[First Project] On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo

[Orion Armstrong]

Hello all! I found out about Standard Ebooks recently and would love to contribute! I've got my eye on Augustine's On Christian Doctrine,  but I'm struggling to find usable page scans of the same translation as the Wikisource text linked on the wanted ebooks page.

The text linked is the J. F. Shaw translation:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_II/On_Christian_Doctrine

I found this PDF with a print layout of the same text, but it's missing a copyright page:

https://wolfmueller.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Augustine-on-Christian-Doctrine.pdf

And the Internet Archive has scans of an 1873 edition translated by S. D. Salmond:

https://archive.org/details/onchristiandoctr00augu/page/n11/mode/2up

I'd appreciate guidance on what to do next!

Thanks,

Orion

[Alex Cabal]

Here are the scans:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Select_Library_of_the_Nicene_and_Post/tzwwAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22nicene+fathers%22+%22Shaw%22&pg=PA513&printsec=frontcover

This book would be a good start.

This book is short but the complications are in the structure.

There is frontmatter so you'll have to add a half title page.

I would keep all of the intro, "contents" (which is really a useful
summary), and preface.

Then, remove paragraph numbers across the whole book. Since the "books"
are very short, each one can be a single file with sub <section>s for
"chapters". However remove the word "chapter" and just leave the roman
numeral. You can see something similar in the recent Analects:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/confucius/analects/james-legge

There are a handful of endnotes, so pull those out into an endnotes
file. We also expand shortened bible refs and modernize them, e.g. `Cor.
i. 21.` -> `Corinthians 1:21`

Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
and typography sections:

https://standardebooks.org/manual

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-patterns

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography

The step by step guide will take you from start to finish. Please follow
it exactly:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step

This page on common issues in older books may be useful:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks

Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
whatever problem you've encountered.

When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
that I can assign you a manager and reviewer.

Have fun! :)

On 7/20/26 1:18 PM, Orion Armstrong wrote:
> Hello all! I found out about Standard Ebooks recently and would love to

> contribute! I've got my eye on Augustine's /On Christian Doctrine, /but

> I'm struggling to find usable page scans of the same translation as the
> Wikisource text linked on the wanted ebooks page.
>
> The text linked is the J. F. Shaw translation:
> https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/
> Volume_II/On_Christian_Doctrine
> I found this PDF with a print layout of the same text, but it's missing
> a copyright page:
> https://wolfmueller.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Augustine-on-
> Christian-Doctrine.pdf
> And the Internet Archive has scans of an 1873 edition translated by S.
> D. Salmond:
> https://archive.org/details/onchristiandoctr00augu/page/n11/mode/2up
>
> I'd appreciate guidance on what to do next!
>
> Thanks,
> Orion
>

> --
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> b6b1-aba6065631c9n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Orion Armstrong]

Hi! I made the repository here: https://github.com/orionsarmstrong-code/augustine-of-hippo_on-christian-doctrine_j-f-shaw

This is an empty book, though. The instructions assume a Project Gutenberg source file, but this book is sourced from Wikisource. I tried downloading the .epub from Wikisource and adding that with wget using the file path, but I get a "scheme missing" error. What's the protocol here?

Thanks!

Orion

On Jul 20, 2026, at 11:44 AM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Here are the scans: https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Select_Library_of_the_Nicene_and_Post/tzwwAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22nicene+fathers%22+%22Shaw%22&pg=PA513&printsec=frontcover

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/fcaaace2-5204-4af2-aa40-f61415852de0%40standardebooks.org.

[Alex Cabal]

You'll have to copy the html in by hand from Wikisource and then proceed
as usual.

Lukas will manage this project with Emma reviewing.

On 7/21/26 4:21 PM, Orion Armstrong wrote:
> Hi! I made the repository here: https://github.com/orionsarmstrong-code/

> augustine-of-hippo_on-christian-doctrine_j-f-shaw <https://github.com/
> orionsarmstrong-code/augustine-of-hippo_on-christian-doctrine_j-f-shaw>

>
> This is an empty book, though. The instructions assume a Project
> Gutenberg source file, but this book is sourced from Wikisource. I tried
> downloading the .epub from Wikisource and adding that with wget using
> the file path, but I get a "scheme missing" error. What's the protocol here?
>
> Thanks!
> Orion
>
>> On Jul 20, 2026, at 11:44 AM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks
>> <standar...@googlegroups.com

>> <mailto:standar...@googlegroups.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Here are the scans: https://www.google.com/books/edition/
>> A_Select_Library_of_the_Nicene_and_Post/tzwwAAAAYAAJ?
>> hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22nicene+fathers%22+

>> %22Shaw%22&pg=PA513&printsec=frontcover <https://www.google.com/books/
>> edition/A_Select_Library_of_the_Nicene_and_Post/tzwwAAAAYAAJ?
>> hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22nicene+fathers%22+
>> %22Shaw%22&pg=PA513&printsec=frontcover>

>>
>> This book would be a good start.
>>
>> This book is short but the complications are in the structure.
>>
>> There is frontmatter so you'll have to add a half title page.
>>
>> I would keep all of the intro, "contents" (which is really a useful
>> summary), and preface.
>>
>> Then, remove paragraph numbers across the whole book. Since the
>> "books" are very short, each one can be a single file with sub
>> <section>s for "chapters". However remove the word "chapter" and just
>> leave the roman numeral. You can see something similar in the recent
>> Analects: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/confucius/analects/james-

>> legge <https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/confucius/analects/james-legge>

>>
>> There are a handful of endnotes, so pull those out into an endnotes
>> file. We also expand shortened bible refs and modernize them, e.g.
>> `Cor. i. 21.` -> `Corinthians 1:21`
>>
>> Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
>> as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
>> particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
>> and typography sections:
>>
>> https://standardebooks.org/manual <https://standardebooks.org/manual>
>>

>> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <https://
>> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics>
>>
>> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-
>> patterns <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-
>> structural-patterns>
>>
>> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <https://
>> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography>

>>
>> The step by step guide will take you from start to finish. Please
>> follow it exactly:
>>
>> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step
>> <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step>
>>
>> This page on common issues in older books may be useful:
>>
>> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-

>> working-on-public-domain-ebooks <https://standardebooks.org/
>> contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks>

>>
>> Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
>> well-established so there is probably already a standard for
>> formatting whatever problem you've encountered.
>>
>> When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
>> that I can assign you a manager and reviewer.
>>
>> Have fun! :)
>>
>>
>> On 7/20/26 1:18 PM, Orion Armstrong wrote:
>>> Hello all! I found out about Standard Ebooks recently and would love
>>> to contribute! I've got my eye on Augustine's /On Christian
>>> Doctrine, /but I'm struggling to find usable page scans of the same
>>> translation as the Wikisource text linked on the wanted ebooks page.
>>> The text linked is the J. F. Shaw translation:
>>> https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-

>>> Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/ <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/
>>> Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/> Volume_II/
>>> On_Christian_Doctrine

>>> I found this PDF with a print layout of the same text, but it's
>>> missing a copyright page:
>>> https://wolfmueller.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Augustine-on-
>>> <https://wolfmueller.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Augustine-on->
>>> Christian-Doctrine.pdf
>>> And the Internet Archive has scans of an 1873 edition translated by
>>> S. D. Salmond:
>>> https://archive.org/details/onchristiandoctr00augu/page/n11/mode/2up
>>> <https://archive.org/details/onchristiandoctr00augu/page/n11/mode/2up>
>>> I'd appreciate guidance on what to do next!
>>> Thanks,
>>> Orion
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>>> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
>>> send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com

>>> <mailto:standardebooks%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
>>> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com
>>> <mailto:standardebooks%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.

>>> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/> standardebooks/0226ba8c-
>>> c908-4e83-b6b1-aba6065631c9n%40googlegroups.com
>>> <http://40googlegroups.com> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
>>> standardebooks/0226ba8c-c908-4e83- <https://groups.google.com/d/
>>> msgid/standardebooks/0226ba8c-c908-4e83-> b6b1-
>>> aba6065631c9n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
>>> <http://40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com

>> <mailto:standardebooks%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>.

>> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

>> standardebooks/fcaaace2-5204-4af2-aa40-
>> f61415852de0%40standardebooks.org <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
>> standardebooks/fcaaace2-5204-4af2-aa40-f61415852de0%40standardebooks.org>.

>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send

> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/CAOE7i907x_tvR0k7pe1QyonVZO41tkL8BOa-F-
> fhJegzzLF4VA%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> standardebooks/CAOE7i907x_tvR0k7pe1QyonVZO41tkL8BOa-F-
> fhJegzzLF4VA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Lukas Bystricky]

Hi Orion,

Re Wikisource, a few weeks ago Weijia posted this:

"In my experience, the best way to work with texts from Wikisource is to download the book as an HTML file ("Download" -> "Looking for a different format?"). I then like to use pandoc to convert the HTML to Markdown format (this simplifies the Wikisource formatting which can get unneccesarily complicated) and then clean up the Markdown before backconverting to HTML with pandoc. There is an example of this workflow in There Is Confusion."

[Weijia Cheng]

In this case, it is a little bit more annoying because the Wikisource material is not set up as a single book, but as a series of linked pages. I think in this case you will have to download the book chapter by chapter. You still might find the pandoc trick helpful, however.