Vitae Patrum

Which works were included under this title varied considerably, and Monika Studer refers to the Vitae as "a variable corpus of narratives".

An Italian vernacular translation was made by Dominican friar Domenico Cavalca from Pisa at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

[3] The Vitae Patrum is based on extensive research by Rosweyde into all the available literature he could find on the early desert monastics.

Books II, Historia monachorum, and III, Verba seniorum (Sayings of the Elders), are attributed to Rufinus, who was later found to be only their translator.

Book VIII is a text that was previously known as The Paradise of Heraclides, but which Rosweyde attributed to its real author, Palladius, and titled the Lausiac History.