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Reading Jerome in the Renaissance: Erasmus' Reception of the Adversus Jovinianum*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Hilmar M. Pabel
Hilmar M. Pabel*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Abstract

Scholars are now devoting more attention to the reception of the Church Fathers during the Renaissance and Reformation. While Saint Jerome's function as icon and exemplar has been the subject of substantial study, his role as an author, read and edited during the Renaissance, still awaits thorough investigation. This essay examines how Erasmus of Rotterdam, the greatest Renaissance editor of Jerome, read the Church Fathers most elaborate polemic in favor of virginity's moral and spiritual superiority to marriage, the Adversus Jovinianum. An investigation of Erasmus’ editorial apparatus for this text, especially his scholia, reveals a complex reading. Erasmus applauded Jerome's rhetorical skill but ventured cautious criticism of his scriptural exegesis without taking a firm position in the controversy over the relative merits of virginity and marriage.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , Summer 2002 , pp. 470 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2002

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Footnotes

*

The research for this article was made possible by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Mark Vessey, Mechtilde O'Mara, David Mirhady, John Craig, Chris Crawford, and James K. Farge, as well as the helpful suggestions of the anonymous readers of this article.

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