These are the edition's working notes, published as they were written. They record, work by work, where Migne's plate is defective or the reading uncertain: the printed form, what the English does with it, and why. They are not a groomed apparatus. Where a note argues with itself, withdraws an earlier decision, or leaves a question open, that is the record of how the reading was actually reached, and it is left standing — a conjecture that is visible can be checked, and one that has been tidied away cannot.
The English never silently repairs the page. A construable but wrong reading is rendered literally and the conjecture is recorded here, never applied to the text. How the English is produced and checked →
Garbled or corrupt printed readings, logged here. Governed by translation-style.md Pattern 7: the English renders what the plate PRINTS, never the conjectured reading; type that is not a word at all is carried into the English untranslated, in italics. Three entries below previously applied their conjecture to the running text (the withdrawn 10103 precedent) and have been restored to the printed readings; the rest already rendered the corruption literally and are unchanged.
The work is a chain of asyndetic imperatives in the manner of Isidore's Synonyma (Migne's single note, at 1247B, points the reader to Isidoriana, cap. 82). Many sentences are elliptical by design rather than corrupt; only genuine breakdowns of sense or grammar are listed.
Standing decisions
- The bold arabic numerals 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346 set into the running text are Migne's page/section numeration for the volume, kept italic and in place, never bare and never translated.
- Column 1248A and column 1251D are not marked in the printed chunking; the anchors run 1247D → 1248B and 1251C → 1252A. This is as printed, not a dropped anchor.
- Second-person singular imperatives are rendered as English imperatives with "you" throughout ("act", "learn", "beware"), not as archaic "thou" forms; the addressee is the fili of the opening sentence.
Chunk 0
- 1248B, §5 — peccanti juste non dimittas, sed culpam sciturus, quia in te est venturum judicium. The clause is broken: sciturus is a future participle with no governing verb, and juste non dimittas sits oddly against the whole drift of the section, which urges forgiveness. Rendered literally ("do not lightly dismiss the sinner justly, but know the fault") without emending juste away.
- 1248B, §5 — aufer a corde fraternam offensam, vel offensionem. The doublet offensam / offensionem looks like a variant that has crept into the text; both are rendered ("the brotherly offense, or the taking of offense").
- 1248C, §7 — Quibus vero prodest, si malus, si bonus praediceris. praediceris ("you are foretold") stands for praedicaris ("you are proclaimed"). praediceris is a Latin word — second singular present passive of praedico, -ere — so it is rendered as printed: "to whom is it any profit if you are foretold bad, or good?" Intended reading praedicaris, from the parallel laudaris two clauses later. (Earlier: "if you are proclaimed bad, or good.")
- 1249C, §13 — occulta virtutes pro elatione; absconde bona facta pro arrogantia. pro + accusative of the vice = "on account of / for fear of" pride. Rendered "on account of pride" — the sense is that the virtues are hidden lest pride follow.
- 1249D, §14 — Expergiscentia perficit spiritum, expergiscentia plus scitur. expergiscentia is not a classical noun (formed from expergiscor); rendered "wakefulness". The second clause is impersonal and elliptical ("by wakefulness more is known").
Chunk 1
- 1250B, §18 — Malum visus facere, non consuescas, nec adhuc si poenae immineant, peccanti cuiquam non aquiescas. Doubly broken: visus for visum (or for visus es), and a double negative nec … non aquiescas where a single negation is meant. Both printed readings are now rendered as printed: malum visus taken as the genitive it can only be, "the evil of sight," and the double negative kept — "nor, even if punishments hang over you, do not give consent to anyone who is sinning." Intended reading: malum visum facere ("to do an evil that has been seen") and a single negation. (Earlier the English read "an evil that has been seen, nor … give consent," i.e. both conjectures applied silently.) aquiescas for acquiescas is a standard late-Latin assimilation, an orthographic convention of this witness rather than a corruption, and is translated like the rest of its spelling.
- 1250C, §19 — ubi timor audet, eum sequitur robur; ubi timor, audentia sequitur. Two versions of the same sentence stand side by side — almost certainly a variant admitted into the text. Both are translated as printed rather than one being suppressed.
- 1250C, §19 — Quapropter tempera oris sementem. sementem ("the sowing") of the mouth is unparalleled; possibly for sermonem. Rendered literally ("temper the sowing of your mouth") and flagged rather than emended.
- 1251A, §22 — in judicio quoque sine misericordia sedeas. Directly contradicts §23, which condemns judging without pardon; the intended reading is very likely sine avaritia or sine acceptione personarum. Rendered as printed.
- 1251A, §22 — et cito a viro violatur justitia. a viro is unmotivated; possibly for a munere (following the preceding clause about gifts). Rendered as printed.
- 1251A, §23 — sed emendare potius quam corrigere. emendare and corrigere are near-synonyms, so the antithesis collapses; the sense wanted is "amend rather than punish." Both are ordinary Latin words, so the printed pair is rendered as printed — "do not love to condemn, but rather to amend than to correct" — and the collapsed antithesis is Migne's. The likely intended second verb is a word of punishment (castigare, punire). (Earlier: "rather to amend than to punish.")
- 1251B, §24 — Quamvis enim non credenda sunt, ideo tamen dimittentur, nisi quae certis indiciis approbantur, et non quae manifesto examini committuntur, et non quae ordine judiciario comprobantur. The most corrupt sentence in the work: the nisi clause and the two following et non clauses cannot all stand, and the logic inverts itself. Rendered word for word as printed, deliberately preserving the incoherence.
- 1252A, §26 — Suffragatur virtus tua in operibus. Abrupt and elliptical; rendered literally ("Your virtue lends its support in works").
- 1252B, §27 — Amplius quidquid egeris causa gloriae, hoc est facti tui. hoc est facti tui is ungrammatical as it stands (genitive with hoc est); the sense is that the glory sought is the whole payment of the deed. Rendered "this is the whole of your deed."
Chunk 2
- 1252B, §28 — nec quod ad aeternae, sed quod ad hujus … gloriam proficit. Migne prints the variant [ Forte, hujus vitae]; aeternae likewise wants vitae. Rendered "the glory of eternity … the glory of this", the bracketed variant kept verbatim in place.
- 1252B, §28 — dispositionis qualis esse debeas, descripsi. The genitive dispositionis hangs loose from descripsi; rendered "what manner of ordering you ought to have."
<!-- corpus-polarity-sweep 2026-07-28 --> ## Corpus polarity sweep — 2026-07-28
Blind Opus read of the Latin/English pair for sense-reversing defects (one word or one letter asserting the opposite of what the context requires). 7 site(s). Migne's defects are recorded here and rendered literally in the English; our own errors were fixed in place. Full context: data/sweeps/corpus-polarity/REPORT.md.
1248B — added-negative (migne, medium confidence)
Printed: peccanti juste non dimittas, sed culpam sciturus, quia in te est venturum judicium; non habebis indulgentiam, nisi dederis.
Conjecture: peccanti juste dimittas (the intrusive non should fall; cf. the whole section's command to forgive)
The very next clause in the same sentence makes forgiving obligatory — 'non habebis indulgentiam, nisi dederis' ('you will not have indulgence unless you have given it') — and the sentence after it repeats the command: 'tu tamen ex corde relaxa, veniam quoque propria voluntate concede' ('do you nevertheless release it from the heart, and grant pardon of your own will'). As printed the sentence forbids the forgiveness its own apodosis requires.
1249B — dropped-non (migne, medium confidence)
Printed: quando poteris facere, non pollicearis facere. Multum Deo reus eris, si non reddideris quod voves;
Conjecture: quando non poteris facere, non pollicearis facere ('do not promise what you will not be able to do')
The clause immediately following gives the reason — 'Multum Deo reus eris, si non reddideris quod voves' ('you will be greatly guilty before God if you do not render what you vow') — which only supports a warning against promising the UNdoable; and the same section opens 'Fac bonum quod spopondisti' ('do the good you have promised'). As printed it forbids promising precisely what one is able to perform.
1250A — dropped-word (migne, medium confidence)
Printed: Committe omnibus secreta professionis tuae, loquere aperte. Cunctis operta paucis annuntia;
Conjecture: Committe paucis secreta professionis tuae ('paucis' for 'omnibus'); the following maxim is then intact in form 'cunctis aperta, paucis operta annuntia'
The next sentence restricts hidden matter to the few — 'paucis annuntia' — so entrusting 'omnibus secreta professionis tuae' contradicts it directly; the same section also warns 'Nulla sit tibi curiositas sciendi latentia' ('let there be in you no curiosity to know hidden things').
1250C — added-negative (migne, low confidence)
Printed: nec adhuc si poenae immineant, peccanti cuiquam non aquiescas; melius namque est pati mortem quam perniciosa mala adimplere.
Conjecture: nec ... peccanti cuiquam acquiescas (the second negative is intrusive)
The reason clause attached to it — 'melius namque est pati mortem quam perniciosa mala adimplere' ('it is better to suffer death than to carry out ruinous evils') — and 'Similis est qui obtemperat malo ei qui facit malum' require a flat prohibition of consent; 'nec ... non acquiescas' as printed cancels itself, and the English reproduces the doubled negative rather than resolving it.
1250D — dropped-word (migne, low confidence)
Printed: tunc minime consuetudinem serva et legem, usus auctoritati cedat, pravum usum lex et ratio vincant.
Conjecture: tunc minime consuetudinem serva, sed legem ('sed' for 'et')
The two clauses that follow put law on the winning side against custom — 'usus auctoritati cedat, pravum usum lex et ratio vincant' ('let practice yield to authority, let law and reason conquer bad practice') — so the printed text, which tells the reader to disregard the law along with custom, asserts the opposite of its own continuation.
1251A — added-negative (migne, medium confidence)
Printed: Excute manus tuas ab omni munere, si in coelis velis habitare; in judicio quoque sine misericordia sedeas. Custodi justitiam discretionis, et noli plus justus esse quam oportet.
Conjecture: in judicio quoque cum misericordia sedeas (or 'sine acceptione personarum'); 'sine misericordia' cannot stand as an imperative here
The next sentence caps strict justice — 'noli plus justus esse quam oportet. Omne enim quod nimium est vitium est' — and the section that follows opens 'Impia justitia est fragilitati humanae non ignoscere ... judicii examen sequatur pietas, disciplinae rigorem temperet indulgentia' ('it is an impious justice not to pardon human frailty ... let mercy follow upon the scrutiny of judgment'). A command to sit in judgment WITHOUT mercy is the reverse of what stands on either side of it.
1251B — added-negative (migne, medium confidence)
Printed: Quamvis enim non credenda sunt, ideo tamen dimittentur, nisi quae certis indiciis approbantur, et non quae manifesto examini committuntur, et non quae ordine judiciario comprobantur.
Conjecture: ... nisi quae certis indiciis approbantur, et quae manifesto examini committuntur, et quae ordine judiciario comprobantur (both intrusive 'non' to fall)
The exception clause it belongs to already admits cases 'quae certis indiciis approbantur' ('proved by sure evidences') as judgeable, and the section's rule is 'ante proba, tunc judica' ('first prove, then judge'). The two following members, coordinated to that same exception, must likewise be positive; with 'non' they exclude open scrutiny and regular judicial process from what may be judged — the opposite of 'ante proba, tunc judica'.