Apology of Aristides, translated by J Armitage Robinson

Aristides of Athens. Image source: Wikipedia

Today’s free book is the standard translation of the Aristides of Athens’ Apology. The history of the discovery if the text is summarised on Wikipedia:

In 1878, the Armenian monks of the Mechitarite convent in Venice published the first two chapters, which they had found in a manuscript in their collection in Armenian translation. This they accompanied with a Latin translation. Opinion as to the authenticity of the fragment was disputed, with Ernest Renan particularly vocal in opposition. Later, in 1889, J. Rendel Harris found the whole of it in a Syriac version at the Eastern Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt. While his edition was passing through the press, it was observed that the work had been extant in Greek the whole time, though in a slightly abbreviated form, since it had been embedded as a speech in a religious novel written about the 6th century entitled The Life of Barlaam and Josaphat. A further Armenian fragment was discovered in the library at Echmiadzin by F. C. Conybeare in a manuscript of the 11th century. But the discovery of the Syriac version reopened the question of the date of the work. “Two very fragmentary third- or fourth-century Greek papyri serve as textual witnesses to the Apology.”
Apology of Aristides, Wikipedia

My thanks to Book Aid for making this important public domain title available for digitisation.

Joseph Armitage Robinson [1858-1933] & James Rendel Harris [1852-1941], The Apology of Aristides on Behalf of the Christians from a Syraic MS. Preserved on Mount Sinai. Texts and Studies 1.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891. Hbk. pp.118. [Click here to visit the download page for this title]

Preface
Note
Introduction
Notes on the Syriac Version
Appendix: The Remains of the Original Greek of the Apology of Aristides by J. Armitage Robinson
Index of Greek Words
Index of Subject Matter
The Syraic Text of the Apology of Aristides