De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) is a Latin biobibliographical collection by Jerome completed at Bethlehem in 392–393 AD. It consists of a prologue and 135 chapters, each giving a brief account of an author and a list of writings, beginning with figures from the apostolic age and ending with Jerome.
Jerome presented the book as a Christian counterpart to biographical catalogues associated with Suetonius and other classical writers, and much of the early material is taken with little alteration from Eusebius of Caesarea. The work was dedicated to the Roman official Nummius Aemilianus Dexter. In the preface Jerome casts the collection as an apologetic defence of Christian learning.Louis Saltet, "St. Jerome," Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: 1910.
The text circulated widely. It was continued by Gennadius of Massilia and later by Isidore of Seville, and the three works were often copied together. Later scholarship has criticised it as rushed and incomplete, being flattering and insulting depending on the subject and Jerome's opinion of them.
Composition De Viris Illustribus was composed in Latin in 392 and early 393, after Jerome translated Origen's Homilies on Ezekiel and before he wrote his Commentary on Ezekiel. It was written during Jerome's first period of literary activity following his move to Bethlehem.
It was modelled after the works of earlier Greek and Latin authors. In a letter to Desiderius he wrote that he had "written a book on illustrious men from the apostles to our time in imitation of Suetonius and Apollonius the Greek." It reinvented a tradition of biographical collections used by Suetonius and Plutarch for a Christian world.
Purpose and dedication
De Viris Illustribus was dedicated to Nummius Aemilianus Dexter, the son of Saint Pacianus and a Roman official and a Christian who had encouraged Jerome to create a survey of Christian authors. SanPietro argues that this dedication was a pretext for Jerome to disguise his real intentions while Van Hoof argues that evidence for a close relationship between Jerome and Dexter is limited.
It was written as an apologetic work to demonstrate the accomplishments of prominent Christian authors, with Jerome including himself among them, at a time when Christian writing was seen as inferior. In the preface Jerome states that he aims "to do for [Christian] writers what [Suetonius] did for the illustrious men of letters among the Gentiles", reinforcing this a few lines later where he states his desire to create a collection similar to Cicero's Brutus, covering the Christian writers whose texts "founded, built, and adorned the Church".
Audience The intended audience of De Viris Illustribus was the educated classes of the Mediterranean. Whiting describes it as a reference text for intra-Christian disputes, intended to "inform those who had no time to read extensively or had no thorough knowledge of Greek".
Contents
Summary De Viris Illustribus is a biobibliography covering four centuries of primarily Christian writers running from the apostolic age to Jerome himself. The first seventy-eight chapters are copied with minimal changes from Eusebius' Historia ecclesiastica, while the last fifty-seven chapters reflect Jerome's own research.
The entries vary in length, from brief notices to longer entries. They are all under 500 words long and follow a set pattern: the author's name, a short identification of their office or status, and a list of writings.
The notices are usually bibliographical rather than hagiographical, but some refer to hagiographic legends associated with figures already venerated as saints. Jerome uses the work to denigrate authors he did not approve of and praise those he did. He knew some of the subjects personally or had read their works, while others were virtually unknown to him.
The subjects are mainly Christian writers, with Jerome explaining his criteria as having "published anything memorable on the Holy Scriptures from the time of Christ's passing down to the 14th year of the emperor Theodosius". They are largely figures Jerome treats as reputable and orthodox, though he also includes authors he considers heterodox.
In the preface he describes the book as a catalogue of Christian men who were philosophers, eloquent, or learned, but he does not apply that description consistently, describing the writing of some authors such as Fortunatianus as "rustic".
Subjects Listed below are the subjects of Jerome's 135 biographies. The numbers given are the chapter numbers found in editions.
Simon Peter James the Just Matthew Jude Paul Barnabas Luke Mark John Hermas Philo the Jew Lucius Annaeus Seneca Josephus Justus Clement Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Papias Quadratus Aristides Agrippa Hegesippus Justin Melito of Asia Theophilus Apollinaris Dionysius of Corinth Pinytus of Crete Tatian Philip of Crete Musanus Modestus Bardesanes of Mesopotamia Victor Irenaeus Pantaenus Rhodo Clemens Miltiades Apollonius Serapion Apollonius Theophilus Bacchylus Polycrates Heraclitus Maximus Candidus Appion Sextus Arabianus Judas Tertullian Origen Ammonius Ambrose Trypho Minucius Felix Gaius Beryllus Hippolytus Alexander of Cappadocia Julius Africanus Geminus Theodorus (Gregory of Neocaesarea) Cornelius Cyprian of Africa Pontius Dionysius of Alexandria Novatianus Malchion Archelaus Anatolius of Alexandria Victorinus Pamphilus the Presbyter Pierius Lucianus Phileas Arnobius Firmianus (Lactantius) Eusebius of Caesarea Reticius Methodius Juvencus Eustathius Marcellus Athanasius Anthony Basil of Ancyra Theodorus Eusebius of Emesa Triphylius Donatus Asterius Lucifer of Cagliari Eusebius of Sardinia Fortunatianus of Aquileia Acacius Serapion Hilary Victorinus Titus Damasus Apollinaris Gregory of Elvira Pacianus Photinus Phoebadius Didymus Optatus Acilius Severus Cyril of Jerusalem Euzoius Epiphanius Ephraim Basil of Caesarea Gregory of Nazianzen Lucius Diodorus Eunomius Priscillianus Latronianus Tiberianus Ambrose of Milan Evagrius Ambrose, disciple of Didymus Maximus Gregory of Nyssa John the presbyter Gelasius Theotimus Dexter Amphilochius Sophronius Jerome the presbyter
Final chapter on Jerome At the conclusion of De Viris Illustribus, Jerome provided his own biography as the latest example of the scholarly work of Christians. In Chapter 135, Jerome summarized his career to date:
Whiting argues that the entry functioned as a catalogue of Jerome's writings, allowing correspondents to request copies they lacked.
Reception and influence
De Viris Illustribus circulated widely soon after its completion, becoming the most influential Christian biographical collection and defining a canon of knowledge that could be expanded and augmented. It was used as a reference work in intra-Christian debate but was criticised for including heretics, including by Augustine in 398.
The work was continued and revised, most notably by Gennadius of Marseilles in the fifth century and Isidore of Seville in the seventh, and the three texts circulated as a single corpus. It influenced later biobibliographical compilations and its material was repurposed in other contexts.
In the sixth century Cassiodorus recommended reading Jerome's work alongside its continuation by Gennadius. Bede, a Northumbrian monk, later treated its completion as a sacred event, writing "Jerome, the translator of sacred history, wrote a book about the most illustrious men of the Church".
By the ninth century collations of De Viris Illustribus and its continuations were used as lists in monastic libraries to check their holdings. McKitterick argues that the text was important in the formation and organisation of library catalogues and collections and contributed to a "book-based" way of thinking about the past while Whiting argues that it was used to help identify forgeries. It remained relevant even after many of the works covered by the text were lost, acting as a record of what had been written as well as what should be read.
The work continued to circulate in the twelfth century and was a model for a revival of the bio-bibliographic genre.
Modern scholarship Modern scholarship has criticised De Viris Illustribus as rushed and incomplete, being flattering and insulting depending on the subject and Jerome's opinion of them, as well as self-aggrandising in the final chapter.
Kelly describes it as a "propagandist history" and criticises its reliance on Eusebius, arguing that Jerome at times misunderstood or mistranslated him. Langelaar et al. describe the intent as to "develop a Christian vision of history and to appropriate the past of the Roman Empire".
SanPietro argues that it worked to transmit orthodoxy, with Jerome creating it by working backwards from a list of works he believed should be included in Christianity's intellectual foundation.
Editions Jerome and Gennadius: Lives of Illustrious Men, English translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson Jerome's De Viris Illustribus: Latin text (includes an informative introduction, in Latin) Jerome's De Viris Illustribus: Greek version
Notes
References De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) - Full English version. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Published 1910 in New York by Robert Appleton Company.
External links
Jerome's De Viris Illustribus of Matthew, Mark, Luke
Catholic Encyclopedia: Gennadius of Marseilles (continuator of Jerome's De viris illustribus)