English access is real but partial. The Liverpool Translated Texts for Historians volume 'Ambrose of Milan: Political Letters and Speeches' (trans. J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, 2005: https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Ambrose%20of%20Milan%20political%20letters%20and%20speeches%20Liebeschuetz&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 translates Book Ten of the collection plus the letters outside it, and its catalogue contents note lists exactly that scope (Letters, book ten; Letters outside the collection; two appendices); the 1896 NPNF Ambrose volume prints only 'Selections from the Letters' (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Ambrose%20Penance&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 Nothing translates Books One to Nine as a body: roughly 91 letters survive, and those on doctrine, on the church at Milan, and on private pastoral cases remain untranslated except where an anthology excerpt appears.
Ambrose's letters are the primary record of the church's relationship with the late Roman state, of the Altar of Victory affair, of the Thessalonica massacre and the penance of Theodosius, and of the day-to-day running of the see of Milan. The Liverpool volume covers the political showpieces; the doctrinal letters (on the faith, on the Spirit, on rebaptism) and the pastoral ones have no English. A reader relying on English therefore gets Ambrose the politician and loses Ambrose the bishop.
| Edition / series |
|---|
| Ambrose of Milan: Political Letters and Speeches · Translated Texts for Historians 43 · J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz · 2005 |
| Select Works and Letters (NPNF series 2, vol. 10) - 'Selections from the Letters' · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II · H. De Romestin et al. · 1896 |
| Record | Citation |
|---|---|
| Ambrose of Milan : political letters and speeches | Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397. "Ambrose of Milan : political letters and speeches." Liverpool [England] : Liverpool University Press, 2005. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990097612590203941 |
| The letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan | Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397. "The letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan." Oxford : J. Parker, 1881. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990022401460203941 |
| Ambrose of Milan and the end of the Nicene-Arian conflicts | Williams, Daniel H. "Ambrose of Milan and the end of the Nicene-Arian conflicts." Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1995. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990052932800203941 |
| Ambrose | Ramsey, Boniface. "Ambrose." London ; New York : Routledge, 1997. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990075699440203941 |
| Saint Ambrose letters [1-91] | Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, -397. "Saint Ambrose letters [1-91]." New York : Fathers of the church, 1954. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99159901608403941 |