Martin Bucers Deutsche Schriften: Current Work,Future Projects

Abstract

The edition of Martin Bucer's German writings has often puzzled its readers by the varying frequency with which its volumes have been published as well as by the order in which these have been published. The very first volume of the edition went to press in 1960.¹ Volume Two, which appeared in 1962,² was followed in 1964 not by Volume Three but by Volume Seven.³ Whereas these volumes had been produced in intervals of two years, it took a total of 14 years for Volumes Three, Four and Five⁴ to be edited, the latter of which was printed in 1978. The next volume to appear carried the number 17,⁵ thus skipping the numbers of 11 volumes which had yet to be edited. The Sixth Volume, which began appearing in 1984, was edited in three separate instalments,⁶ the last of which was printed in 1988. Each one of these instalments could be considered a volume in its own right. Then, in 1995, the first part of Volume Nine was published, also a volume in its own right with the number 9,1,⁷ the first part of Volume 11 in 1999,⁸ and Volume Ten went to press in March of 2001.⁹ Thus a total of thirteen volumes have been produced in a matter of fourty-one years, an average of somewhat over three years per volume. This statistic obscures the sometimes significant hiatuses between the appearances of certain volumes, the longest of which included six years between Volumes Three and Four, and even seven years between Volumes 6,1 and 9,1.

Anybody leafing through the first three volumes and comparing them will immediately note that they neatly fit within a broader chronological continuum. Volume One bears the title Early writings: 1520 to 1524,¹⁰ Volume Two Writings of the years 1524 to 1528,¹¹ and Volume Seven is entitled Writings of the years 1538 to 1539.¹² These titles suggest a strictly chronological conception of the entire edition. On the other hand, the last volume to appear, number Ten, carries a thematic title: Writings on marriage and matrimonial law¹³ and includes writings ranging all the way from 1524 to 1543. It is therefore obvious that a major change in the conception of the edition as a whole has taken place between those early volumes and the last one.