Jerome's Epistula Prima
How Can We Read it?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.25.2022.25.06Keywords:
Jerome, Epistula prima, epistolary form, fictional letter, artistic expression, asceticism, Christian epistolographyAbstract
Jerome wrote Epistula prima probably during the decade of 366–376. Little is known about this stage in his life, but it was apparently then that as a young man he became interested in asceticism and at the end of this period of time finally decided to become a monk. However, the ascetic ideas are not the main theme of Ep. 1. The letter tells the story of a falsely accused woman who was subjected to torture and survived seven strokes of the executioner’s sword. The way in which Jerome interprets and presents these events reflects his spiritual profile and aesthetic preferences. The text can be interpreted both as a letter (a ‘real’ or a ‘fictional’ one) with an embedded narrative and as a non-epistolary work with a dedicatory preface. This affects the way in which the reader responds to the introduction (where Jerome’s anxiety concerning the imperfection of his style is expressed) as well as his or her right to assess the subsequent narrative. None of these approaches eliminates the duality in the text’s structure. Therefore, it should be interpreted on the two following levels: as an epistolary speculum animi, which shows Jerome in the situation of undertaking the task of writing the narrative, and as another, literary speculum, which reflects the author’s soul by means of artistic expression.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Primary sources
Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi epistulae, ed. I. Hilberg, Vienna and Leipzig, 1910–1918 (CSEL 54–56), http://doi.org/10.1093/jts/50.1.335. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/50.1.335
Hieronymi De viris illustribus, ed. C. Siamakis, [in:] C. Siamakis, Hieronymi De viris illustribus: Fontes atque specimina, PhD diss., Thessaloniki 1992.
Die Chronik des Hieronymus = Hieronymi Chronicon, ed. R. Helm, Berlin 1956 (GCS 47 = Eusebius’ Werke 7), http://doi.org/10.1515/9783110299434. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110299434
Ammiani Marcellini Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt, vol. 2: Libri XXVI–XXXI, eds. W. Seyfarth, L. Jacob-Krakau, I. Ulmann, Stuttgart – Leipzig 1999, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110949346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110949346
Saint Basile, Lettres, Vol. 2, ed. and transl. Y. Courtonne, Paris 1961, http://doi.org/10.1163/156852563X00991. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852563X00991
Demetrius, On Style, ed. and transl. W. Rhys Roberts, Cambridge 1902.
Grégoire de Nysse, Vie de Sainte Macrine, ed. and transl. P. Maraval, Paris 1971 (SC 178).
Prosperi Tironis epitoma chronicon, [in:] Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII., ed. T. Mommsen, Vol. 1, Berlin 1892 (MGH, Auct. ant. 9), pp. 341–499.
Secondary sources
Barnes T.D., 2002, ‘Valentinian, Auxentius and Ambrose’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 51/2, pp. 227–237.
Berschin W., 1988, Biographik des Hieronymus, [in:] Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter. Vol. 1: Von der Passio Perpetuae zu den Dialogi Gregors des Grossen, Stuttgart, pp. 133–156.
Brown P., 1982, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Chicago, https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226076386.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226076386.001.0001
Bruyne D. de, 1929a, ‘La lettre de Jérôme à Sunnia et Fretela sur le Psautier’, Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche 28, pp. 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1515/zntw.1929.28.1.1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/zntw.1929.28.1.1
Bruyne D. de, 1929b, ‘Lettres fictives de Jérôme’, Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche 28, pp. 229–234, https://doi.org/10.1515/zntw.1929.28.1.229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/zntw.1929.28.1.229
Burrus V., 2011, The Sex Lives of the Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography, Philadelphia, https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200720. DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200720
Cain A., 2009, The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity, Oxford, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563555.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563555.001.0001
Cavallera F., 1922, Saint Jérôme: Sa vie et son oeuvre. Première partie, Louvain – Paris.
Coppieters S., Praet D., Bossu A., Taveirne M., 2014, ‘Martyrdom, Literary Experiment and Church Politics in Jerome’s Epistula Prima, to Innocentius, on the septies percussa’, Vigiliae Christianae 68, pp. 384–408, https://doi. org/10.1163/15700720-12341196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700720-12341196
Curtius E. R., 2009, Metaphorics, [in:] European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, transl. W.R. Trask, Princeton – Oxford, pp. 128–144, https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400846153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400846153
Degórski B., 2004, Wstęp, [in:] Św. Hieronim, Listy do Eustochium. Listy 22, 31, 108, ed. B. Degórski, Kraków, pp. 11–88.
Fontaine J., 1988, ‘L’esthétique littéraire de la prose de Jérôme jusqu’à son second départ en Orient’, [in:] Jérôme entre l’Occident et l’Orient. XVIe centenaire du départ de saint Jérôme de Rome et de son installation à Bethléem, Y.-M. Duval (ed.), Paris 1988, pp. 323–342.
Gibson R., 2012, ‘On the Nature of Ancient Letter Collections’, The Journal of Roman Studies 102, pp. 56–78, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435812000019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435812000019
Gibson R.K., Morrison A.D., 2007, Introduction: What is a Letter?, [in:] Ancient Letters: Classical and Late Antique Epistolography, R. Morello, A.D. Morrison (eds), Oxford, pp. 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203956.003.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203956.003.0001
Grützmacher G., 1901, Hieronymus. Eine biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte, Erste Hälfte: Sein Leben und seine Schriften bis zum Jahre 385, Leipzig.
Iljaš D., Špelič M., 2021, ‘O Vere Ius Summum, Summa Malitia: Poskus žanrske Opredelitve in Namembnosti Hieronimove Ep. 1’ = ‘O Vere Ius Summum, Summa Malitia: the Genre and Intent of Jerome’s Ep. 1’, Clotho 3/1, pp. 101–121, https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.3.1.101-121. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.3.1.101-121
Jungmann J.A., 2013, Kult męczenników, [in:] Liturgia pierwotnego Kościoła do czasów Grzegorza Wielkiego, transl. T. Lubowiecka, Tyniec, pp. 277–296.
Kelly J.N.D., 1975, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies, London, http://doi.org/10.1017/S0360966900013840. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0360966900013840
Miranda L.R., 2007, ‘San Jerónimo y la primera epístola: Modelo retórico para la conversión’, Circe 11, pp. 195–206.
Morello R., Morrison A. D., 2007, Editors’ Preface, [in:] Ancient Letters: Classical and Late Antique Epistolography, R. Morello, A.D. Morrison (eds), Oxford, pp. v–xii, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203956.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203956.001.0001
Müller H., 1998, ‘Der älteste Brief des heiligen Hieronymus. Zu einem aktuellen Datierungsvorschlag’, Wiener Studien 111, pp. 191–210.
Ożóg M., 2010, Wprowadzenie, [in:] Hieronim ze Strydonu, Listy I (1–50), transl. J. Czuj, M. Ożóg, H. Pietras (eds), Kraków, pp. v–xvi.
Rebenich S., 1992, Hieronymus und sein Kreis. Prosopographische und sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Stuttgart.
Rebenich S., 2002, Jerome, London.
Schwind J., 1997, ‘Hieronymus’ Epistula ad Innocentium (epist. 1) — ein Jugendwerk?’, Wiener Studien 110, pp. 171–86.
Scourfield J.H.D., 1983, A Literary Commentary on Jerome, Letters 1, 60, 107, PhD diss., Oxford.
Scourfield J.H.D., 2011, ‘A. Cain, The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009’ (review), Journal of Roman Studies 101, pp. 330–331, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435811000864. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435811000864
Shanzer D.R., 2018, ‘Beheading at Vercellae: What is Jerome, epist. 1 and Why Does It Matter?’, [in:] Zwischen Alltagskommunikation und literarischer Identitätsbildung. Studien zur lateinischen Epistolographie in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, G.M. Müller (eds), Stuttgart, pp. 145–167.
Shaw B.D., 1996, ‘Body/Power/Identity: Passions of the Martyrs’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 4/3, pp. 269–312, https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.1996.0037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.1996.0037
Siamakis C., 1992, Hieronymi De viris illustribus: Fontes atque specimina, PhD diss., Thessaloniki 1992.
Sivan H., 1998, ‘Le corps d’une pécheresse, le prix de la piété: La politique de l’adultère dans l’Antiquité tardive’, Annales. Historie, Sciences Sociales 53/2, pp. 231–253, https://doi.org/10.3406/ahess.1998.279663. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ahess.1998.279663
Stowers S.K., 1986, Letter Writing in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Philadelphia.
Thraede K., 1970, Grundzüge griechisch-römischer Brieftopik, München.
Trapp M., 2003, Introduction, [in:] Greek and Latin Letters. An Anthology with Translation, M. Trapp (ed.), Cambridge, pp. 1–47.
Wasyl A.M., 2002, Rzymski list poetycki. Próba opisania gatunku, Kraków.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.