Middle Persian and Georgian translations witness to the widespread popularity of Hermas in the early church.18 A first attempt at a critical edition was tried by J. Cotelier in Paris in 1672, by aligning a Latin text with the known Greek fragments. A critical text was published in 1856,19 but the Latin text was available only on the basis of a partially counterfeit copy of the Palatine text done by Constantin Simonides, who had taken three of the original nine leaves preserved, transcribed the