The Concordia Triglotta is On Its Way Back Into Print
In a remarkable come-back, the Concordia Triglotta is making is debut in print again. This old classic work, providing the text of the Lutheran Confessions in Latin, German and English, has been out of print for quite some time. Used copies are sold starting at $150 and I’ve seen them go for much as $280. There is no other easily accessible source of obtaining a copy of the actual texts in the Book of Concord in German, according to the authoritative 1580 first-edition, and in Latin, according to the 1584 authoritative first-edition. The English translation was prepared and published around 1921. The newest edition of the Book of Concord, the Concordia edition, provides an English text based on the English translation of the Triglotta. We finally were able to locate a print-on-demand vendor able to produce a book this size, in a hardback binding. So, stay tuned, It will be out in time to celebrate Saint Patrick’s day as part of CPH’s “Concordia On Demand” program. The price of the “new” printing of the Triglotta will be $69.99. I’ll let you know when you can place an order for it.
I must say, as an Irish Lutheran Pastor and Publisher, I’m enjoying this perhaps a wee too much! Here’s a little teaser-trailer.
Will it come with a copy of this beautiful piece of music???
No.
Is it a facsimile of the original printing, or is it a new typesetting?
Exact copy, that way, the indices all work perfectly.
So it’s the updated German of the last Triglot?
It is an exact copy of the printed edition of the Triglotta.
Thanks, Paul. I do wish we could get a Triglot with the original German, but I know why you aren’t offering one. This is a jolly sight better than no Triglot at all.
Tapani, I am not sure what you mean by “the original German.”
@ptmccain
That’s great news; much better for study.
Tapani, are you wondering if the German text is post-1584 (publishing date for the authoritative Latin version), as opposed to the 1580 version submitted to Charles V?
Speaking of multilingual Lutheran texts, check this out–the Small Catechism in German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew http://books.google.com/books?id=F6BRAAAAcAAJ&dq=catechesis+minor+quadrilinguis&source=gbs_navlinks_s
The German text was diligently compared to an actual 1580 Dresden edition copy of the Book of Concord. The Triglotta is the 1580 German Dresden edition text, not a “textual critical” version. It has some minor revisions to 16th century German word forms, etc. but as far as I know the German texts in the Triglotta are those in the 1580 Dresden text.
As the Triglotta explains, the German text “was compared with the original German edition, published 1580 at Dresden. Obsolte forms as “Gezeugnis,” “Oberkeit,” “gebeutet,” and, as a rule, also such forms a “nimmet,” “heget,” “stehet,” etc. were replaced with: “Zeugnis,” “Obrigkeit,” “gebietet,” “nimmt,” “geht,” “steht,” etc.
So, the German text in the Triglotta is the 1580 Dresden text with these minor changes.
Perhaps Tapani will further clarify what he is asking about.
So, unless one owns a copy of the 1580 Dresden edition, or has a copy of it, the German text in the Triglotta is your best bet. Other modern “critical editions” and English translations based on them do not provide the first edition German 1580 and first edition 1584 Latin texts, but texts that scholars continue to modify and change as they try to reconstruct the original form of every document published in the 1580 Dresden German edition. While very interesting, we Lutherans are not subscribed to any previous form of the Lutheran Confessions, but the texts as published in the 1580 Dresden edition and then, secondarily, as the 1584 Latin edition.