Pierpaolo Vergerio the Elder and Saint Jerome. An Edition and Translation of Sermones pro Sancto Hieronymo (review)

Pierpaolo Vergerio the Elder and Saint Jerome. An Edition and Translation of Sermones pro Sancto Hieronymo. By John M. McManamon, S.J. [Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Volume 177.] (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1999. Pp. xix, 402. $36.00.)

This is the first-ever critical edition of Vergerio's ten surviving panegyrics on Jerome which he pronounced at various times prior to 1414, when he left Italy to go the Council of Constance. The panegyrics are preserved in various manuscripts listed in detail on pages 29-84. No manuscript contains all ten. The editor notes that scribes and collectors copied Vergerio's sermons either to include them in humanist miscellanies which assisted the work of rhetorical educators, or to include them in the works of Vergerio and indeed Jerome. As well as the text of the panegyrics (with manuscript variants), the translation, and the list of manuscripts, the present volume contains a brief account of Jerome's life (based largely on J. N. D. Kelly's biography), a chapter on Vergerio's view of Jerome, a chapter on the humanist's lettered public and on his particular contribution to the growth of rhetoric in the fifteenth century, an inventory of Vergerio's library, and an inventory of such of his works as are extant in manuscript, with references to printed editions where appropriate.

The present edition is an important contribution to our knowledge of the reception of Jerome in the Italian Renaissance. Although the panegyrics are not masterpieces of style and although they are extremely repetitive (Vergerio obviously copied his own account of Jerome's dream and of his sufferings in the desert over and over again!), they do show that Vergerio saw Jerome primarily as an ascetic and as one who adapted pagan learning (especially rhetoric) in such a way as to enrich the Christian message. Vergerio is less interested in miracles then attributed to Jerome (although he does nothing to challenge their credibility), in his ecclesiastical functions and in the details of his contribution to biblical scholarship. The editor should have perhaps laid greater stress on the partiality and excessive simplicity of Vergerio's view of the saint. The reasons for this are not difficult to grasp: the sermons were preached either in monasteries or before the papal court where any attempt at a sophisticated or nuanced presentation of Jerome would have been quite out of place. Vergerio's Jerome is thus inevitably something of a rhetorical construction.

While the Latin text is practically error-free, the English translation occasionally tends to depart from the original. A few examples will suffice here: P. 139 (Sermon 1) the editor fails to identify the "vitae patrum" as a reference to Jerome's De viris illustribus. Moreover, he wrongly assumes that the phrase "cum ea legitis" refers to "lectio," amends the Latin unnecessarily to "eam," and mistranslates the phrase as "when you read that account," whereas it should be translated as "when you read these things." On p. 144 (Sermon 2) "quis" in line 7 is not an interrogative pronoun and means simply "anyone." The sentence is much clearer if the question mark is removed. P. 175 (Sermon 5): "esteemed fitting" rather than "felt" is the correct translation of "probavi." P. 221 (sermon 8): "ita mihi dari cupio" should be translated by "I wish that it be granted to me that" and not by "I am adamant about." P. 237 (sermon 9), line 5: "ad id sufficere" should be translated as "be adequate for this" rather than as "suffice to discharge the appointed task."

Despite slight inaccuracies and a general tendency to make the original say rather more than it does, the editor's translation is perfectly serviceable and will be of value to those who do not know Latin...