Of all the church Fathers, Erasmus preferred St Jerome, for in him he found the perfect combination of 'bonae litterae' and 'philosophia Christi, ' which were to become the two fundamental concepts of the Erasmian reform program. This volume is devoted to Erasmus' edition of the works of St. Jerome, including his letters and a variety of other writings, and, most important, Erasmus' Life of Jerome. As a work of patristic scholarship, this first critical biography of the saint was a major achievement, distinguished for its historical portrait of Jerome with all his faults and...