The first volume of Traditio was published in 1943. Publication was interrupted a few times, so that the current issue is volume 72; but 2018 marks Traditio’s seventy-fifth year.
Leading in to this anniversary, the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University sponsored a conference at the Lincoln Center campus of the university on March 25, 2017, under the title “The Generative Power of Tradition: A Celebration of Traditio, 75 Years.” The program was planned by three members of the Editorial Board at Fordham University: Fr. Martin Chase, S.J., the Associate Editor, Dr. Mary Erler, and Dr. Nina Rowe, along with the editor. The conference was arranged by Dr. Susanne Hafner and Dr. Laura Morreale, the director and associate director of the Center for Medieval Studies. Sessions on mysticism, editing manuscripts in the digital age, Jews and Christians, and popular religion were presented. The opening address at the conference, “New Seeds, New Harvests: Thirty Years of Tilling the Mystic Field,” was delivered by Dr. Barbara Newman of Northwestern University and is printed in this issue.
History of Traditio
Recounting the history of Traditio could not begin more appropriately than by reprinting the preface to the first volume of the journal, published in wartime 1943:
Preface Footnote 1
American scholars in the fields of ancient and medieval research see with increasing apprehension the serious difficulties which hamper their effort to give public account of their studies. There is no outlet in European learned magazines, and the number of pertinent American periodicals is no longer adequate to cope with the growth of scholarly production. Quite recently, an “Interim” periodical, Medievalia et Humanistica, was founded to relieve the saturation of existing journals, and has been cordially welcomed. It is not our intention to compete in any way with this or with any established periodical. Yet we feel that productive scholarship continues to progress at a steadily increasing pace far beyond the existing facilities of publication.
This is particularly true of those studies which, by the nature of their respective subjects or by the technical complexity of the researches involved, assume dimensions that would be too bulky for any monthly or quarterly magazine but which, on the other hand, could not very well be published as monographs. In Europe, this type of research has usually been well cared for, especially by the voluminous year books, memoirs, Sitzungsberichte, and the like, published by the great Academies or by other learned institutions. Up to the present, very few serial publications of this kind have existed on this side of the Atlantic. Traditio will help them to carry the burden. Thanks to the enterprising spirit, the cooperation and financial sacrifices of Dr. Ludwig Schopp, director of the Cosmopolitan Science and Art Service Company, this new periodical can start its mission amidst the turmoil of war.
Studies in ancient and medieval history, thought and religion: in this first volume, they are taken from the fields of Classical as well as Christian Antiquity, of Liturgy and Patrology, of Historiography, Scholasticism, Canonical Jurisprudence, and Political Theory. This selection of departments of scholarship which are but too often anxiously segregated will convey to the reader the general program which was in our mind when we chose for the new enterprise the name of Traditio: it represents an effort toward comprehensive knowledge of all the living forces, forms, institutions, and ideas which have made, both in the Church and in secular society, the texture of history something more than a mere deposit of dates and facts.
The Editors The Catholic University of America Washington, D. C.The earlier history of Traditio was recounted in the fiftieth anniversary volume of the journal, published in 1995, in a “Foreword” signed by “The Editors” but probably written by Fr. Charles H. Lohr, S.J.Footnote 2 Much of what follows, at least on the first half-century of Traditio, is drawn from that foreword.
Traditio was founded in New York in 1943 by two émigré German scholars, Johannes Quasten and Stephan Kuttner, to provide, in North America, an outlet for research in the humanities that was up to Continental standards but lacking in North America.
The founding editors of Traditio were both at The Catholic University of America, but publication and marketing were undertaken by Ludwig Schopp, another German émigré, who had founded a small publishing business in New York with the memorable name, “Cosmopolitan Science and Art Service Company.” Together, they published six volumes of Traditio, from 1943 to 1948.
By 1948, however, financial difficulties forced Schopp's company into receivership, and Traditio ceased publication. Rescue came in 1950, when Fr. Rudolf Arbesmann, O.S.A., still another German émigré, who was the chairman of the classics department at Fordham University, persuaded Fr. Edwin A. Quain, S.J., also of the classics department at Fordham, of the importance of Traditio. Quain, in turn, persuaded Fordham University Press to acquire the title and the stock of back issues from the receivers, and, in 1951, after a three-year lag, volume 7 of Traditio appeared, with Fordham University Press as the publisher. Father Quain, the savior of Traditio, was a dedicated scholar of classics and medieval Latin, and later, for many years, the director of the Fordham University Press.
In 1991, the publisher of Traditio became Fordham University, although Fordham University Press continued to handle the business of the journal. Another change came in 2006, when bylaws were adopted, at the request of the vice president for academic affairs. The bylaws specified seven members of a Board of Editors, four members from Fordham University and three from other universities, and mandated term limits for members of the board. Finally, in accordance with changing editorial practices, the leadership of the journal was revised, and, beginning in 2011, there was one editor, one associate editor, and five other members, who together constituted the Editorial Board.
A further significant change was made in 2016, when publication was moved from Fordham University to Cambridge University Press, with Fordham University remaining as owner of the journal.
Scope of Traditio
From the beginning, the scope of Traditio was defined by its subtitle: “Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion.” The terminus ad quem was a.d. 1500. Within those limits, articles in a wide variety of fields were published: classical Greek and Latin antiquity; the Bible, and rabbinic Judaism; Greek and Latin patristics; Byzantine history and literature; medieval ecclesiastical and political history; medieval philosophy, theology, and science; medieval English and Germanic literature; medieval Romance language and literature; medieval canon and civil law; history of medieval art and liturgy; and studies in Syriac, Coptic, Georgian, and other Eastern cultures.
The fiftieth anniversary Foreword reported that, in its first 49 volumes, Traditio published about 485 articles, 243 miscellaneous notes, and 39 bibliographical surveys. Issues averaged 10 articles and 5 notes per volume.Footnote 3 To give a detailed account of this material would be impossible. But — partly to indicate how the journal has developed — a few distinctive features, past and present, can be mentioned.
In the early years the journal included a small number of book reviews. But, given Traditio’s scope, it was judged impossible to keep up with so many varied fields. So, beginning with volume 8 in 1952, individual book reviews were dropped, and occasional survey reviews of recent literature were introduced; this practice continued for twenty years, until 1972.
Traditio also included some serial publications. From 1955 to 1970, volumes 11 through 26, the journal published, each year, the bulletin of the Institute of Research and Study in Medieval Canon Law.Footnote 4 But the bulletin grew too large for Traditio, and it became an independent publication.
Another feature of Traditio has been the publication of catalogues of manuscripts, often at great length and across several issues. A few can be noted here. Paul Oskar Kristeller inventoried catalogues of Latin manuscript books before 1600.Footnote 5 Pearl Kibre catalogued the manuscripts of the Latin Hippocratic corpus in eight parts, from 1975 to 1981.Footnote 6 Richard K. Emmerson and Suzanne Lewis published the “Census and Bibliography of Medieval Manuscripts Containing Apocalypse Illustrations, ca. 800–1500” in three parts, from 1984 to 1986.Footnote 7 Richard J. Durling catalogued medieval Italian medical manuscripts in four parts, from 1985 to 1993.Footnote 8 Joseph F. Kelly published “A Catalogue of Early Medieval Hiberno-Latin Biblical Commentaries” in two parts, in 1988 and 1990.Footnote 9 And, in volume 70 (2015), John M. McManamon published “Res nauticae: Mediterranean Seafaring and Written Culture in the Renaissance,” a sixty-page catalogue of manuscripts on every aspect of seafaring, drawn from Paul Oskar Kristeller's Iter Italicum.Footnote 10
Particular tribute should be paid to Fr. Charles H. Lohr, of the Society of Jesus, who died on June 21, 2015, three days before his 90th birthday.Footnote 11 Fr. Lohr served as one of the editors of Traditio for thirty-six years, the longest-serving editor in the history of the journal, and, along with Father Quain, was one of the mainstays of the journal. He also contributed one of the most scholarly works the journal has published: the catalogue “Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries,” which appeared in seven parts, from 1967 to 1974, a work he researched in libraries all across Europe.Footnote 12 Scholars will also recognize the companion piece, “Renaissance Latin Aristotle Commentaries,” which Fr. Lohr published in other journals in eight parts, from 1974 to 1982.Footnote 13 These catalogues have since been reprinted in three volumes. Fr. Lohr also compiled two indexes to Traditio, authors and subjects, which were printed in the previous anniversary issue (volume 50), and which became the basis for the on-line index of the journal found on the Traditio website of Fordham University.
Another noteworthy project was published in 1997, a symposium of four articles in response to the book published by John Boswell in 1994, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe.Footnote 14 The controversy concerned the rite of ἀδελφοποίησις or “ritual brotherhood” practiced in the eastern church and attested in manuscripts from the eighth century to the sixteenth or seventeenth. The project was entitled “Ritual Brotherhood in Ancient and Medieval Europe: A Symposium” and comprised four articles: an introduction by Elizabeth A. R. Brown, an article on Ritual Brotherhood in Byzantium by Claudia Rapp, another by Brent D. Shaw on the same topic in Roman and post-Roman societies, and a concluding article on Ritual Brotherhood in western medieval Europe, also by Elizabeth A. R. Brown.Footnote 15 The gist of the articles was to call into serious question Boswell's thesis about same-sex marriage in medieval Europe.
Retrospect
Traditio has changed and developed in the course of seventy-five years, but it has not lost its aim and purpose. Digital media have made the journal more accessible to scholars and students, and it can be accessed, in whole or in part, on four databases: Cambridge Core, JSTOR, Project MUSE, and ProQuest. A report on articles most often accessed in the past five years shows researchers’ wide range of interests; topics that drew particular attention were the Crusades, Byzantium and the West, Beowulf, Dante, St. Augustine, Bede the Venerable, Jews and anti-Semitism, and Chaucer. Articles do not go out of date: another report shows that the article most accessed in the past five years, on the Second Crusade, was published in 1953.
Finally, Traditio has been the cooperative work of many scholars over the years. For many years, two or more editors shared the editorial work; by the 1960s, the number had grown to six. From 1972 through 1991, a member of the staff of Fordham University Press served as managing editor. From 1972 until 2010, the managing editor was also one of the editors. Beginning in 2011, a sole editor was named, and with six other members comprised the Editorial Board.
The anniversary volume 50, published in 1995, included a list of fifteen editors, past and present. The list has grown, and it seemed appropriate to include a complete list in this volume, in tribute to the generous work and devotion, given without compensation, of so many scholars.
Editors and Editorial Board of Traditio
Johannes Quasten, 1943–1945
Stephan Kuttner, 1943–1971; editor emeritus 1972–1996
Anselm Strittmatter, O.S.B., 1946–1969; editor emeritus 1970–1978
Edwin A. Quain, S.J., 1949–1976
Bernard M. Peebles, 1952–1973; editor emeritus 1974–1977
Robert E. McNally, S.J., 1962–1969
Charles H. Lohr, S.J., 1970–2006
Richard E. Doyle, S.J., 1972–1985
Robert E. Kaske, 1972–1989
H. George Fletcher III, managing editor, 1972–1990
Elizabeth A. R. Brown, 1975–2006
Brian E. Daley, S.J., 1979–2006
James J. O'Donnell, 1991–1996
Richard K. Emmerson, 1991–1999
Jocelyn N. Hillgarth, 1991–2006
Mary Beatrice Schulte, managing editor, 1991
Elizabeth C. Parker, managing editor 1992–1996; editor 1997–2006
Michael Roberts, 1996–2006
Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., managing editor 1997–2010; editor 2011–
Catherine Tkacz, 2000–2002
Martin Chase, S.J., associate managing editor, 2002–2010; associate editor, 2011–
Susan Boynton, 2007–2010
Carmela Vircillo Franklin, 2007–2015
William E. Klingshirn, 2007–2012
Wolfgang Müller, 2007–2010
Giorgio Pini, 2007–2011
Lucy K. Pick, 2011–
Nina A. Rowe, 2011–
Mary C. Erler, 2012–
Tobias Hoffmann, 2013–
Christopher S. Celenza, 2015–
