Book Hunting

Beatus Pamphilius Martyr, cujus vitam Eusebius Caeseriensis Episcopus, tribus ferme voluminibus explicavit, cum Demetrium Phalereum, et Pisistratrum in sacrae Bibliothecae studio vellet aequare, imaginesque ingeniorum, quae vera sunt, et aeterna monumenta, toto orbe perquireret, tunc vel maxime Origenis libros impensius prosecutus, Caeseriensi Ecclesiae dedicavit: quam ex parte corruptam, Acacius dehinc, et Euzoius ejusdem Ecclesiae sacerdotes in membranis instaurare conati sunt. Hic cum multa repererit, et inventorum nobis indicem dereliquerit, centesimi vigesimi sexti Psalmi Commentarium, et Phe litterae Tractatum, ex eo quod non inscripsit, confessus est non repertum. Non quod talis tantusque vir (Adamantium dicimus) aliquid praeterierit, sed quod negligentia posterorum ad nostram usque memoriam non durarit. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola XXXIV, Ad Marcellam Source: Migne PL 22 448

The blessed Martyr Pamphilus, whose life Eusebius the Bishop of Cæsarea set forth in near enough three volumes, wishing to equal Demetrius Phalereus and Pisistratus in his zeal for a sacred library, sought though out the whole world for images of great minds, which are true and everlasting monuments, but most of all, at great expense, he hunted down the books of Origen, and bestowed them on the church of Caesarea, a part of which was later destroyed, but Acacius and then Euzoius, priests of the same church, tried to reestablish the library in parchment volumes. The latter recovered many texts and he left to us an inventory of them, but in not writing of them he confesses that he could not find Origen's Commentary on the Hundred and Twenty Sixth Psalm and his Tract on the Letter Phe. Not that such an author (whom we call Adamantine) would have neglected something, but that through the negligence of those who came after him such works did not survive to our times. Saint Jerome, from Letter 34, To Marcella