Here are some answers for you:
1.) Yes, this is the same “Sayings of the Fathers” mentioned in much devotional literature. The ones I started translating (and have to continue with) are from the Alphabetical collection (where the sayings are grouped by name of the speaker or person who they’re about), but there is also the Systematic collection (wherein the sayings are grouped by subject matter).

2.) Yes, the author is unknown for this collection, as in his preface he left no trace of his identity. It is a fine collection, however!

3.) This collection is preserved in Greek, and the original sayings were in Greek, and perhaps Coptic which was very early translated into Greek. The Systematic collection, titled the Vitae Patrum or Lives of the Fathers, is in fact preserved only in Latin, but not this one. The manuscript of this translation dates only to the 12th century, though there are others which are earlier, but not as complete.

4.) We don’t have much historical context for this particular manuscript, unfortunately, only general suppositions. Many monasteries each had a Paterikon, a collection of sayings of the fathers of the monastery. This collection seems to have combined several covering different Egyptian and Palestinian fathers’ sayings.

5.) Yes, indeed, Apophthegmata Patrum means Sayings of the Fathers. But the word for sayings is that for instructive sayings, not just a plain word for speech, as just “sayings” in English could be taken.

1. Is this the same as “The Sayings of the Fathers” as often referred to in devotional literature?
2. Is the author still unknown?
3. Was the original (or the oldest manuscript) written in Latin?
4. What do we know about the historical context of the document?
5. Does “Apophthegmata Patrum” mean “Sayings of the Fathers?”

You are kind to leave yourself open for primitive questions like mine.

Thank you for your good work.

John Wires
jwwires@msn.com