Lectio Ecclesiae

Lectio Ecclesiae Press

Read the Church's Latin and Greek in the original.

These are the readers schools and seminaries once used, newly edited. Each one gives the complete text, explains the harder words in the margin in Latin or Greek, and is illustrated with old engravings.

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Notes in the language

Harder words are explained in the margin in simpler Latin or Greek: by the word they come from, a word of like meaning, or a short sentence from Scripture.

Marked and corrected

In the Latin readers every long vowel is marked. Every text has been checked against its original printing and corrected.

Complete and illustrated

The whole text, never abridged, with engravings by Schnorr, Callot, Goltzius and Tempesta opening the chapters, and indices of names and words.

A page of Selectae e Veteri Testamento Historiae: the Latin text with notes in Latin in the margin

A page of Selectae e Veteri Testamento Historiae: the text on the left, its notes in Latin beside each line.

Latin readers

Lectio Ecclesiae Latin Readers

The Latin readers of the past, the books with which schools and seminaries once taught the language of the Church, edited for readers of the natural method. Every long vowel is marked, and the notes in the margin are entirely in Latin.

Cover of Selectae e Veteri Testamento HistoriaeAvailable nowSelectae e Veteri Testamento Historiae · Pars primaA Latin Reader of Old Testament StoriesCover of Selectae e Veteri Testamento HistoriaeAvailable nowSelectae e Veteri Testamento Historiae · Pars secundaA Latin Reader of Old Testament Stories and the Life of ChristCover of Selecta Martyrum ActaComing soonSelecta Martyrum Acta · Pars primaA Latin Reader of the Acts of the Early MartyrsCover of Selectae Sanctorum VitaeComing soonSelectae Sanctorum VitaeA Latin Reader of the Lives of the Apostles and the Desert Fathers

Greek readers

Lectio Ecclesiae Greek Readers

The Greek of the early Church in the same form: the Fathers' own words, complete, with every harder word explained in the margin in Greek. For readers who have finished a first year of New Testament or Koine Greek.

Cover of The Life of Saint AntonyAvailable nowThe Life of Saint AntonyA Greek Reader of Athanasius, with Notes in Greek

The Fathers in parallel

Lectio Ecclesiae Church Fathers in Latin and English

Complete works of the Fathers in their own Latin, with a classic English translation beside it section by section, and the translators' notes.

Cover of Vita sancti MartiniComing soonVita sancti MartiniThe Life of St Martin, with the Letters and the DialoguesCover of De sacramentis · De mysteriis · De paenitentiaComing soonDe sacramentis · De mysteriis · De paenitentiaOn the Sacraments, On the Mysteries, On Repentance