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Photostatic Facsimiles of Medieval Manuscripts: Jerome Manuscripts

A guide to the Avianus, Jerome, and Mappae Clavicula manuscript facsimiles in the Literature and Library collection.

17th-century painting depicting Saint Jerome in his study with an angel advising him.

17th-century painting by unknown member of the Bolognese School,
depicting Saint Jerome with an angel. Held in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Saint Jerome

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, anglicized as Jerome, was a priest, confessor, historian, and theologian, born between 342 and 347 CE in Stridon in the Roman province of Dalmatia, often known as Jerome of Stridon and later canonized as Saint Jerome. He was one of the most prolific writers of the Classical-era Catholic Church, producing a wide variety of translations, works of polemical, exegetical, and doctrinal value, as well as hagiographies and biographies.

His most enduring literary legacy was his effort towards a Latin translation of the Bible, becoming the basis for the Vulgate Bible used throughout Medieval Europe. Jerome was second only to Augustine of Hippo (whom he quarreled with) in sheer writing output, the volume and significance of which earned him the title of Doctor of the Church.

He was controversial and combative throughout his life, making enemies even during his earlier studies in Rome and Antioch, and conflicts within the Church eventually forced Jerome, after a period in Rome beginning in 382, to return to Antioch, and later establish a convent and monastery in Bethlehem, where he would spend the last thirty-four years of his life living as an ascetic scholar and writing extensively. Jerome died in 419.

 

Navigation

Photostats of manuscripts containing Jerome's Vita Sancti Pauli (Life of St. Paul), Vita Sancti Malchi (Life of St. Malchus), and Vita Sancti Hilaronis (Life of St. Hilarion) are in the University's Literature and Languages Library. The lists linked below are divided according to their language, rather than which hagiography is present in the manuscript, though some manuscripts possess both Greek and Latin versions.

 

For the collection of facsimiles of Jerome Manuscripts in Latin, click here.

For the collection of facsimiles of Jerome Manuscripts in Greek, click here.

Bibliography

Burghardt, Walter John. "St. Jerome." Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Jerome. Accessed 6 Mar. 2023.


Harvey, Paul B., Jr. “Jerome Dedicates His Vita Hilarionis.” Vigiliae Christianae: A Review of Early Christian Life and Language, vol. 59, no. 3, 2005, pp. 286–97. EBSCOhost, doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1163/1570072054640531. Accessed 6 Mar. 2023.


Hritzu, John N. translator. Dogmatic and Polemical Works (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 53). By Saint Jerome, Catholic University of America Press, 1965. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt284xzx. Accessed 6 Mar. 2023.


König, Jason. "Solitude and Biography in Jerome’s Life of Hilarion." The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography. Ed. Koen De Temmerman. Oxford Handbooks, 2020, pp. 295-308. Oxford Academic, doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198703013.013.22. Accessed 6 Mar. 2023.


McClain, Justin, editor. The Quotable Saint Jerome. By Saint Jerome, Catholic University of America Press, 2020. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv18phhm5. Accessed 6 Mar. 2023.