Consoling Heliodorus: A Commentary on Jerome, Letter 60

ISBN-13: 9780198147220 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 290 str.

J. H. D. Scourfield

Opis

Jerome (c. 347-420 A.D.) is best remembered as the author of the Vulgate translation of the Bible. But he was also an untiring letter writer. Among the many letters which have survived are several written to friends who had suffered recent bereavement. In the most impressive of these, Letter 60, Jerome consoles Heliodorus, Bishop of Altinum in north-east Italy, on the early death of his young nephew Nepotianus. The letter is composed from a thoroughly Christian perspective, but it belongs to a tradition of consolatory literature that reaches far back into the pagan world. In this commentary, Scourfield places the letter in the context of this tradition, showing how in the late fourth century a highly literate Christian author could take pagan ideas and put them to Christian use. The commentary also includes a full discussion of matters of language and style, theology and exegesis, as well as the historical background. There is a freshly revised text, as well as a completely new translation of the Letter.

Recenzje

This detailed book will be of interest to scholars of Patristics and Late Latin literary style ... we are given an extremely detailed word-by-word commentary .,.. The commentary ranges much wider than Ep. 60 and provides sometimes fascinating evidence of Jerome's scholarship and erudition, as well as background information on linguistic, stylistic and literary matters. This book is a welcome and substantial addition to our knowledge of Jerome's works. The author is to be warmly praised for his erudition and hard labour in producing a fine and scholarly volume.