Mind-blowing stat: St. Augustine's surviving corpus totals roughly 5.5 million words across 252 books (95% survive), 400 sermons, and 300 letters. For context, all classical Latin literature combined is only about 9 million words, and Cicero managed just 1 million. Fourth and fifth-century church fathers survived so well because their writings were seen as guides to salvation.
St. Augustine's surviving works total 5.5 million words, making him the best-documented ancient person
Key facts
- Near the end of his life, St. Augustine produced a list of 252 books, of which approximately 95% survive
- Combined with 400 extant sermons and 300 letters, Augustine's works total nearly 5.5 million words
- By comparison, Cicero wrote about 1 million words
- The entire body of classical Latin literature totals around 9 million words
- Augustine's Confessions is described as the premodern world's most psychologically penetrating autobiography
- Church fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries had high survival rates because their works were regarded as guides to salvation
Sources
The "Retractationes" of Saint Augustinejstor.org
by MF Eller · 1949 · Cited by 26 — in twenty-six treatises, Augustine finds one hundred sixty-seven places to revise. The second section deals with those treatises, sixty-seven in number, only ...
The Retractationes of Saint Augustine | Church Historycambridge.org
by MF Eller · 1949 · Cited by 26 — Die Retractionen Augustins, has the only complete catalogue of all of Augustine's 219 retractations. It is the one indispensable work in this ...
Writings of Augustine - 2148 The Retractionsaugnet.osa.org.au
Retractions Augustine lists 93 titles that contain a total of 232 books. The actual number of books should be 252,
Augustine's Retractations, Perfectionism, And ...heidelblog.net
Augustine's Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations … we say it to tens, hundreds, and even to thousands. received 20,000 “ ...
Did St. Augustine retract his beliefs in the Catholic faith at ...catholic.com
Augustine never authored a work entitled Retractions. He did write Retractationes (also known as Retractationum) between 426-427. his books in ...
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