Canon Muratorianus: The Earliest Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament

Canon Muratorianus: The Earliest Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament (1867) is a seminal work by the 19th-century textual critic Samuel Prideaux Tregelles.

This book is historically significant because it was the first major English scholarly attempt to analyze the Muratorian Fragment in depth, and it serves as the primary source for the "incompetent scribe" argument that dominates modern textual criticism of this document.

Here is a summary of the book's key contents and arguments:

1. The Facsimile (The "Visual Proof")

Before this book, most scholars had only seen imperfect transcriptions of the Muratorian Fragment. Tregelles visited the Ambrosian Library in Milan and created a facsimile (an exact tracing/reproduction) of the manuscript.

• Significance: This allowed scholars worldwide to see the actual handwriting and the "barbarous" condition of the text without traveling to Italy.

2. The "Incompetent Scribe" Discovery

This is the book's most lasting contribution. Tregelles proved that the 8th-century scribe who copied the list was exceptionally careless.

• The "Ambrosian Doublet": Tregelles analyzed the same scribe's copy of a passage by St. Ambrose found in the same bound volume. The scribe had accidentally copied the same 30 lines twice.

• The Verdict: When Tregelles compared the two identical passages, he found over 30 errors in 30 lines—variations in spelling, dropped words, and nonsense grammar.

• Conclusion: This proved that the errors in the Muratorian Canon were likely due to the scribe's illiteracy or carelessness.

3. Textual Reconstruction

Tregelles provided a line-by-line analysis of the Latin text, attempting to "heal" the mangled grammar to reveal the original meaning.

• He argued that the text was a translation from Greek (which he attempted to retro-translate) and that the original list dated to the 2nd Century (c. 170 AD), not a later period.

• He defended the view that the fragment represents the "earliest catalogue" of the New Testament, establishing the core of the canon (Gospels, Paul's letters) well before the official councils of the 4th century.

4. Structure of the Book

• Introduction: History of the document's discovery by Ludovico Muratori.

• The Facsimile: A lithographed copy of the manuscript.

• Critical Text: The Latin text with notes on every error and correction.

• Commentary: Tregelles' arguments for why the list is a genuine 2nd-century voice of the Roman church, rejecting the idea that it was a 4th-century forgery.

In short, this is the book that established the academic consensus that the Muratorian Fragment is a 2nd-century list preserved in a very sloppy 8th-century copy.