
  • Greek Fathers: 6180
• Search interface in two languages (French – English)
• Search screen with several searchable fields (author, title, reference), allowing a precise search