PROJECTS OF THE IUA

This project breaks away from the traditional definition of New Testament Apocrypha, in that it proposes to include all Christian texts of unknown or disputed authorship (anonyma and pseudepigrapha) that are primarily concerned with figures who appear in the Bible or who relate to the biblical narrative and its background. This represents a considerable enlargement of scope. The Corpus will include works relating to figures from the Old Testament; it will include texts dating from the fourth century and later Antiquity to the early Middle Ages and beyond, together with translations and other works derived from Greek or Latin originals, as well as original compositions in a variety of languages, including Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Arabic, Amharic, Old Church Slavonic and Old Irish.

The project is in charge of a committee of the Association pour l'étude de la litterature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC, the Association for the study of Christian apocryphal literature). AELAC was founded in 1981 by scholars working in a number of Swiss Universities and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. An agreement has been made by AELAC with the Corpus Christianorum and with the publishers, Brepols. The Series apocryphorum differs from the Series Latina and the Series Graeca, in providing full documentation for each text, in the shape of a critical edition of the original and of any derivatives (adaptations, versions in other languages), with a translation into English, French or another modern language, and a commentary.

AELAC brings together all those who are engaged in editing one of the apocrypha for the Corpus Christianorum. At present,  there are more then 200 members and correspondants, from 23 different countries. A list of volumes of the Series apocryphorum already published and in preparation appears annually in the Bulletin de L'AELAC.

Apart from the main project of the Series apocryphorum, AELAC is responsible for three other publications:
1. Ecrits apocryphes chrétiens (Christian apocrypha), texts in French translation, with notes, in the series Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, published by Gallimard. Two volumes are expected ; the first one was published in 1997.
2. Apocryphes (Apocrypha), texts in French translation, with introduction and notes, in the series Collection de poche de l' AELAC, published by Brepols.
3. Apocrypha. Revue internationale des littératures apocryphes, an international journal, published by Brepols, appearing annually since 1990.

The project Corpus Christianorum. Series Apocryphorum was adopted by the UAI in Category C in 1990, on the proposal of the Académie suisse des Sciences humaines et sociales.

Director : J. D. Kaestli 1990-1999, B. Outtier 1999-

Web site : http://www2.unil.ch/aelac/