Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/36

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Thirty-Five Years of Luther Research

us Christ and His Cross." In 1884 Buchwald published this lecture separately with an introduction by Koestlin. For the Weimar edition Kawerau supplied the text (Vol. IV, pp. 527-586). — Thanks are also due to Buchwald that a number of Luther's sermons, from 1514- 1517, hitherto unknown, found in copies at Zwickau, were brought to light. They are now to be found in the Weimar edition, fourth volume, p. 587 ff.

The most important find, however, was made in 1899 by John Ficker, of Strassburg, through the aid of his friend and pupil. Dr. H. Vopel, who worked in the Vatican Library at Rome, for he discovered in the "Palatina"11 a manuscript containing Luther's commentary on Romans from 1515-1516. Entrusted by the Weimar Luther Commission with the publication of this, he found in a showcase of the Royal Library of Berlin Luther's original handwriting of this commentary, which had been kept here for a long time, and in some curious manner was never used by any one.12 It was known of what importance the Epistle to the Romans had always been to Luther, and that especially Romans I, 16-17, played a large role in his pre-Reformation development, but as to details there was complete groping in the dark.13 Because the taking over of this newly found commentary into the Weimar edition necessitated further preliminary work, Ficker decided on an earlier edition, which appeared in 1908 with Dietrich (Th. Weicher) in Leipzig, as the first volume of "Anfaenge Reformatorischer Bibelauslegung," to the great joy of all researchers on Luther. It comprised two parts, the first containing the "Glosse" (Glossae), the second the "Scholien" (Scholiae). Through it we are not only well informed, in confirmation of what Oldecop, one of Luther's hearers at the time,