Story of the project: from Biblia Patristica to BiblIndex

Before the opening of the BiblIndex website in December 2008, only one comprehensive tool was available for systematic research on biblical interpretation in Christian antiquity: the eight published volumes of Biblia Patristica, the index listing biblical quotations from Greek and Latin patristic authors, prepared by the Strasbourg team of the CADP (Center for Analysis and Patristic Documentation) from 1965 to 2000. Unfortunately, the remarkable work of the CADP had to stop, for lack of means, even though the richest period of patristic literature, the 4^th century, was being approached. Some of the best-known authors from the Latin world (Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great) or from the Greek world (Athanasius, John Chrysostom) were still absent, not to mention the literature in oriental languages which remained untreated. Moreover, these volumes, for the most part out of print, have proven difficult to handle for research on several authors; their system of abbreviations and acronyms is complex. In addition, they obviously do not give access to the texts themselves, but only to numerical references in published editions.

The Institut des Sources Chrétiennes was entrusted with the archives of the CADP: first the paper archives from 2000, in the form of boxes of handwritten records, then computerized archives in 2006, thanks to the invaluable collaboration of Jean Allenbach and André Pautler. This transmission marked the starting point of the BiblIndex project. Rather than continuing to publish paper volumes from these materials, the institute coupled them with information on authors and patristic works already present in its own database to initiate an innovative research program.

Thanks to funding from the Rhône-Alpes region (2005-2009), a site was put online in December 2008, making 400,000 biblical references accessible free of charge, via a simple search form: all 270,000 published data from Biblia Patristica (1^st-4^th centuries), supplemented by around 130,000 data already digitized but neither published nor verified. The latter cover a very large part of Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyr, Procopius of Gaza and Jerome’s works, and also include Spuria and Dubia by the authors already processed in the paper volumes. In addition, some updates from the authors of the published volumes are to be found, namely the ‘Pseudo-’ (Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Epiphanius, Hilary of Poitiers) and a few specific works. At this stage, it is still only a question of linking numerical references and bibliographical references, without giving direct access to the texts.

Supported by the National Research Agency from 2011 to 2015, then by the Digital Scientific Library (BSN5) from 2015 to 2016, the Institut des Sources Chrétiennes has joined forces with several partners. From 2011 to 2015, two research institutes working on the biblical text history contributed to the project: the Institut für Neutestamentliche Forschung in Münster (INTF), which is preparing a new Editio Critica Maior of the Greek New Testament using biblical quotations from early Christian literature in addition to the biblical manuscripts; the Peshitta Institute in Leiden¹, specializing in the Syriac corpus and at the forefront of semantic research. During the course of the project, other partnerships emerged, namely with the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE) in Birmingham, through the production of a special issue on biblical quotations published in 2013². In addition, two computer laboratories in the Rhône-Alpes region worked together with Sources Chrétiennes: the DRIM team (Laboratoire d’InfoRmatique en Image et Systèmes d’information, LIRIS) developed tools for the semi-automatic retrieval of quotations and the STEAMER team (Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble, LIG) tools for geovisualization. More recently, a collaboration has emerged with the Göttingen Center for Digital Humanities (GCDH) and the University of Antwerp in the field of intertextuality analysis.

The Scientific Committee of BiblIndex merges with that of the Sources Chrétiennes collection regarding the selection of patristic text editions. A specific committee has been set up for biblical issues (see About Us section).

The IT development funded in 2015-2016 made it possible to establish online interfaces devoted to Bible browsing and matching. Unfortunately, the integration of this biblical data into the database also containing the quotations references could not be completed due to lack of funding. It was therefore not until 2018 and thanks to the legacy of Gilberte Astruc-Morize to the Association des Amis de Sources Chrétiennes that development was resumed, with Pierre Hennequart (JANALIS). It is still ongoing today, as it is done on a part-time basis, but it is progressing steadily. The database has been completely restructured and now includes all project data.

The interfaces of the Bible tools have been completely overhauled, and the search form is under development. The data, impossible to modify and complete until now, is finally accessible through the back office: this is an invisible but essential change. The site has finally become scalable. Its hosting by the research framework Huma-Num also ensures better security.