Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum

The corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, CSEL abbreviated, is edited by a Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences critical edition of the Latin ecclesiastical writers of the first centuries.

The CSEL is to make the Latin ecclesiastical authors from the time of the late 2nd century to the Venerable Bede († 735 ) on the basis of all manuscripts received and according to the latest state of philological edition art in a critical, the original text as closely as possible text available. The Commission was established in 1864, their number has been published since 1866 and so far includes 95 volumes ( Sulpicius Severus to Augustine) with partly multiple sub- volumes.

The CSEL thus provides a text- critical reliable substitute for the corresponding text output in JP Mignes Patrologia Latina, but is in turn overtaken in the older volumes partly again by recent critical editions of texts, especially in the Corpus Christianorum.

Some volumes of the CSEL were included in electronic version to increase the population of the Corpus Christianorum in the electronic edition of CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts ( CLCLT ), which has since been extended to electronic Library of Latin Texts ( LLT ).