Introduction

A high achiever

Index and glossary to Scriptores 12, handwritten by Philipp Jaffé

Philipp Jaffé advanced quickly to become Georg Heinrich Pertz's most productive editor at the MGH. His name, however, did not appear on the title pages of volumes 12 and 16 - 20 of the Scriptores series, but rather was listed along with those of the other editors in the table of contents. Some 22% of these six volumes were his work alone. In Scriptores volume 17, published in 1861, his contribution amounted to around 40% of the content and was so generally praised that, in Bresslau's judgement „without doubt, he had to be regarded as the Monumenta’s most important pillar“ (Bresslau, Geschichte, p. 378),

Harry Bresslau, who as a student in Berlin had attended Professor Jaffé’s lectures, conducted an evaluation of the contributions of all MGH scholars to the individual volumes of MGH editions for his book on the history of the MGH published in 1921. Regarding Philipp Jaffé, he came to the conclusion that, although the manifold re-examination of his editions in the previous years had somewhat relativised the long-standing opinion that Jaffé had been the paragon of MGH scholars, it nevertheless remained unquestionable "that his enduring diligence, critical exactitude, extensive knowledge, and fine philological sense of tact brought forth a large number of excellent editions." Moreover, as Bresslau underlines, it was largely thanks to him that the great enterprise of the MGH was held on course during the second half of 1850s and the early 1860s. (Bresslau, Geschichte, p. 330).

The index and glossary for volume 12 in the Scriptores series on display are some of Philipp Jaffé’s first works for the Monumenta. The MGH archive also contains his first work report, dated to October 1 1854, noting the completion of the index: „In order to complete the Directorium [i.e. the index], between June and September this year I have made use of the following sections of the Berlin Königliche Bibliothek: Historia ecclesiastica, Vitae Sanctorum, Acta Theologorum, Patres latini, Preussen, Dänemark, Livland“ (MGH-Archiv B 99, Blatt 9). In print, the index fills twenty pages and the glossary further three pages.