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A1br~cht Dnrer's "St. Jerome in his ~tudy" of 1514:

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A 'Reassessmen t

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Mary Minty

. Department of History'

MçGill Universi ty

Montreal

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,.~ January, 1985

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. A thesis·: submi tted 'to the Facul ty of

, Graduate Studies and Reseatch in o partial fu.llfilm~nt of thé Deg~ree'

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. 'Abstract

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In 397 , ,one of the most semInal of the early Church

Fathers sought tranquility ln the Syrian desert. It was here ,

that St. Jerome first began ,the study of Hebrew. His immer-

sion in what he chr~stened Hebra~ca Veritas - Hebrew Truth

ultimately led him to produce a new tt;pnslation of the Old

Tes'tament frQm. the Hebrew orlg~nal. His Hebrew scholarship

.., gained him the reputation as the first great Christian Hebralsv..

It is '-acknowledged that i~ northern humanl.st clrcles1

of the early decades of the six; teentn century, Jerome 1 s wri tings

were unr ~ v-a1T'é1:t in their populari ty. However, tne Quest ion

of the impact of Jerome 1 s creed of Hebraica Veri tas on his

human{st disc1ples has received iittle attentlon.

This theslS 'attempts to demons trate that the genera~

scholarl y neglect of this aspect of Jerome 1 s reputation is

an oversight 1n a period WhlCh w~ tnessef!.) the flowering of

Christian .tlebralsm. It pre,sents evidence to' the effect that

a knowledge of Jerome' s espousal of' Hebraica Ver i tas, as (~, ,

'. propagated by the German H ebrais t Johannes Reuchlin, enriches

ou.r understanding of one of the most striking pictorial

representations of the saint ever produced: ~

Albrecht Oùrer's

engr.~ving of "St. Jerome in his Studry" (1514).

Above aIl this thesis 'attempts t6 cross reference

. events and fi,elds of scholarship which tend to exist sealed .,._ ...,.... '1

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off from one another due tO":t.,he pressures and demands of

speciali z a tion • In doing 50. i t is hoped ~th at new ligh t.

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. is shed upon the respons:ze~.1 s

- extraordinary it!ag"-Of 5; J.ro.m~~·

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mi1ieu to this

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En 397, l'un des fondateur-é de la théologie judéo-~ ,

chrétienne prit refuge dans le désert· syrien et c' est ~ ,

'çe moment que" Saint Jérôme entrepri t d'étudier la langue

hébrafguè. ~ .(

Ses reche ches sur ce qu'il a ultimement al2pelé

,'Hebraica Veritas, a Vérité Hébrafque, l'a amené à formuler . \ . , 'une -version ~ouve Ile ~~ Testament à partir du texte

~ébreu original. ~e maîtrise de la làngue .hébrafque .

lui dohna la réputa t,ion de premier véri table hébraïste.'

Chrétien.

Il est reconnu que les écrits de Jérôme n'avaient .. . ,

pas d'égal en popularité auprès des cercles humanistes nordiques

d ' .... d- d d ",---, " " l :.. es premleres eca es u sel.Xl.eme Sl.ec e. Pourtant, tres

. peu a été étudié sur, la ~uestion de l'impact "des croyances

de Jérôme tel q~e formulées dans son Hebqlfca Veritas.

Cette these cherche à démontrer que l' importanèe

. ,scolastique de cet aspect de l f enseignement de Jérôme_

fut grandement négligée à cette époque qui pourtant ,

démontre un grand développement de l'idée de l' hébraïsme

Chrétien: ,

Cela semble qémontrer qu f une connaissance de ,

1 f accepta tion de l'idée, d: Hébrafca Veri tas par Jérôme, tel' ,

gue défini par 1 'hébrafste allemand Johannes Reuchlin, enrichit

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notre appr~ciation d'une des plus remarquables reprêsentat~ons, , .

pictorielles de Jérôme jamais p!oduite: la gravure d'Albrecht .. Dur,er inti~lée "St-Jé~ôme dans son Etude" (1514).

Ava t toute ~hose, cette thêse cherch~'a faire ,f

des rapprochements entre des,événements et des champs

d'étude qui~ont tendance à eXlster séparément les uns

des autres à cause des exigènces et des pre~sions amenêes '"

par la spécialisation. Ce en quoi nous espé~ons qu'il

en/~sultera une nouvelle compréhension sur les réact~on~

des contemporains de. Durer face à cette imagè extraordinaire

de st-Jétôme.- ~'

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"Table ofd

ÇORtents . ~

,-Introduction . ~ ........... : .. III •• : •• III • ., •••••••••••

CHAPTER l

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Dllrer' s "St. Jerome in his 'Study" of 1514 and 'the Symbolism of the Gourd: The Philofogical Vie~ .•• , ••.••••••••

L. Jerome's Cucurbita: Symbol of Hepraica Veri tas .\~ •••••..• ~ ....... i

.... 2. Ref9rences to the Book of Jonah

in the Writings of German Humanists ......... ~ ....... 0 ••••• III ,.

CftAPTER' II

,CHAPTER III

A Chal1\nge to the Erasmus Theory

" Jerome's Cucurbita; Appropriate

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Symb01 of Reuchlin's Hebraica Veri tas ....................... III •••• '".

1. Reuchlin on Reuchlin and Jerome

2. Reuch1inists pn Reuchlin and Jerome .• ~ •••..•....••....••• , •.•••

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Conclusion •••..••••...• l ....................... . . , \ . Né te s :...... ~'. . . . . . ..... \ .... : ......... :' ......... ' .. ..

,...1" " q .. ' . \ ;tllustratl.ons ............ ~ ............ ... ' ..•... "' ..

,1 ,,' " ''" \ ' Bibliography." ..........•......... ~ .........•.. · .. ~

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27-29

30-48

40-48

51-:71

72.-76

77~85·

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Abbreviatibns #Âf L;

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Corpus Christiano+um', Series Latin~

Encyc10pedia Judaica , . ,-

Historia Judaica

.t;~rnal of the Warburg 'and Court~uld ,lnst itutes

Migne' ~ PatrQ!oqj.a Latina

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Intr'oduct:iton

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In' 1504, 'a Moravian Jew by the name of Jqhannes

Pfef.iferkorn convetted to Christianity. Upon, his conversion; ,

, , he began to -campa1gn for th~ generé;ll coriversion or the Jews.

In connectiori. wi th 'th~ Uominicans, l pOP\lla~-iy known as the

Domini Canes rh~' issued a stream of pamp~let~, their p'rinci­

pal theme being "that the confiscation of ~ewish Books '10u1d

spe~d the mass conve'rs ion of tne Jew~ to Chris tiani ty" . 3

: Such a stance received important ~ac~ing. In 1509, Pfefferkorn

and 1)1s cohor,ts received a mandate from Empero'r Maximilian, ~. ..' ~

which ap~roved the confiscation of' J~wis,h hooks throughout

the Holy Roman ,Empir~. 4 However.,' a' year later; the confis-

. cation Of books "was halted. In response to th,e, protestations

ofdt~è Archbishop of Mainz,. Ma~i~iliap retracted the mandate. ~ . ~ . .

He ordered the Archbishop of Mainz !:o seek expert opinions

• ,on the issue of t.be cohfisca ~ion of Jew'ish Books. A - variety

of e~pert~ waè consul ted, rànging from the ·tNeologi~al facul­

ties 'of four major German universi ties to private scholars',' . '

amo.ng whom, was the noted Hebrew' scholar 'jpha;n~: Reuchlin. 5 ,

\ ~he opinion of the university 0-; Cologne on this matter o •

was that the confiscation should not only' proceed, but that'

i t sh'ould be fortified by other measures; Jews40should be 'forcèd .

to refrain from usury, should engage in manual labour, shou1d -, . ~ ,

hear Christian sermons,~~~~. wea~ distinctive ~adges.~ The "

. '.. " 7 other' uni versi ties consul tf'd expressed s ~mllar Vlews. "

'Reuchlin stood alone in opposing the confisçation ( ,

and destruction' of Jewish Books, 'a conviction put fo.rth in , .

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/ his Gutach ten 'Ùber das J{1dische Schrifttum, issued ~n ~1510. 8 î

" Among oth,r things, the Gutachten argued ~hat Christian

scho1ars shou1d study the Hebrew language and Jewish biblical

commentaries to increase their understanding of the Old

9 10 Testament, and that the Talmud and Cabala ~ere worthy

of study as they explain divine mysteries and even confirm ,

Christian tenets. Il In short, Reu,ch1in rejected ,.:the idea

" that the confiscation of Jewish li terature ,wduld speed the

conversion of the Je~s. Instead, this Hebraist urged that

Christians should study, not burn Hebrew literature 50 that \

12 the Jews could be t'r':lly convinced of their er'rÇ>rs." The

Gutachten included the recommendation that twd teachers of

Hebrew should be instœlled at every' universi t~·.13 "

Reuchlin 1 S pronounqement created confusion,. Though ~

\ an imperial commi~oner ignored him and recommended confisèa-

tion, Maximilian would not endors~:;. the proposaI. This state

of af:fa,irs provoked Pf;.efferkorn to publish a p~mphlet "Der ,

Hândt ~piegel J.ApJ;"il, l51~) denouncing ReuchliQ as an enemy , ,

of the Church and friend' 'of the Jews. c. Reuc,hlin countered

wi tn an expanded" version of", the Gu tachten ,ti tled Der Q

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• 14 Augenspiegel ' (August, 1511). This volley. marked the beg-

inning of what histpri'ans have. christened the ~'Reuchlin-

" ,1. • 15 Pl:efferkorn cont!:"oversy." " , .

Scho1arship ~n this d~spute,16 which dra~ged o~ for . 17 ( ..

a decade Il • tends to' divide itsel.f into two dist;.in.~t schoQls

of" though ~ • One school has presented it as a struggle of , f

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"~~~~~anism against Scholasticism, a humanist outcry in defense

of "free expression. ,,18 The other interprets i t as an important

. J . h h' 19 b lb' . 20 event l.n ewl.S l.story, a att e etween "antl.seml. tes"

an~ "enlightened defenders of toleration.,,21

The most recent study of this clash carefully weighs

both these disparate' views and convincingly demonstrates

that the/latter view is the more accurate appraisal of the \

episode, that "above aIl, Reuchlin's battle must be inter-

preted in the deep current of antisemitism 22 ~unning through

medieval society; ,,23 that the primary issue of the battle

was the confiscation and destruction of Hebrew books - not

a face-off between Hu~anism anp Scholasticism. - li'

-A single image found in one of Pfefferkorœ's earliest •

p~lemics fully supports this most recent anaiysis of the

"Batt~e of the Books". In 1510 Pfefferkorn published a tract o

tïtled Zu Lob und Ere des Lerren Maximilian Ro~ischen Kaiser. 24

It was an attempt to persuade th~ Emperor to reissue the

mandate fpr the confiscation of Jewish books. The title

page woodcut of this work (fig. i) is ant;-ijudaic in its depic-.. ,

tion of the hunched,'bearded figure clutching a cane and .... ,

we-aring the Jew~sh badge 25 which appears as the circular

shap~ on h~s breast. 26 ,

" Though the .Reuchlin-Pfeff~rkorn controver~x has been ,

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the subject- Of' repeated stu'dies', to my know~eèg~ it has nevet- 1

been considered from the point of view of its possible impa~t - \ . on pictoria~ imagery independent of polemical literature

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27 provo~ed by the battle. As will be presently' illustra~ed,

Reuchlin' s dispute wi th the iJominicans attracted ~.I;}e atten­

tion and participation of Germa~ humanists who moved in circles

which included artists. There is reason to conside'r i ts

impact in these terms.

This thesis proposes that a well-known image dating

from one of the most turbulent years of the controversy,

Albrecht D~rer's engraving "St. Jerome in his Study" (1514)

(fig. 2) belongs in such a conte~t. It d~aws on a wide but q

pertinent range of material concerning: St. Jerome's writing;

Reuchlin 15 wri tings; his dispute wi th 'Pfefferkorn and Ms

cohorts; his influence on DÜrer's circle, the Sodalitas

Pirckhe~m~r?8and previous scholarship on this image. Evidence

is presented .to the effect that Dürer·s engraving was likely ,

inspired by the circumstances and events of the Reuchlin- •

Pfefferkorn controversy which entered one of its most critical

.,' .- and dramatic phases in"1514, the year in whiéh Dtlrer produced

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CHAPTER l

Dürer ~_s "St. Jerome in his Study-'· of 1514 and

The Symbo1ism of the Gourd:

The Phi101oqica1 View

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One of the more curious details of· DÜrer's engraved

"St. Jerome in h is S'tudy" of 1514 (fig. 2) is the huge freshly

c~t gourd suspended from the ceilinq of Jerome's serene

chamber.

The gourd, the~appearance of which was an important

-ev~nt in the story of Jonah, has generally be~n interpreted

by art historians'as a symbol·of transience 29 àccording to

a passage in the Book of Jonah (4: 6-10): "!l'he gourd came up ,,,:

in ~he night and perished in the ~ight at the lord's command."

In the imagery of St. Jerome, the iconog-raphical

detail of the goùrd is unique to this engraving. Recently~

a radically different reading of this intriguing detail was ,

proposed by Peter Parshall .in an article entitled "St. Jerome

in his Study: . A Philological Reference". 30 Parshall inter­

prets the gourd in Dnrer's engraving according to a prominent

incident in Jerome's life; for a gourd n~t only plays an

important role in the story of Jonah, it also figures promin-. j

ently in Jerome's career. o

Parshall's account of Jerome's gourd is as follows:

,While com~iling the Vulgate~ Jerome opted to translate Jonah's

bower as hedera (ivy), rejecting the older latin reading

; o' 9 f , cucurbita (gourd). What inspired Jerome to make such L-, , .)~' ~ '-Ç1y,

~ ~ a change was his fidelity to the original Hebrew text. Writes

Parshall, "Jerom~ recognized that the Hebre'w term' for the

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plant ciceion or kikayon, refers to the castor oil plant

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which grew abundantly in Pale~tinw. He notes th~t the botanical

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nat1,lre of this ,leafy vine, which sprouts quickly and wi thers

in the sunlight, accords weIl with that described in the

Bi~e. Since hè knew of no Lati~ or Greek word for castor

oil p1an~, he selected hedera, ~hich he 1mplied is,physica1ly

closer than cucurbi ta to ciceion. Thus "Jerome l'nsisted that

the Greek term used in the Septuag1nt version of the Jonah

passage'was more correctly rendered b~ hedera than by .r • • •

, .- r. ~ 31 cucurbita, as eaF1ier translato~ had 'mainta1ned.

Parshall notes that Jerome was 'attacked for this

particular word change which u1timately provoked an exchange

of letters on this topic witb Augustine in the years 403-404~1~

Be looks back to the controversy over this word change to

determfne the significance of the cucurbita 1n Dürer's êngrav-

ing of St. Jerome. The 1etters 1n which Jerome discusses

Jonah's cucurbita would most certain1y have been familiar i

to ûerman humanists. Jerome's letters were the most popular

32 letters circulating during the M1ddle Ages and very popular

in the north in this period of burgeoning humanism. Editions o

of,his epist1es were pub1ished by N1kolas Keszler in Basel , in 1489, 1492 and 1497, in Nuremburg by Dürer's God-father

Anton Koburger 1n 1i95,33 and in 1512 Erasmus pro~osed an , ,

34 " 35 edi'tion. Dürer 1n fact provided a wide1y cop1ed fron'tis-

, piece for Kesz1er\s 1492 ed1tion (fig. 3) .

Shifting h1S d1Scuss10n' to the context of early <)si!'teenth

century Germany, Parsha11 proceeps<;;.to suggest that the debate \. -:1.,

over Jerome's start11ng word chaDg~~ld have been most

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intrigtdng to -humanists "who lauded St. Jerome above' aIl for

his critical abil~ties as a scholar";36 In search of an event

in this period wh~ch could have bèen the inspiratlon of such

an iconography, Parshall focuses on Erasmus' activities.

He dr~ws attention to the fact that in 1512 Erasmus had pro-

posed an edition of Jerome's letters and·by 1514 was lnvolved

with other scholars ln preparing a publ1cation of Jerome's ,

37 complete works. Accordingly, he proposes that the cucurbita

in Oûrer's engraving might symbolize this undertaking. 38

Parshall's approach to this engraving, offers a new

perspective on this image which is very mu ch in keep~ng. with

both the cont,xt bf an image featuring Saint Jerome and the

'concerns of German human1sts in this periode H1S most astute

ide a insprred an answering article by a German scholar Adolf •

Weis.

Weis accepts Parshall's fundamental pos1tion that

the cucurbita is a veiled allusion to a philological contro­

versy involving Erasmus,40 but he also offer~ further insight

into the exact nature of such an allusion.

Weis' discussion of the engrav1ng revolves around'

the question: What is absorbing the attention of ih~s parti­

cular JérOme?41 Not1ng that the Salnt is not surrounded

by a cluster of b~bles: as he is in Dürer's 1492 frontispiece

(fig. 3); that h1'S desk lS uncluttered except for a thin

sheaf of papers on the lectern, Weis suggests that at this

moment,

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43 Stress~ng t~e popularity of Jerome's letters, he instead

-proposes that Jerome is occupied in the writing of a letter,

44 the subJect of which is the notorious word c~ange in Jonah.

Weis then proceeds to offer an interpretatioD of this contro-

45 versy which noticably dlffers from that of Parsh~ll's.

Emphasi~ing that oppositl0n to Jerome's word change blew

up over objections to Jerome's preference for the Hebrew

original over the Septuaglnt, which the Church believed to

46 be divinely inspired and of paramount authorlty, Weis pro-.

poses that Dtirer has depicted this particular St. Jerome

in ~he midst of composing a letter speclfically in defense

of Hëbraica Veritas - Hebrew Truth. 47 •

Weis' mention oi'Heb~aica Veritai raises lmportagt

questions about the true significance of the ~onah controversy:

how best to interpret it in the contèxt of Jerome's life,

hence how to most faithfully interpret it ln the context

of Durer' s milieu and engraving'. In order to understand .."

fully the meaning of the cucurbita, as a symbol of philolo-

gical ,controversy.,in D{irer' s image, i t is first necessa~y

to elaborate on the meaning of Hebraica Verltas in the context

of Jerome's life: to examine literature and letters by Jerome

and his peers in wnich the controversial word change in Jonah

is mentioned.

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1. Jerome's Cucurbita: Symbol of Hebraica Veritas [

Hebraiqa Veri tas is a phrase. which appears throughout

Jerome's writing once he had become engrossed in the study

48 • of Hebrew. Jerome began his study of the "h~ssing and

49 sa gasping" words 0:6. Hebrew with a converted Jew, dur~ng

his sojourn in the desert of Chalcis (375-377). He ulti-

mately ~ame to defend this tongue, which he h~d found ini-

tially offensive, as the purist and holiest tongue, tne tongue

51 in which God first spoke to man.

" 1 Jerome' s hebraic .!? tudies lead him to judge the original

Hebrew text of the Old Testament to be the authoritat~ve

52 text to bé consulted by translators. In 390 "he began the

translafion of the ent~re 01d Testament from the original

Hebrew, the completion of which was the crowning glory of

bis Hebrew studies. 53 This undertak\ng caused h"im' to bé

perc~ived by fiis contemporaries and IFter figures as the

preeminent, Hebrew sch0lar among the Church fathers, ~n effect, )

the father of Christian Hebraism.

Jerome was xhe f~rst Latin father to undertake and

54 advocate a serious study of Hebrew. In its simplest sense,

the phrase Hebraica Veritas stand~ for Jerome's conviction

u_ 55 that ~~brew was the first and holiest of tongues, that

the wisdom of the Scriptures was best revealed through study-

ing them in the language ~n which they w~re originally written

~d that the Hebrew text was to be regarded as authoritative

in all exegetical'dispute~.56 However, comments in Jerome's

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wri tings 0 rev,e~} tha t the phrase has a more complex meaning.

Most important ~n the context of this thesis 'ts the

fact that Jerome's advocation of Hebraic studies and reliance

on Hebrew sources was controverslal. 57 Jerome's Hebrew

scholarship led him to become the Church father most conver­

sant with Jewish traditions. 58 This alarmed both Jews and

Christians.

In one instance, Jerome describes how one of his

Jewish teachers, Baranina, "secretly smuggled books' out of

th S d · h . ,59 J t e ynagogue ln or er to lnstruct lm. ' ... - ews we;-e no

encouraged to teaèh Hebrew to non-Jews. 60 Jerome explains

" ,

that Baranina had secured the books on the "pretext of wishing

to read them himself ... 61

Jerome himself acknowledged his attitude to the Hebrew

Old Testament to be risky. "ThlS to be sure 1s, ~ dangerous

undertak1ng and one thàt 1s subject to the barking of my

detractors, who assert that my purpose ln composing a new

'.

yer~ion in place of the old one 1s to reprehend the Septuagint.,,62

And he encountered severe critlclsm by h~s, fellow Christians .

for givlng precedence to the Hebrew Scriptur~s over the

S t ' 63 ep uaglnt. However, an examination of such crlticism

reveals that i~ w~~ provoked by concern over an even thornier

issue than the chailenglng of the authority of the Septuaginf:~-

Jerome's mastery of Hebrew, collaboration with Jewish

scholars, reliance on rabbin~cal exegesis and supreme respect o

for the Hebrew version of the Old Testament more than once

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exposed him to the rumour that he preferred Judàism to

h ' . , 64 C rl.stlanl.ty. One of the most ôutspoKe~ enemies of Jerome's

" , Hebraica Veri tas 'was the priest and theo1ogiàn Rufinus, 'once , .:.-. . ------.

t " ,. a "be10ved Il friend.

1 Rufinus, who is mentioned in the, writings of German-

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attitude towards the ~acrosanct Septuagint through an,attack

67 on Jerome's dependence.on Jewish sources. His objection" . ~

ta Jerome' s Hebraica Ver! tas are vcHced in thf;!. Apo10gy of .

Rufinus (401_2).68 ,

Throughout his two book treatise, Rufinus repeated1y

attacks Jerome for having Jewish tutors.6~ He scathingly

dubs the above mentioned Baranina "Barabbas" and snipes. UI t

is clear that no one in the Chbrch has 'beèn yo~r companion

~or confederate" in i t [translation], ,but only that Barabbas,

70 whom you mention so fréquently."

Rufinus bluntly accuse~ Jerome of having trans1ated

the Scriptures under Jewlsh influence.

Perhaps·~t was a greater piece_of audacity to alter the Qooks of th~ Divine Scrlptures which had been delivered to th~ Churches of Chrlst by the Apostles to be a complète record of their faith by making a new translation under the influence of the Jews. 71

He 1evels this Charge more than once.

, ,

What other spirit than that'of the Jews would dare to tamper with the records of the church which have béen' handed down fro,m the Apostles? It is they, my brother, you who were most de~r to, me befor~ you -were takén captive by the Jews, i t i.s.- t(iey

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who are hurrying you into this abyss'of evil. It i5 their doing that those books 'of 'yours are put fort'h in whicb· you b~and your Christian brethren, not sparing even the martyra, and heap up accusations speakable and unspeakable against Christians of every degree, and mar. our peaee, and cause a scandaI to the éhurch. It is they who cause you tp pass .sentence upon yourself and your own writings as upon words whicb you ohee spok~ as a Christian. We aIl

" ,of us have become wOlthless in your eyes, while they and their evil acts are aIl your ?elight.7~ .

In the midst of $uch vitriol, a passage appears

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on Jerome's,wor? change in Jonah. \

:. • Now therefore af,ter four hundr'ed years the truth of the law cornes forth for '. us: . i t has been bought wi tn money 'from thè Synagogue. When the world has growri old and aIr things are hastening to the end, let us ~hange.the inscription~,upon the'tombs of the aneients, so~that it may be known by those who had read ... the st.ory~.

otherwise that i t was not a gourd but . an .ivy plant under whose shaçe Jonah rested and that, when our Iegislator pleases, it will no longer be the shade " of ivy but sorne othe.r plant. 73 '

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Th, tOMe of th!~ ~ommenta~y ~nd con~ext.~~~w~i~b:it· appèars indicate that.Rufinus condemQed the contrdv~rsy over

Jerome's version of Jonah 'as an ~minous example 'o~,the ç?n~

. ~equence~ O~Jerome ,'s espousal of and ,commi tment to Hebr:aiça

Veri tas. F~" R';Jfi_nus, Jer,orne 1 s exegesis of ~lbràica Veri ta~ was np more . han' an irrev~rent" and here'tica-l dependence on . ,~

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the Jews. ~ 0

Jerome countered Rufinus' assaolt on his'Hebraica

.' 1 t 74 Veritas in h1S 'Apology aga1nst Ruf1nus (401) - a work'

certainly perused by humanists. This po'lemi~ was ci te,d ·in·

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~he Hèbraisl 'Joh'a~ne~ Re.u~hli~'·, s apologies for' the study · .. , ~ .' .... . \ --

'1 '," • 75 \" of.. HEf?~~W, " th,e' GU7acl:lrt.>E1n and "Der Augenspiegel, and was

p~Bllshe~ in ~à~~'è':l ~â~ 'l~16. 7q • • ~ , • ~ \ r" .. 1 \,

" 'Ï'n~ contênt~ ,~f .:r-er~me\1 s ApoJ.ogy ~'lied~ mU,ch light • • p r 110. ,

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on ,both the 'unde'rlying ,m'ot.ivatl;.on behind hi~, own e:spotsal .1 _ .. •

. of Hebraica, Vert-tas ahp' h'1.s' enemies 'attack 'of, 'i t. " ' , ~ " \'. ~ ~, \ '

(: , . , - A first st:ep 'Jerome, takes in this thtee part tr .. ac;rt

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is t'o· swiftly denounè'e RUfiri'us 1 gibes about hi~ Jewish 'teach'ers. . . .' . :ffyOU ~'oçk me.in .the, miimner df the wft't'y Plautus beèause' '1 0

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s~id .'tl?a,t Barapbas .-the 'J:ew w~s my instructor'77 .•. You con-1 JI, ~ n ~ )." t' • • ~ , \ \ 18

demned me bécause; 1 learned Hebrew from a man. ", He ridicules .. '" ... ~~, :. .. : . ' ~

Ru~~nus' qùestioning of th~ propriety ~f" his consultation i l, ~ '-< -_" l ,."

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~f Jewish tutors and.exegesis by listing sorne of the mor~ . . • intporta~t' clir~stian the,ologia'ns who nad roage i ~ a. p.ractice , , . , '.',1 •

to consult tbe'Jèws. '1. ,) l' 1

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Eùsebiu~, and a', host of others, wh~riev~r " " they 'discù'ss, thln<4s. from ~c..I;ipbU"re and .

W'isth to pJ?ove what" th~'Y saL,us'ually write , ,as' follow.$ liA Hebrew t'olq me of this" and;

, 1 ~eard it fr~m,auHebrew and: "Thi~'is ~he · \tiew, ôf th'e '·Hebrews. Il Eve.n Or.i:gen 'to b~ . ,sure, 'l'!,lentions the Patriareh Hu~lius [a ~Je~] ~po was his cont~mporar.y, and he cQnclu­des the t,hirteenth t'e>!J)mentarY o,b Isf:üa 'with the commènt'ary of àullius, saying ~~at this eatlier v~ew ~as quite ~ifferent, and confes:;i,n,9 tha,t he l'las taughf the more correct view by Hullius· •.• He ,does not .... deem it bèl~w ~is dign~ty to insert the views of the Âebrews on certain passages'

· when ,transla't\ng. Hebrew 4cr: pture. 79 'r '. >

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t'~n'book I~lpf his Apology, ~xpresse~~~trage

~ cpt~te'r~ei ~', ,Wit1'elY· circul ted let ter i~ his nam.é . . èbou't

penance and sQl~mnl~

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declaring that he was induced ln' his youth D.Y, the fieprews .. " ~

ta translate into Latin the Hebrew Boôks and th~t his reason • Il

for translating the sacred scripture was to condemrj ,th'€:

, SO Septuagint." In countering such slander, Jerome laùoches

into an explanation as to why his creed of Hebr'aica Veri:tas "

is anything but Judaiiing. < • )

In response ta Rufinus' calumny, Jerome stre~se6

that hi~ commitment to HebraicÇl Veritas stéms from his desire . ~

to reveal to Christi ans "the many passages in the Old 7

"Testament wilich are not to be found in our copies. nSI He

then offers the following explanat!on (originally s~ated ,. '\. r *'-'

in his Liber Heb~aicàrum'question~m in genesimS2 (389-91))

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for the discrepancies between the Hebtéw original and,thë

septuag~

The Jews say that it was aIl a part of a cleve-r scl1ème to ke,ep Ptolemy, who was ' : " a worshipper of the one God. from' detecting , ,':' the existence of a double divinity also among the Jews; but that the most important reason for"such a scheme was the f~ct that the king ,appea:red ta be le'anîng t,owàrds the teact:d,ngs<,,,O;' Plato': Finally, ,wherever- '", Scripture' ma"'de afly sacred pronouncement ';", . about the Father, and the Son, and the ,0 ' " , ' ' ,

" Holy Spiri t, t'hey ei ther interpreted tl1e ,: ,'," statement'in a different sense, or kept l '

silent ,about i t aIl together, sa that they " " satisfied the kingawithout revealing th~ secrets of their' fai th. S,3 ' ,',

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" In advanc.ing the theory that the Old Test'a,menf -Qeed~d .. 0, ' • " '0

revisiorr because Jewish translators of th~ ~~ptuagint,eensored

"thë sac:red, pronouncements about thè Father, and the' ~o,n., .,

anÇl the Holy Spirit, Il Jerome propagates the exeges·;i·~: of" • 1 .' .. ... ,"

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Hebrait.ca Verl tas as a crucial stlj,a'te9Y in the Church 1 s crusade 'i. '" •

against Judaism. <

Je~ome alr declàres this conviction in the rref'ace.

te' that ve~si6n 0; the ,Psalte r which he hàd had tr~.nsolat-ed '# ' , 84 '

directly from the Hebr'ew, a'n excerpt of which appears in , "

his Apology. Jerome explains tha t . he ded'icated thi;s pre1i4 ce , • to h is fr:itend So.phroni us ~ho had los t'a debate wi th a Jew b

due to the confused state of the Christian o~ Testament

Scrip'tures.

Therefore, since you [SophroI;lius] had quoted certain tes,timonie's ~rom the psalms in def-

~, ~nding the Lerd Saviour in a recent argument with a Hebrew, and he, wishing to meck yeu, asserted in the' case of practically' each and every passage that the reading of the testimonies in the Hebrew was not the sàme as the one you produced from the Septuagint of

translators against him, yèu begged me earnestly to translate a new'edition in Latin in addi­tion te thèse of Aquila., Symmac;hus, and Theodotion. For; y,ou said that you were

. ' qui te cOI1fused by the variety of translations ... and that you were content wi th ~i ther my :..r translation or my judgement bec;J.use of the love to which you feel yourself draw~. And thus being influenced by yeu, to w~om l must not deny ,even what l cannpt do,' l exposed .. myself once again to the barkings ef my detractors i and l preferred that yeu find my àbility than my good will want~ng in our, friendship. l can say wi th assurance and wi'1:h confidence, and l can èi te many , wi tnesses to this volume· of mine, that - to the best of my knowledge, l have changed nothing from the'Hebrew tr~th. Therefore, if my edi tien is at variance in any place ~ith the ancients, ask any Hebrew yeu like, and you will clearly understand 'that l am being maiicious1y aqsailed by my rivaIs. 1 dé not say this because l am assailing 'my predecessors, or because l am speaking i11 inAny way of those whose 1;.ranslation l corrèC\ted very caref~lly sorne time ago

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and made available to the people of my lànguage, but becau~e ~t is one thing to +ea~ the psalms in, tHe ~hur.ches of Ch'rist of the beliè'vers, ànd qui te .another ~matter 'to 'reply" to the 'Jews who calumr1iat~, every word .~ .. J3 5 , . _ ....

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In this passag,e,. Jerome p~rtrays Hebraica, Veri tas f

" as the solution ta" Sophtonius 1 predicament, a predicamelllt'

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embodying' the ,t;èst. serious pr.oblem ChrisUans f~ced when , • • ,Il ~ l ':"

• & "86 .,,\ debating Jews.. J \ "

Accdrd{ng tQ'Jetdme it is Hebraid~ V~ritas ~hich y.. . " , ~

will -permi t the c:ur7'ently chaotic st~t'e ~f' the Christian A "'. '»

scripture-s to bé ~~~Ol ved, which wi'll pe~ini t the' prodpct'~

o'f a new version'which will o.ve..rr~ach -èhe "jeering Je.ws". 87

J'ero"me clai~~d tnat "'his l \<Jlhole 'objec1: in sweata.119 over h,is

'" -translation t'rom a strange'tonque was to "stop the J'ews once " . . .

and for aIl frçin tal1lnting the Church ~ aboht 'tl:Ïe ralseness Q . ' ' 1. • "

, ,

1 r:. • 88 : t ." I!o~ of its scriptures ••• 011 , ,to Il,p'roduce a version of the Scriptures . ' ,

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which 'th~ . , " . Jew[3 ha~d 'to aCkn?Wledge as,. i nd.ispu t,ably acc~ra te

~ ~ ) ..., . \ ~ "- " unmistakably o'f? the coming of

f anq which nevertheless S'P9ke

,\ , .christ. ,,89

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1'- , ~ It is clear from sltch ~?mtn.elits \ ,t~flt, J~'romè: ~ s, e~poug.aL "':, " 1 .. '

of Hebraica Ve~;r;itas derivé"d' f~om h!:is conviction' th.at. the ", f \

Jews may be '"smit1;en most effe~tivf!ly by their .o~n s~ars" .• 90 ." :,. ,,.' 4 'Ij

~~n h~,~ Apology 1 Je .. rome'l' ~ 1 Ç!,reat in~~gnat'~p,'tl et Rufinus 1

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accusation ,of' the .i!mpropri.ety and subversive nature, of his } • .., ~ l' il ~ ...

'- . Hebraica Verltas, is summed up ~n ,his .. ",clai,rn. . ,.

, l a éh'risfian, the son of Chris,t.:j.an parents, " and ~wh.o carry the sign of the a,ross on. '

my 'forehead, and whose sole concern ~as

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to recover 'what had been ommitted to' correct what had been 'falsi fied; ~nd to reveal the mysteries of the Church in simple truth-fuI language ~ should not be 'rebuked ei ther 91 ~y the fastidious or the reproachful reader ,.

, ,

St. Augustin~e, who had tried in 'vain to a a . 92

reconcilia tion between Jerome and Rl-lfinus also 1 came

express his .fears about the potentially

of Hebr,aica. 'Veri ta·s.

, Judaiz~ng t

1,n a let ter to Jerome, wri tten in 395, -h.e lndicates . unease a;bout Jerome 1 s chailenge to the Septuagint as expr.essed

by Jerc~.m·~ lin, his first c~lJ1mentary on J?p •. ,

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l beseech you not to devo te yéur labour to the work of translating into Latin the sacred canonical books, unless you follow the. meth.od in which you have translated ' Job, viz. with the a'!dition of notes, ~ let i t be seen plainly wh.a t differences ther~, are between this version of yours

1 and thq.t of the LXX, whose authori,ty is , w,?rthy of highest es teem. For my own J;1art,

l cannot sufficiently express my wonder that anythin~ should at ,th'îs date be found in the' Hebrew mss. which escaped 50 ma.ny tran,slators perfectly acqua~nted with the language. • .• ,1 am more perplexed by those

, translators wh'o, though. enjoying the advan­tage of labouring af'ter the LXX had com-pleted their work, and al though well acquainted, as ,i. t ls reported, wi th the force of Hebrew . words and phrases, and wi th Hebrew syntax, hav,e not" only fai'lea to agree, amonq themselves, bu t have left many things which, even 'after ' so long a time, stil'I remaih to' be discovered and brbught to lig~t.93

Àugl1stine 's anxiety about Jerome 1 s reliance on

Hebraica Vèri ta& intensifies. Later, in 403, he learns that

Jerome- had proqu'Ced ah unannotat'ed version of Job, meaning " .

t'h,at he had omitted Origen's diac~itical signs which

distinguished the Septuagint. version from the Hebrew or~gina1.94 -\

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What is the reason for so much less care having been taken in this recent version from the Hebrew to secure that these same particles be found in their own places?' 1_ "-7ould have put down" here an extract or, two in illustration o.f this cri ticism; bùt at present l have not access to t-he MS. of the transla tion from the Hebrew .•• :L.n this more recent version from the Hebrew, there. is not the same scrupulous fideli ty as to the words; and it p~plexes any thoughtful reader to understand ei ther what was the reason for marking the asterisks in the former version wi th so nmch care that they indicate the absence from the Greel< version of even the smallést grammatical particles which have not been rendered from the Hebrew ... 95

Focusing on the consequences of 'a lack of Christian

access to the ~r.iginal Hebrew text, Augustine issues to Jerome

this. warni ng: , -,

••• if any one 'has been disturbed by the occurrence of something to which he was not accustomed in the translation taken . from the Hebrew, and <v1eges tha t the new ,1 translation is wrong, it will be found diflf-i-

-cul t, if- not impossible, to get a t the He~rew documents by which the ,Version- to which -exception is taken may be defended. And, when they- are ,obtained, who will subrni t to have so many Latin and Greek autho:rri ties : pronounced to be in the wrong? Besides aIl this Jews 1 if consul ted as to the meaning of the Hebrew text, may gi ve 'a different opinion from yours: iri' which case it will se~em as if your presence were indispensable, as - being the only one who could refute their view; and it would b.e a miracle if one could be found capable of acting as arbi ter lbetween you and them. 96' - -

In this passage Augustine bluntly states that a dis:t:urbing

corîseq).lenc~ of Jerome' s Hebraica Veri tas ma)' prove to be ( , the undermini,pg of tne Chqrch' s au thori ty through the in-

advertent transfer of power to the Jews. '

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(. At this point ,in ti.me the insti tution ,of the Church

must'b, recognized as sti~l struggling ta consoli~ate fundamental

doctrines~ and ,delineate clear bound'a"ries between Chris tian!. ty J'

and Ju"dai'sm. In the wri tings of ;he 'Church Fathe~s of. t~~s

per~o~ considerable ,energy i5 expended on this sensitive

~ issue. And Oit is within the context of this particulai cdncern

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about the propriety of Jerome's Hebraica Veritas, that the

controv~rsy over Jero~e's radical word chang~ in Jona~ ought 1

to be interpreted; that the exchange of letters between /

, Augusti ne, and, Jerome ought to be considered.

The "dispute over Jonah' s gour-d, which had erupted

when Jerome produced his Commentary.on Jonan 97 in'396, peaked

five years later when an African Bishop read out Jerome's

new version of Jonah to a mutinous congregation. " 1 "

In his correspondence wi th Jerome, August~ne is the

first ta refer to the uproar a t'Tripoli" His report of events " .

is the next passage in the let ter ~mmedia tely quoted abave.

A certai~ bishop, one of our breth~n, having . -introduced in the church over which he preside.5 ,the reading of your version, came upon a ward 1n the book of the prophet Jonah, of which you have given a very different r'ender­ing from that which had been of old familiar to the senses and memory of aIl the worship­per9, and had been chanted for so ~any gener­ations in the church. Thereupon arase such

'a tumul t in the congreg~tion, especial.1Y among the Greeks, correcting what had been read, and denounc1ng the- translat10n as faIse:, that the bishop was compelled to ask the testimony of the Jewish residents (i t was in the town of Oea)", These, whether

. from ignorance or from spi te, a'nswered that the words in· the Hebrew MSS. were correctly rendered in the Greek version, and in the

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Latin one taken from i t.' Wha t further' need l say? The man wasl, compelled to correct your verSlon in t;,hat passage as if i t had been falsely translated, as, he desired not to be left wlthout a _congregation, - a c,alami ty which he narrowly escaped. From this case we also are led to think. that you may be occasionally mistaken. You will also observe how great must have been the

-difficulty if this had occurred in those _ wrHings which cannot be explained by com­paring the testimony of languages now in use. 9 8

It was upon Augustine 1 s request that the bishop' of Tripoli

had read out Jerome's radical new version of Jonah to his ~ ,

And Augustine' s reference to the chaos at

T~ipoli i::.Jost' reY,ealing as to

furtd~al significance of the

what he perceived to be the

uproar. In the above' quoted

passage Augus tine ci tes, the dis turbance over the new version

of Jonah as ev idence of the dangers of Jerome '5 dependence '"

Q'n Hebraica Veri tas due to the risk of friction between the

L~-tin and Greek 'Churches, but, he concludes hlS remark by

emphasizing the incident as an ominous example of how the

espousal of Hebràica Veri tas could expose the Church to Jewish

ridicule. When the cucurbi ta inciden t had occurred, Tripolean

Jews had béen consul ted apout the new version of Jonah and

had embarrassed the Chur ch by pronounclng in favour of the

. . 100 ~

Septuaglnt.

In· th is letter. which is full of questions abf

Jerome 1 s radical exegesis, Augustine saves mention of the ,

cucùrbi ta incident to the ~nd. His account' of the disastrous

rtding of Jonah at Tripoh thus reads as the coup de grace

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in his argument that Jerome's tenet of Hebraica Veritas was

an imprudent one for a Christian .to embrace. ~ .

Pred~ctably, Jerome 1 s reply te Augus tine' s shrewçUy

constructed communiee i's a long apology for Hebraica Veri tas .101

His passage on the cucurb~ ta forms the conclusion of a missive

which is largely devoted ta intense discussions about the

relationship between Christi,àn~ ty and Judaism, disciIssions wh:i:ch ,

.a.llow Jerome to impress upon Augustine that he i5 anything but

sympathetic to Judaism. 10 2

Jétome pref aces h is angry response to Augustine' s

tale of the debacle at Tr~poli wi th such remarks as

and

l have laboured not ta supercede wh a t has been long esteemed, .but only to bring prominently forward those things which have peel) ei ther omi tted or tampered wi th by the Jews, in orde,r that Latin readers might know what is found in the original Hebrew. 103

And since you approve of my labo~s in revis­ing the translation of the New Testament as you say, - g~ving me at the same time this as your reason,' tha t very many are acg­uainted wi th the Greek language, and are therefore competent judges of· my work, -

i t would have been but fair to have given me credit for the same fideli:ty in the Old Testament; for l have not followed my own imaginatiQ,n, but have rendered the divine words as l found them understood by those who speak the Hebrew language. If you have any doubt of thi,s in any passage, ask the Jews what is the meaning of the original. 104

Jerome then lâunches into a commentary on the cucurbi ta

episode by 'first insinuat~ng that Augustine invented the ~

story in order ta convin~e him that his Hebraica Veritas

was indeed '~Judaizing~",

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Perhaps you will say, "What if the Jews decline to answer, or choose to impose upon us?" 1s i t conce~ vable that the whole mul ti­tude of Jews will agree together. to ,he s~lent if asked about my translation, and that none shall he found that has any knowledge of the Hebrew language? Or w~ll they all :i!mitate those Jews whom you mention as hav\ng , in sorne litt le town, cO,nspired to injure my reputation? For in your letter Vou put together the following story; - liA certain, bishop, one of our brethren, having ~ntroduced in the Church over which he presides the reading of your version, came upon a 'word ïn the book .of tne prophet Jonah, of which Vou have gi ven a very di fferen t rendering' from that which ,had been of old familiar to the senses and memoiy of aIl the worshippers. and 1}ad been chanted for sa many generations in the Church. Thereupon arose su ch a tumul t in the congregat'ion, especiall y among the Greeks, correcting what had been read, and denouncing the transla tion as f aIse, tha t ,the bishop was compelled ta' ask the testimony. of the Jewish res idents (i t was in the town pfa Oea ). These, whether from ignoranc~

. or from spi te, answered that the words in the Hebrew f.1SS. ~ere correctl y rendered \ in the Greek yersion, and in the Latin one taken from i t .105

He then r,ebukes Augustine for not being direct about which

passage in Jonah had triggered the problem a t Tripoli.

You te Il' me that l have given a wrong trans­lation of some word in Jonah,' and tha t a worthy bishop narrowly escaped 10.5ing" his charge through the clamorous tumul t of his people, which was caused by the differ,ent re~der i ng of this one word. A t the same time, Vou wi thhold from me wha t the word was' which l have mistranslated; thus taking away t'he possibili ty of my saying anytbing in my own vindication, lest my reply should be fatal ta your obJection. Perhaps it i~ the old dispute about the gourd which . h'as been revived, after slumbering for many$ long years since the illustrious man, who in tha t ~y combined in his own person the ancestral honours of the Corne!ii and 'of

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.a:sinius Pollio, brought against me the charge of giving in my translation the word "i vyJl instead of "gourd." l have already 9 i ven a sufficient answer to this in my commentary of Jonah .106

Finally he defends his creed of Hebraica Veri tas as .fundament~l . /

,

to a most c'onscientious and effective exeges1s.

f, therefore, in translating word for word, had pu t the word "ciceia, fi no one would

now wha t i t meant; if l h ad used the word " ourd, Il l would have said what is not found i the Hebrew •... But if your Jews sa1d, et ther ,through malice or ignorance, as you yourself suggest, that the word i6 ln the Hebrew text which is found ln the Greek and Latin verslons, it i5 e~ident that they were ei ther unacquainted wi th Hebrew, or have been pleased to say what was not true, in order to rnake sport of the gourd-olanters. 107

It would appear, then, that Jerome' s main goal in this letter

is to denounce August1ne's anàly~is of the cucurbita incident

as an 'ominous example of the detrimental effect of his espousal

of Hebraica Veri tas and dissuade him from the posi tion tha t his

dependence on Jew1sh books and exegesis was in anyway peri lous,

or disloyal te the Church.

A passage 10 a response from Augustine indicates

," that though he found Jerome persuasive, he still felt compelled ~ ... & ,

to urge hlS colleague to proceed cautiously in light of the

fact that fidell ty to Hebraica Verl tas not only shook the

Chu,rch by challenging the authority of the Septuagint, but

made i t undenlabl y vul nerable to ridicule by the Jews.

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As to your trans lation, you have now convinced me of the benef i ts to be secured by y<:>ur proposaI to translate the"Scriptures ~rom the original Hebrew, in order tha t you may bring to l1.ght those th~ngs which have been ei ther omi tted or perverted by t'he Jews. But l beg you to be sa good as sta,te by what Jews this has been done, whet'her by those who before the Lord' s advent translated

~----;the Old Testament ~~"and if sa, by what one or more of them -- or by the Jews of later time, W?O may be supposed to have mutilated or corrupted the Greek MSS:, in order to prevent themselves from being unable to answer the evidence given by these concern­ing -the Chr~st.ian faith. lOS

, The nature of reference to the cucurbi ta incident· ,

in bath Rufinus' Apology again~t Jerome and this first voll~y

of letters remains the same in subsequent correspondence .~ , h

. . 109 on t 1.S· top1.c.

The arguments offered by Rufinus, Augustine and Jerome

ciearly anchor the cucurbi ta incident, ul timately dismissed

. 110 by Jerome as the Il r1.diculam cucurbi tae questionem, Il in

the context of a confrontation about the prudency of a Chris~

tian espousal of Hebraica Veritas. The treatment of the "

cucurbita inc~dent in Rufinus' polem1.c and these letters

indicate that it: 1.5 most accurately read as a clash over

the place of Hebra1.ca Veritas 1.n Christlan exege~is

whether or not the Christ1.an study of and reliance on Hebrew,

.hebrew texts, Qnd Jewish scholars and exegesis endangers

or strengthens the Church.

In these f if th century wrl tings, which were circulating

" among Durer's milieu, the cucurbita emerges as a symbol of

this fundamental lssue . .,

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2. Referenc.és to the Book of Jonah in

the Wri tings of German .HUman.ists

H.aving dèterm'ined the- nature Qf reference to Jonah' s

gou~d in Jero~~ls, Augustine'~, and Rufinus· writ~n9s, it

~ remains to consider the na-tJ.U:.e of reference' ,-to i t in the

writings of German humanists. . . In his discussion of Dürer' s engraving, Parshall ' '"

.gaugedhumanist in~erpretation of the event111 acc~~~in~

to a ~1ngJ:e reference to i t which he discov'ered i~ th.e Dutch ~

scholar Erasmus.' A.d Nota tiones Edvardi Lei in Mat~a~u.:n (1516) 112 , ."

. . . .•• In yeteris Instrumenti libris , quam multa- mutavi t quae tum diffidebant ab ecclesiastica lectione? Quaro vero deridet eucurbitaY10s 11115 Deos

. in Africa qui ob voc'l}lam mutate~ in Jona sed1tionem excitarant?113

However, t:here exist other references to the Book

of Jonah and'Jonah's éucurbita which are-particu1arly informa­

tive as, to how German humanists fâmiliar with both Jerome's . -

letters ~nd the trials and tribul~tions of his He~rew scholar-- ,,~. 1

Shi~would iikely interpret a gourd prominently p1aced in

Jerome' s cel1,_

Tellin,g mention of the Book of Jonah occurs in a

letter·dated i508 from the influential Erfurt humanist. Mutian

to comra~es Urban and Spalatin. AlI three were known to

be sympathetic to the" rev,ival of_ Hebrew studïes .114 "

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Sic et scriptura 'judaica. Jonas in pisçe deli tui t habens supra verticem cucuroi tam 1

i.e .. sed~ba t in balneis 1 • qulb'us cétae nomeo e~t 1 et cucurbi ta erat pileolum .strament,i"T ceuln, q~o lavantes utuntur. Ridiculum, hoc est t seo habeo magi's r~dicula, quae, tamen latine dicuntur sa1:ramenta 1 grae.ce mysteria, de quibus non dicatn .1lS, ,

By ope,ning his discussion of Jonah wi th the words "Slc et " , . ~'------

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, scriptura Judaica," Mutian ~mchors. i t in the corrtext o'f Jewish

li tera ture. , His sUbseg-uen t description o'f the cucurbi ta. --- . 116, .

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as a "pi:leolum", which- means ,skuil èap,. . ~chpes Je.rolne' s

own interpretatioI'f of tpe ~gou~d. ".' 01.

ln' his' c'~mmentary on Jonàh , , - .,

Jerome bad intetpreted thk g04rd . , 117 -

~s - "being Lsrael ,,_ ·a } • 't ~

rè.ading which fixes' Jonah 's bowèr às , ~

a symbol of the 6ld . ,

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Testament; . The phrase "ridïculum hoc est, sed habeo magis '} \

ridicula" r~calls' ;Jerome ''',s excl.amation "ridiculu,m cucurbi tae.

" Q t , ,118 d l h' h' th 1.' s' .' l ues 1onem, a wor p ay w 1C 1n context, 1S s~re y

,d~libera té.

A,~aren,ess of Jerome' s t:t;eqtment of q-onah in German .. ,

humanist circles"is also indic;pted in a lette:r; from Johannes

Reuchlin to the publisher A/Î1orbach,' also a H~braist of ~omé

note., Reuchlin ment,ions Jerome' s work on the Twe;,J.ve Minor . 119 '

Prophets,. , "

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These types of references to Jonah' imply th,Sit a freshly-

,cut gou"rd appearing in an, image, of St. Jerome would likely: ' ,

hav'e been ident,i,f~e~ bY~hOSe immersed i~ Jerome 1 s wri ti'ngs

and Hebrew ~cho'larship as ,a symbol of The. 0ld Testament' and , .

. -logo for' Hebraica Veri tas.

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! '. '1 r' ~ ~ . l' é ' , .' • ,. CHAPTER fI

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A Challenge to the Erasmus Theory ;

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For a, number of reasons, f irrTt identifiea tiot}', of Jerome 1 s .' '"

cucurbi ta as a symbo1 of con tro'Ver~y ':over. Hebraic?i V.e:Çi tas , "

...... chailenges the theory that the 'c~cui~:f.ta 'in, Dôr;~r>$"- engràving \ - "

a11udes to Erasmus, or activi ties ,currèntl:Y eng,agi:n9' the

Dutch humi:ihlst. , ' . ' . . .' ~

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~i.rst1y 1 .,..Erasmus 1 projec~ ·to' P~.1:bl~sh 'J,erome 1 s, works,

the incident ,to which Parshall propo~s the cuèurbi ta 'alludes, . . does not 'c'onsti tute a phi1ologièal, cQntroversy, as de-f1ned

... IE>' " ..

by the cucurbi ta episode as disput~d hy' J.erome 'and hi's - - '

<?ppos i tion " 1

,

Qui 1:e simply, EraSmus l 'project' 'do~-s not wiiirrant ., .. , , . the symbol of the cucurbita, symbal of strlfe oV~,r, Hebra,ica

Veri tas. , , -'

. ' Secondly, DUrer had no· reàscsm' "te) refer 4 to E.ràsmus 1 , ' ,

'Jerome pro j ect a t th,is partieular. moment, in' ~ime,. 1514.

\ ~l though Erqsmus was ocçupied :b~ t.h~s tas k in, thi~ 'year; . , .

the complete<.l p~oject did not appéar: ,from the presses of " ,

, . Johannes Froebel .at Basel, until'lSJ.6', two f.ul1.- years" a'fter

• • • 1 ~ • •

Dtlrer had created his ~ enigmatic engraving of Jerome",",· r:urther-, -00

more, J.f., thi~ splendid engraving of ,J/erome had been ïntended 1

to celebr'a te' th'is occp.sion', why did i t 1 nct grace ahy. ,of, these , ,

publications? In addi tion, c:er,t,ain fact's 'suggest t'bat' àt , ~

this point, ,in, time, Erasm\lS 1 pre$ence in. local G~rman,. ~ \' . hu~aflist circles was not as str0!1<;r ,as one migh't assUnie.

, ..: a .. ~. ~ r Pri'pr to h is 'arri val in. Basel,f!.. Er"asmus "had spen t thr.e;e years

in Eh~lançi120 to whi't:h he returned in' the spring: of '1~'~15 .121 • " . 'il

Correspondence between Erasmus and the importan t Nure.m'bù;r:g

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a • c 122 humanist, W111ibald Plrckhelmer, had barely cQmrnenced.

According to Erasmu~' 1etters, pe and Pirckheimer first exch-

~nged letters in 1514. 123 o

A letter dated 1515 indic~tes . ~

/ 124 that the two had yet to meet.

, There is a ~ast and ~ost important Feason for r~jecting

Erasmus as thè key to unlacking the mystery af the cucurbita /\

in D~rer's engraving. Erasmus was not a Habraist. By his

own acknowledgement, he knew very 1ittle of this tangue,

the study of which ~e appears to have abandoned ver~ qu~ckly.l25 -~

In a 1etter to John Colet, dated 1504, in~which he

elaborated~plans for a th6rough study af the Bible, Erasmus o

states: "1 oegan tu t<l.k~ up llebrew as w~l as Greek, but

stapped because l was put aff by the strangeness of the 1an-

126 ,guage." In a 1ater missive' to Pope Leo X, dated 1513, , , 1 0 ; 0 _

in ,which he descr'ibe) translations from Hebrew, the, Dutch ,

scho1ar exclaims, "I have done the same for Hebrew obut not /

without my Theseus, as the Greek proverb has it, for myself

. 127 had on1y sipped a cup of that 1anguag'E!. Il And in an exchange

with Reuchlin in 1515 he writes:

Erasmus'

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As regards the publication of JerQ~e's workS, 50 far as l am from wishing to claim the 1east scrap qf your work or your credit far myse1f that A wouJd rather transfer ta you something ~f my own. When l took that work ±n hand, t did not know that yau, were engaged in ~he same task, although we have not real1y"the same objective. TQ Hebrew l make no c1aim, for l barely set my' lips to i t. 12H -

There is .ev~n evidence" indicating, that if anything.

neglèct of Hebrew stemmed from an age old fear and

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129 opposi tion ;1io the tongue,' ~, In a lett~r wfitten in,1517, '.

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which could have,been that of one Er~smus ~oices an opinion

of jeromè' s ~ponents~, ".:1: ~ "

am afraid .... that the \restorat.ion ,

of,: Hebrew _~earning lJlay'give occasion ta the renewaJ, of Jl:ldaism ,,,130

E15e\>?pe~e he comments that he would "prefer to see 'the 01d

Testament abolished rather than t~e peace of Chr~stendom

'. 131 . should be broken for the sa'k'e of the books of the Jews ,"

•• ['he fact that Era-smus was npt a Hebrew SCholar132

...

and was even prejudiced against su~p sèholarsh~p, deals the " ,

strongest blow of aIl ~o- the theory that Jerome' s cucurbita, , t ~,~.

symbol of Hebraie~ Veritas; 'alludes ~o him.~

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Dûrer's cucurbita was intended as a veile? allusion to Erasmus' ....... _ ","4: ',1 "" ...

activi ties in, this periQd . ..

If the cucurbita in.Jerome's study 5ymbolize$~ph~IOlb-~.

gical controversy~~t ~ust sy~bolize a controv~rsy~Yer Hebraic~ . .. , , ' ... ~

Veritas.! At this time arid-in Durer's mil~eu, such a dispute , ... :.. ..

is', most perfectly'~. eml:>odied by the Hebraist Reuchlîn' s battle

with PÎ~tferkorh and the DQminicans over the fate of Hebrew

Books,

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CHAPTER III

':aerome 's Cucurbi ta: Appropr iéite Symbol

of ~euchl~n's~Hèbraica V~ritas

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Reuchlin's defense of Hebraica Veritas'and opposition

to the confiscation and destruction of; He,brew books, has , much closer parallels with J 7rome\s embroilment in the

cucurbita incident than the non Hebraist,~rasmus' barely

com~enced project for a complete publication of Jerom~'s

works. The events which befell,Reuchlin a~ this time more

closely resemble eve~ts whfch befell Jerome during, the uproar . over the cucurbita incident than anything ~ny or his contémpor­

aries was currentiy involved in.

By 1514, Reuchlin's battle with Pfefferkorn had gained

'considerable publicity. His profile was very'high ~oth

locally and intern~tionally. In Othis dramatic year, Reuchlin's

principal apology for 'a defense of Hebrew an? Reb~~w,books, - -,

Der Augenspiegel, which had been branded hereti'càl,_ was publi­

cally condemned and burnt 'in C~l~e. It quick!y met the same

fate in~Paris, E~furt, Mayence, and Louvain. l33 With khe

intervention of,the Archbishop of Marnz, Count Palatine Georg, . ~

, . Reuchlin was permitted to appeal to Pope Leo X, who adjudicate~

,

his case to the Bishop of Spey~r,-who on March 29 judged

in R~uchlin's favour, clearing him and Der Augenspiegel of

the. charge of her-esy. The, facul ty of Cologne continued the .

fight by ignoring the decision and representing,the~càse

to the Pope.

Like Jerome, his inspiration'for his own conyic~ion " 1

of Hebraica Veritas, Reuchlin found himself accused of being

a Judaizer. ~n Der Brandt Spiegel, Pfefferkorn's retort ..

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. to the Gutachten, Pfefferkorn goes so far as tO'depict Reuc~lin

Il J . d . , . Il 134 D' h 1" t R hl" as a ew ln lsgulse . urlng t e con roversy, euc ,ln s

enemies repeatedly accused him of be'i~g a "perverted Jew

10ver,,,135 of making st.tements "which ~onfused Chr~~tian. . . 136

laymen and gave support to the Jew:s •. "

Such accusations immèdiately calI to mind the types

of charges levelled against Jerome by Rufinus. And Reuchlin's· .

w,ri ting and that of h:i;.s supporters, "Reuchlinists, Il reveaL

that a defens,e of his posi tion was very muéh d'ependent upon

emphasizing the similàrity of his predicament and goals with

those of St. Jerome "the patron saint of. Christian

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1.

1. Réuch1in on Reuch11n and Jerome ~

Reuchlin had cult~vated a comparison of himself,to

his men'tor 'Jerome from the ea'î:-liest days of his linguistic

studies. In a 1etter written in 1488, he avows that it was 1

Jerome's influence wh~ch had caused hlm to learn Hebrew and 1

Greek; that he had done so in order to read the h01y Scrip-

tures ,in 'the language "in which th~y) are believed to have' .

b 0 , Il d 'th Gd' . 't . ,,13 8 een espe~1a y compose W1 0 S Insplra 10n. "0-

Reuchlin's words are. a direct quotation from Jerome's preface

to his translation of the proverbs . 139

Irr 1494, Reuchlin pubJished his first treatise on

Christian Cabalism De Verbo Mirifico140 (hereafter ~) • .. D~M takes the form of a dialogue between a Christian, Capnion,

(Reuchlin' s classic1zed na me J, a Jew, Baruch, and an Epicurean;

Sidonius. 11\ is, devoted to a discussion of the most sacred

f G d k t h "t l'lI names or 0 nown 0 eac part1clpan . Reuchlin concen-

trates on proving that the most sacred of the Hebre~names'

_~_for:.', God r the Heb;rew tet,ragrammaton "I1:JUH Il is the source of

142 the most divine na me of aIL, the pentagrammaton "IHSUH"

the dame of the Christian Messiah .

. The' ..,.....-.-.....". is that passage in WhlCh Capnion

revea1s this name. Two pi~ces of Jerome's'Hebraic

-exegesis, combine l l 'h '1 143 éDUC1a ro e ln t lS unvel Ing.

In a letter to Marcella, Jerome had"élaimed that .

there were ten names for God, the ninth belng the "1neffable" , 1

~etragrammaton.144 In another exchange wlth Paula, Jerome

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had expounded on the meanrng of the twenty-two letters of

~ 145 the Hebrew alphabet, one of whl.ch l.5 the letter "shin."

It was Jerome's theorizl.ng about the 'letter "shin," the ~

addition of whl.ch transfo+ms the Hebrew tetragrammaton into

t 'h - t t h h' t' d ReU'ehll.n. 146 e pen agramma on, w l.C l.n rl.gue

One of the meanl.ngs of this letter was "tooth.,,147 f

In his letter to Paula, Jerome extrapolates this meaning

./

t t , 1 t 148 o vox/ar leu a a. He then proceeds to claim an association i

1

'" between thl.s meanlng of "shl.n" as vox articulata and the

"shin" which'appears l.n the name of Jesus; that is the mystery . .. of Chr;st is contal.ned in the ward ~s vox aril.culata.+ 49

In DVM Reuchlin cites Jerome's ruminations about

the tetragrammaton and the letter II s hl.n,,,150 in order to

unveil the most divl.ne name of aIl, the revelation of which ~

effects the conversion of his audience, Sl.donl.us and Baruch

h' , , ~151 ta C r:l.stl.anl.ty.

By citing Jerome's Hebraic exegesis l.n the most impor-

tant passage of DVM, which was weIl received by German human­- -- ,/

ists. Reuch1l.n publl.cizes ~erome's Hebraica Veritas as an

effective tool of conversion. DVM embodies Jerome's convic-

tion that the Chrlstian study of Hebrew and Hebrew 1iterature

is the most effectl.ve strategy to convince the Jews of the

errors of their ways.

In 1506, Reuchll.n pub1ished his tripartite De Rudimenta

Hebraiea, a Hebrew-Latin dictionary, a grammar. and an apo1ogy

152 for the study of Hebrew. It secured hlS reputation among

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Christians as the formost Hebrew Scholar of his time. 153 \"

In the preface to the third book, the apology, Reuchlin rep-

eatédly proclaims his ~lllance with Jerome and commitment

to Hebraica Veritas, as definea by Jerome

Dicent enim non ~e potuisse i~ $enilibus .annis absque praeceptore etiam qualicurnque conatu ab tantum hebraicae lectionis fastiquim absGendere, ut studia mea < ceteris pros1nt, quibus statim Origenérn objiciam, sanctumgue Hieronymum et ilIum de Lyra Nicolaum; qui omnes

'appropinquante senior prirnurn hebraicis .studisse probantur. Quin potuis nemo ferme omnium post apostolos orthodoxam ecclesiam hebraicis literis illustravit, qui non eas in aetate provecta discere coeperit, praeter insignern magistrum ilIum Paulum episcopam Burgensem, Judeorum olim doct~ssimum cujas ad nos se~a conversio plurimis'fuit horninibus saluti, et cui me posthabitis re~quis herbam dare nihil pudet. 154

155 Bishop Paul of Burgos was a famous apostate fFom Judaism

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whose conversion Reuchlin "has ObViplY mentioned as an examp~~

of the persuaslve powers·of Hebraica Veritas. Soon following 1 •

this passage is one in WhlCh Reuchlin cites Jerome's creed\

about Hebraica Veritas V1S a vis the Septuagint. -- (--

Hieronymus vir sanctus LXX. carpit interpretes, non semel, "bis, terve, sed saepissirne numero. Nunc illos errasse dicit errore conspicuo, nunc, inceptos ignorantia, turn discordare a veritate~ hebraica, tum, falsatos sirnilitudine literarurn, tum consulto'aliqua coelasse aut omisisse, ne sacra pend~rent mysteria, quos tamen Ptolomaeus Alexandriae res divi'na credidit yirtute ·transtulisse ... 156

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On thlS matter, he ultimately exclaims, "I reverence St~

Jerome as an angel, 1 prize Nicholas de Lyra as a'great master~

but truth 1 worship as God. l57 At the end of De Rudimenta,

he advocates the study of Hebrew by urging his bro~her . '

Dionysus ," to follow ln the steps of Piço della M1.randola,

Jerome and Nachmanides rather than iroitate those Jews who

f . . 158

re use to teach the1.r language to others."

Thus, weIl befDre the outbreak of the controvér.sy

Reuchlin had produced a body of Wr1.tlng in which he portrays

himself as an ardent dlsciple of St. Jerome's Hebraica Veritas

and defender of the belie~ that Chrl.stians ought to stuHy

rather than burn hebrew literature 1.n order tQ €~nvince the

Jews of the errors of the1.r ways.

In 1510 Reuc~ll.n, w~o had bee~ revising the Hebrew

. J t B 1 f th' 159 ?assages ln erome, went 0 ase 1 or lS purpose. In

this year, he also published his first formaI statement oppos-

ing the conflscation and destruction of Hebrew books, the

aforement1.oned Gu tach ten. It:} this' àpology for Hebra1.ca,'

Jerome is mentloned more frequently than any other Church

160 Father, ln a manner sU9gesting that the pOlnt of such

references was to draw,persuaslv~ parallels between his own

and Jerome's advocatlon and defense of Hebrew studl.es • .

The Gutqchten answers the question " s hould all the

books of the Jews be confi,scated and burned?" 161 1

,In response, •

Reuchlin first lists the prl.mary repsons behlnd the demand

for the destruction of Hebrew books:

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1. They hav.,e been compos.ed against Christians. 2. They humiliate Jesus, Mary, the Apostle~

and~all aspects of Christ~an1ty. ~. They are fa1se _ 4. lt i5 on their account that Jews are '16~

hindered from converting to Christianity •.

Reuchlin first counters this, attit\)de by describing •

" how Hebrew Iiterature encompasses a wide'varïety of Iit~raturè,

inc1uding cabalistic writings,which divu1ge the grEfatèst

mysteri'es of God 1 s word. 163 He then proceeds to defeI)d the

study and preservation of Hebrew books by repeatedIy drawing,

on Jerome's examp1e.

In defenCe of Christians studying ~he Talmud, Reuchlin

quo tes psa1m 140, which'Jerome uséd again5t Jovinian. 164

On the same subject, Reuch1in'aiso c~tes Jerome's caustic

rem~rk ~n defense of the chrts~ian study of J.ewish texts

,"The wise can make gold out of fi1th.,,165 ,

In another retort, Reuchlin mentions Jerome 's, Apo1ogy asr • •

. t Rf' 166 h' h . h t' d aga1ns u 1nus w 1C ,as we ave seer, con a1ne one

of Jerome's most vehe~ent and exp1icit defenses of his Hebraic

scho1arship .\

E1sewhere he claims that, 1ike Jerome, h~ t~o has

noted that figures as revered and accomp1ished as St. Hilarius

"" erred in their interpretations of the Ho1y Scriptures due

. • 1'67 to their 19norancè of Hebrew.

A refutation of the third issue - the long standing

conviction that Jewish books had been -fa1sifiedl68 (hence

~ere misleading) is organized around Jero~e's defense of­

the Hebrew'Old Testament as the authoritative text to be

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169 D consul tect. In response to the ,fourth iSSué "that Jews

" are made and kept Jews by Jewish books." Reuchlin ci tes

Jerome' s point "we were not aIl born Christians. ,,170 .

These comments indicate that Reuchlin made St. Jèrome's '.

Hebraic studies a prim~y theme of his Gutachten .

In the opening years of thé controver~y (1510-1514),

Reuchlin issued a string of publications in which he enlists ..

Jerome's help to defend his case.

In 1511 aIl the above 'stated arguments reappear in

\ expanded form in Der Augenspiegel. In 1512 Reuchlin publishes

--:-the original hebrew text and translation of the S~ven

'Penitential Psalms, inténded as a companion piece for his

De Rudiment~ Hebraica. 17i His edition of the psalms included

a passage from Jerome's nwn preface to' a translation 'of the

proverl;>sl,72 which w.,as a stirring defense.~f Heb'rew studies

and Heb~aica Veritas. Reuchlin refers to Jerome's own descri-

pt ion of his abandonment'of the Roman·manner of speech

Jerome had compared dialectic to the plague of Egypt - and . .

. , l73-ta Jerome 's. commitment to the learning of Greek and Hebrew,

:" to ultimately conclude that Anothing teaches us better to

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, speak wi~h God tha~ these psalms for they are written in

Babraic truth which is namely Holy, which Jerome calls the

~mather of languages. 174 In a let ter of this same year, Reuch11n

makes the following reference to St. Jerome.

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Sed quod me 1nsimHlant fautoriae , , judaicae~erfidiae notam ineurisse, pon

'> assent'ior, &t vere eum Saneto Hierônyrno in Apologia. s'uper sehedu1-fS ad" PaInmaebium et Oceanum assere. pos'sum ~ testq.ndo deum ",

, _et .. dieere "Si expedi t od:if.;se homioes et-g~n,tes aliquas detestar.-i"'mino odio __ J' . , adversor.eircu6sion~m et objiciat mih~ , 175 ~uispîam cur ho~inem Judaeum.habue~praeceptor~_

In 1513 Reuchlin was cal1ed before th€ Court of 0-

In9Visition at Malnz which was to deliver a final verdict

as to whether or not Der Augenspiegel was ~e~etical~ Ip'

this y~a~ Reuchlin republis~ed his De Rudiment~176 and'jSsued

a~néw polemic Defensio Reuchli~i Contra Calumniatores ./'

Co1onsiénsis which cites argumen~s from'St. Jerome, nne being

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1 • tnat "kI:,lOwleqge" oi tr~ ·theologian.~ j,s a div,i)le 'light descended 1

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from the FatAer above something.which 'the outstanding doctors r '. •

and masters of theology'of other ~ni~~rsities ~~s oppose~,

to those, at the unive'~si ty: of Cologne] h~ve. ,,177 '. •

I-n the ~rucia'l yea1;7 of' 1514 , both t,h~ .. Defèn~.iol 7,a ., ~

and DVM179 Jere rei~s\il'ed as weIl as a 'new work ,Clarorum

Virorum Epistb1ae l~tirae Graecae et Hebraicae varris tempQri-

" .' . 180" bus. musa~ ad Joannem·Reuchlin phorensum doc~oram; tFe

}o ~ 1 • ." . inspiration for'which

'" '; . . may weIl have been Jerome 1 S ,work De

V·' 11 'b' 181 1r1S l ustr1 us. knq in lSlSJ a year aftéi Der

Augenspiegel 'was' cleared of the ehar'ge o~ h'eresy". in-. ( , .

in a letter to Pqpe Leo X, R~uch~in ~ompares Pope Dama~us' ,

reseue of Jerol1l.e to Leo 1 s support for h imsel f ," wi th emphasis i,- of \

on the glor'y both pontiffts gai'ned' thtough ~uch nobJ.e gesture~.182 . \

Reuchlin's constant and var1ed references'to St.

Jerome's mastery and defen~e of Hebrew, ind1cate that dating

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from 'his Il •.

earliest inte~est ïn t~hi~ tpngu~; lhe 'drew parallels \ '

\ between himself ahd the father o,f Ch~Ù;tian . H.ebraism, and

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that."once, embr:oiled in the co.ntroversYI his primary s"trategy " '

was

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to, seE7k ,i,mmuni ty ~Jthroug,h .Jer,pme: s.; e~ample ..

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2. Reuchlinists on Reuchlin and ~erome

As early as 1496, a letter to Reuéhlin addresses

him as "the most learned marf in Germany whom all, wi th

~ 183 unreservea praise, com~are ta Jerome."

Later Reuchlinists appear to have often adopted Reu-

ch11n' s stra tegy of draw~ng anal'og-ies between Jerome' s. and ,.,

Reuchlin's linguistic prowess. Their poems, letters ~nd

polemical writings stress similariti~s between Reuchlin and

Jerome's achievements, aspi~atiohs and struggles.

A letter dated 1513 to' Amorbach from the S~ish

convert Mattheus Adriani, Hebrew tutor to Amorbach's son,184

makes special mention of Reuchlin ~n connection with Je~ome , , .

and He~raic exegesi~. \ .

Laudes ac virtutes tuas, prec1arissimo vine ,~lUdi vi a egregio v.iro domino Jo. Rochelino et a venerabilis paitel:l' Pel'licano, guardiano bene merito, viro doctissimo, amici nostri et tui f' et. ab, eiis intelexeram, quot . tu habere~ pèr manibps v (enerabi1em) divem et sancturn Jeronimum et esse'~onectum p~r d. doctore Roche1ino et per pv'Pe11icano et p~r

. mu1 tis aliis. "Quod li.cet ipse sunt 'docti atamen egooscio, quot scientia eorum ron sufficet ad corigendum sançtum Jeroninum nec Lirra nec aliquos 1ibros hebraicos. 18?

1

In his preface to a ,poem celebrati,ng Reuchlin' s victory

at Speyer, a piece éompleted in 1515: 186

wri tes'f

the volatile Ulrich

von Hutten

--. ~Germany has opened her eyes: the ve11 has fa1len away: she sees you, Reuchlin's opposition ,at full 1ength. You have

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consplred against Reuchlln~' Germany could no longer remaln deluded. When she saw you attack such a man she felt her honour threatehed and rose tp a man to defend it. o The sch01astlcs have wrapped religion in d~rkness, but we have poured on light. The gospel has seen the light of days. Jerome has reappeared. Greek and Latin authors have been pub1ished. 187

, ...

An important example of Reuchlin's struggle trom (\0

1510-1514 be,ing perceived as analogous to St. Jerbme 's struggle

over Hebrew occurs in an intriguing 1etter by the Reuchlinist

Mutian in June 1514188

Petis, ut mlttam Hleronymi opus de nominîbus hebraicis. Non credo hujus esse, sed vel Rufinl Turrantil vel alterlus.

"Meam hanc sententiam docti confirmant et probant. De adversariis Musarum et phi1osophiae sincerlorls n01i tu quidem laborae. '

Il Phl1osophiae sincer ioris Il have been identi f led as Reuchlin' s

190 enemies in Cologne. Juxtaposl tion of men tion of Reuchlin' s

most extreme opponeQts, the ~ologne theologians,and mention

~ of Ruf~nus, one of Jerome's bitterest enemies,lndicates that

Reuch1inists must h~e been discussing Jerome's and Reuchlin's'

predicaments about Hebraica Veritas as comparable. Reuchlln

himself prob~bly inspired such a cOmparl5'On througho

mention

of Jerome' s Ap010gy agàinst Rufinus in his Gutachten and

" . 191 Der Augensplegel.

Though Erasmus' support for R.~ucIÜin durlng the cQntro-

192 ' versy was far from. ~trong, 't~-t he did not hesltate to

pralse Reuchlln as Germany' s greatest 11ngulst is lndisputable .

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One thing l had almost forgotten. l beg anÇl beseech you earnestly, ln the name of those humane' s tudl.es of wh ich your emin­enCe has been an outstandl.ng_ patron, that that excellent J'nèln Doc tor Jbhann Reuchlin should find you fair ~inded and friendly in his business t At one stroke you wlll render a great serVl.ce to li terature and to aIl literary men, for the greater their 1earning the grea ter their en thusias'm for, him. He has aIl Germany in h is debt 1 where he was the first to awak'e the study of Greek and Hebrew. He i-6 a man wi th an eX,ce p tlon,1 knowledge of the languages .193

In a 1etter to Leo X of the same date. Erasmus compliments

Reuch1i:n 1 S ma,stery of the th,ree holy languages, a. compliment

revealing Reuchlin 1 s reputatlon as preminent trllingualist

in German humanist clrcles at this t~me.

Among the collaborators for the Jerome project is that ou tstanding man, Johannes Reuchlin of Pforzheim, who lS almost equally at home in the three tangues, Greek 1 Latin, and Hebrew 1 and such a master in ev:ery

o field of 1earning besides that he can challenge the leaders. It lS quite right that the who'le of Germany should admire and venerate this man as i ts true p,hoenix and especial glory.194

o

Trilingua1lsm was sure to he assoclated Wl th Jerome who stresses , . such mastery in his _ Apology against Rufinus. He describes

hlmsel f as lia phil,?sopher, a rhetorician, a grammarlan 1 a

logician, a Hebrew 1 a Greek, a Latin 1 a tri1ingua1ist" ,,195

and demands "w~ll you ridicule me who am triling~a1?11196 ,

Upon Reuch1 in 1 s death - in 1522. Erasmus produced an

h', . 197

apot eos~s to h~m. Though theatri cal,_ th is work does

give a clear ide a of how closely Reuchlin was linked to Jerome

by his contemporaries and how he was percei ved ta be the

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f,ormast guardian of the holy languages. Erasmus rhapsod~zes

'about Reuchl~n's lingu1stic skills, especiplly h~s mastery

of liebrew: Reuchlin was the first Sl.nce Jerome to "unveil

, " 198 the sa~ctuary of tiebrew w~sdam." ~ Erasmus says' i t 1S tns

du ty to revere Reu'chlin' s melnory far his incomparable cor:ttribu-

tion to language. "Reuchlin has given ta, the world the glory

199 of tangues.", Erasmus ap~pain ts Jerome to welcome Reuchlin

into heaven. 200 \Jerome greets ,Feuct)ll.n as his "most haly

201 1

copartner." Both Reuchlin and Jerome a.re described ~s\

"garbed ~n robes embroi'dered ln. tongues af three fold color

202 badge of .. the languages they were sk11led ln." Most signi-

ficantly, Erasmus remarks on how both men suffered for their

bel~efs an"d that Reuchlin shall be put on his booksheff next,

to Jerome. 203 .... -t .. __

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Reuchl in "s adm'ire.rs and ~efel'lders obv~Q:~sl y' thought

of him as one of Jerome ',S mo'st important heirs. His reputa-

tion as one of the f1rst ;and most noted Hebrew scholars of

the hme is also man~fest ln letters dating from the intènse

years of 1513-1514, the period of the trial and de"cislon

a t Speyer. 204

Conrad Pell1cail, hlmself a Hebralst, ca1ls

,Reuchlin .the "most skilled hebralst" and pra.ises .he vlrtues

f H b . . V' 205 o e ralca er1 tas. In 1514 Mutian exclaims to Agricola

206 a:t»ut "our great Capn1è>n who exce11s in Hebrew and Greek Il,

and descrl.bes Reuchll.n to U~ban as the "most famous tri ling-

, '207 ' A ua11.st." In the same year, one month after the victory '-

at Speyer, Johannes Boschenstein also salutes Capnion as

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the "supreme trilingualist'. ,,208

Due to Reuchlin' s commi tment to Hebrew scholarship,

chairs of Hebrew were created at a number of

early sixteentb .century. 209 Reuchlin was the '.

school} in the

Ji first great

pioneer of liebrew, studies in northern Europé in this . -' 210 per10d. '\

By 1514, t'lis reputation as the formost l1ebraist and tril ingua.-

lis t was wides préad • At thJ.s point in tlme Rehchlin perceived

" his Hebrew stud1es to be .. th~ major Issue of his battle with

Pfefferkorn. In 1513 he denounced the Universi ty of Cologne

as "a specles of most inhuman men who calI themsel ves theolo-

gians. My activities as a·propagator pf hebrew were the /

real reasons for the1r harassment. ,,210 In combination wi th'

the publicity created by the controversy over Hebrew pooks,

. such a reputation would have ensured him the highest profile

of any hebrai~ t of the p~riod and marked him as the, most

sui table cand1date for the cucurbi ta', symbol of strife, over

Hebraica Verl tas.

The most important.evidence support~ng ~~\-

that Dürer's cucu.rbita is a~-ecrâllusion to

--------------------------defenfoe of Heb~Veritas are the activities ..

the theory

Reuchlin' s

and interests

of Dürer' s Immediate circle, PIrckheimer' s co_t~ie. The

Nuremburg Patr1clan Willibald Prickheimer, one of Dürer' s

cl~sest fnends. has been identified 'as .the~itted german Reuch1inJ.st, in fact the only northern Reuchllnist

who pub11shed 1n defense of Reuchlin's Hebrew studies. 21,1

• The remains of Reuchlin' s corre'spondence include

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t~o letters from Pirckheimer dated ~5ll2l2 and;15l2. 213

In the. latter missive Pirckheimer implores Reuchlin not to demean

himself by getting embroiled in a debàte with a fi9ure as ,

dubious as Pfefferkorn. 4l4 Pirckheimer was acqJainted with

Reuchlin's Der Augen~piegel, and a later piece of writing

manifests his full support for Reuchlin's p~lemic.2~5

In 1517 Pirckheimer published ~n apology for Reuchlin. 2l6

It took the form of a long 1etter prefacing a translation ~

of one of Lukian's works. 2l7 ,In this letter, Pirckheimer -reveals himself to be an ardent supporter of Jerome'g and "

'Reuchlin's Hebraica Veritas. In one instance he clearly

echoes both ,Jerome and Reuchlin in his exclamation that "àll . . the myster~es of the Old and New Testaments are contained

217b -in hebrew." He speaks of his great admiration for Reuchlin' fii

unparalleled( devotion to Hebrew learning,2l8 and urqes the

'''most revered Reuchlin ,,219 not to ] ose he~rt by pointing

out that "the holy Jirome and Augustine were~never immune

'from the slanderous attacks of the wicked. ,,220 , '

Other details about Pirckheimer's letter indicat~

that it expresses the view of the Sodalitas Pi~ckheimer. 1

It is for instance, dedicated to ~orenz Behaim,' who was an impor-

tant member of Pirckheimer's c~rcle and a man known to be

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a close fr~end of D~rer's.221 Behaim had been in touch with

Reuchlin since 149022g

and was a disciple of Re~chlin's .Christian. ,. Ca bala. 223 Iq this letter, Pirckheim~r also speaks of Behaim's

. 224 tril~ngual ~sm .

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, Pirek~eim~ 'pro~~blY did, as Parshall proposed, sug-, . gest. the motif of ;the cucJ.1rbi ta ti Durer. 225, Ip view of

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the Sodali tas Pirckheimer' s in teres t in Christian Hebraism

!ind support of Reuchlin' s .stance in the controver~'y, i t seems .

. most p_robabie that the cucurbi ta was intended as an allusion

to the aging Reuchlin, whose reputa tion and plight at this-. '

time cast him in the role of bel'eaguered champion of Hebraica

Veritas. ,-.-t' L'

In hïs letter Pirckheimer declares "that the knowl~dge

of La'tin, Greek and- Hebrew grammar is essential. ,,226 Evidence , .'

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of Pirckhe!imer's own d~bbling in Hebrew, suggests that he CI

would have been sensi ti ve to the meaning of Jer'ome' s cucurbi ta

af? a symbol. of Hebraica Veri tas; a poem (c •• 1490' s) by oné

Lilius Gyraldus commends both Pirckhèimer's and Reuchlin's

commi tment to trilingualism;227 a book plate designed for . ' /

Pirckheimer by D&rer bears an inscription in th~ sacred lan-1

guages (fig: 4). The authori tahve posi ticn given the Hebrew

,script hints at Pirckheimer' s reverence for Hebrew a~ the

fflother of tongues.

As well as Pirckheimer' s book plate, other signs - -

in D\1rer' s work hint that he too viewed Hebrew as t'he most

holy of tongues. His frontis piece for K.eszler' s 1492 edi tion

of Jerome's epistles (fig. 3)' is most significant in this

regard. It has been pointed out that the motif of the three

open' Bl.bles metlculously inscribed in all three holy languaqes

was an' l.Anovation. 228 In hl.s first depiction of Jerome,

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Dürer has giv~~he Hebrew codex', wbich~isplays the' first

page of 'Oenesis, 229 a posi,tion of au thori ty and he has renQered

h H b ·· l h' . th' - 'd -230 t e ~ rew scr~pt accurate y, somet ~ng' rare ~n ~s perlO •

In accordance wi th emerging humanis tic and exegetical concerns.,

Dürer has s tres.,sed Jerome as a linguist, and in particular, ,

as' a Hebrais t.

Telling bits of Hebrew appear in two other works

attributed to D\1rer. In a copy of a curious broa9sheet by

the Bebraist Bartholomew Ke~ser (fig'. 5) DÜrer nas signed

his own init,ials in Hebrew;,23l in an "Ecce Homo" in 1514

.. Chris t 1 S name is wri tten ,in Hebrew the latin reads from

right to lef"t. 232

The appearance of Dürer 1 s name in an elegy<_to Reuchlin

by Pirckheimer 233 implies that DOrer was as much of a' Reuchlin ...

ist a~ any?ne else in the Sodali tas Pirckheimer. The remains

of Dürer 1 s wr~ ting a~e seant, but they do incltide a letter

in which the artis t mentions Reuchl in. Though thts corres-_

\ pondence dates to the early part of 1520, i t may be taken

as an indica tion that Dürer had been sympa thet~c to and suppor:..

tive of Reuchlin, well bef~iS yea.r. In th~s letter l .

to the "honorable Georg Spalatin, Chaplain to my mO,st gracious

234 .. lord,' Puke ,Prederick, the Elector of Saxony, Durer writes,

• As to Spengler: '5 "Apology for Luther" about wh~ch you wrlte l must tell Vou that no more copies are ln stock; but It ~s being reprinted at Augitburg, and l will send you sorne copies as !;)oon as the y are ready. But you must know tha t, though the book was printed here 1 l t was condemned ~n the pulpi t as heretical and meet to be burnt,

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and the flan who publishEld i t is abased and de.famed., It is repdrted that Dr. Eck wanted to burn it in public at Ingolstadt as was done . ~o Dr. Reuchlin 1 s bOOk.~: .

Spalatin was an av id ReuchliniSC 236 wi th whom PirCkheiBr

was in correspondence about "our Reuchlin" duriog the years

1512_1514.237

Hence in his mention of "Dr. Reuchlin 1 s book"

in the above quoted letter, i t is most like1y that Dürer J referring to Der Augenspiegel which, as indicated previousl'y,

had been publically condemned a.nd burned in numerous parts

of Europe in 1514.

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.. 49

A chain of events and ~ide range of evidence supports

the th~ory ~h~t Dnrer's 1514 engra~ing of "St. Jerome in

his Studyll pays tribute to the Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin.

The s~gn~ficance of the çucurbita incident in Jerome's 1

career; th~ nature of the Reuchlin-Pfefferkorn dispute; the

strategy of Reuchlin and Reuchlinists to link his name with

that of Jerome; Pirckheimer's ~nterest in Hebrew and ~cti-"f'_".'~ ~.""",, .

vities as a Reuchlinist;' ~nd Pirçkheimer's friendship with \

D~rer, tn~ "best' friend "l :-ever had on earth, ,,229 aIl conspire

to suggest that in OGrer's c{rcle at this time Reuchli~ would

have been more closely'identified with Jerome than any of ",

his peers, an~that if one is going to interpret the gourd {:.... ~ ..

-as a veiled allusion to a philological controversy, it ls

most accurately interpreted as an allu~ibn to Jerome's '~ost,

holy co-partner' s tl defense of Hebra:i,ca.

In his exchange of letters ~ith Augustine, on the

topic of the cucurbita incident; Jerome ends his first retort

to Augu~tine W~ th the words

,In closing ,thi!; letter, 1 beseech you to h~ve some cons~deration for a:soldier who ls now old and has long retired from active service, and not to force him to take the field and again expose h~s life to the chances of war: •.• 1 am con tented to make but l~ttle noise in an obscure corner of a monastery, with no one to near me or read to me. 230

;In 1513 in his Defensio, Reuchl~ !~peated Jerome's creed

. "knowled~e of true theolog{ans i5 a divine l,ight de5cended

from the Father' above. ,,231 Jerome 1 s· concluding words in

-

<.

( ,

~

- 50 -4

his first epistle about the cucurbi ta i,nc~dent and Reuchlin' s

quotation of Jerome capture the mood emanat-ing from Dürer 1 s

image. Bathed in a truly extraordinary light - Jerome once

more de fends Hebraica Veritas and his disciple Reuchlin . .

,

. , ..

. {

, ,

.. )

. .

, ,

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Notes

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l~.A. Hlrsch, "Joh9nnes Pfef,ferkorn and the Batt1e of the'Books".~inA Uook ot Essays (London: 1905), p. 76.

" 2 , EJ', vol. fi p. 161 "When Popes Gregory, X, in 1274 and Nichblas IV in 1288 and 1290 'reissued the Turbato corde Bull of Clement ).v (1267) ~hich had likened to heretics those con­vertéd JeW$ who had later returned to Judaism together wl th thos'e who had assisted them in the process J see Papal Bulls), t-hey entrusted the Dominicans and FranClscan Inqu-isi tion wi th

.. the prosecutions of such persons." See also Solomon Grayzel, "The Confessions of a Medieval Jewlsh Convert. Il HJ, XVII (1955) pp. 89-120 esp. p.~94 "In the thlrteenth century inqulsi­torJ:'i:il powers ~e .taken ou t of the hands of higher Chur~h au thorl ties such as Bishops and èntrus ted to members of the ne~ orders of Monks in partJ.cular the Franciscans and the Doml01cans. For a most recent s tudy of the antljudalc acti-vi t;ies of the ,Franclscans and the Domlnlcans see Jeremy Cohen,. The Frlars and the Jews (1 th aca: 1983). , r

3 " James Overfield, "A New .Look. at the Reuchlln Affair." Stud'les ln Medieval "and Renalssance H.istory, VII (1971), pp. 1'~7-207, 'p.' 6?~ This, is the most recent study of the incident. For a lis t of Pfeffer~orn' S anti ]UdalC polemics 1 see Ulriéh Von Hu'tten. Operum Supp1ementum, ed. Edward B~cking (Leipzig:

.1864,1869),2 vols., vols., pp. 53-54. J '

. , ,

4 For the his tory o'l the Church' s atti tude towards Jewlsh t{ç)oks see George La Pl.ana,"The Cburch and the Jews."

"HJ, XI (1949)" pp. 117-144, p. 131 IIPope Gregory IX (1227-1241) wa$ the first to 'put lQ motion the who1e machinery of the Church for the confiscati'On and destruction of Jewish books, WhlCh' was Very actl,ve between 1204 and 1242." Also .s~e O.W. Amr·am The Ma~er5 of Hebrew Books in Italy (London: 1936), pp: 296-300. Pope Paul IV'fully supported the inquisi ... tion a,t thls t~:me ,the Talmud and Hebrew bo~ks were proscrlbed and burned"; Charles Berlln, ed;'t Hebrew' Printing and ·Bibliographx (New, Yprl<: 1976), p. 98 ,"Under Doml.nican influence much book burning took place. ~ In' Cremona .. 1.r1 the sixteenth century 10 or 12' thousand volume$ of the Talmudlc texts were burned on a' pyre;. Edward A. Synan The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages (New York.: 1955) ,p. 122. "Ur.ged on by the, Dominicans both Gregory IX and Innocent: ordered the 'burning of the Talmud." . .

50verfleld, p. 168., The four universities consulted were those 'of Cologne', Erf'urt" Mainz, and He~delberg. The other no.table lndividuals were Jacqb Von Hochstraten, a Domini­can theologian' ~r9m Cp~ogne, and lllqU,lSi tor Of Héretical

q

~ \ \52 "

Pravay_ and Victor Karben. ~J~W a,priest.

who had become

6 ' O.verf~eld, p. 178. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council

decreed that aIl Jews were required to wear a badge or speclal garment to distinguish tnem from Christ~ans. In ~erman speak­ing lands 'the badge dld not become wtdespread until the sixteenth century. For a good lntroductory discussion Ç>f the legislation about the badge dating f.rom the Fourth Lateran Council up to the Second World War see Guido Kiséh "The Yellow Badge in History.1I HJ, XIX (1957), pp. 89-l45~

7 See Overfield p. l 73, n. 2 for a partial bibliography of literature summarizing opinions submitted by the universities.

8 The original copy of this tract is no longer ex tant, r---... but it appears incorporated into'" a later one of Reuchlin 1 s polemics Der Augenspiegel (Tübingen: Anshelm, August 1511), a facsimile of which has been printed in Quellen zur Geschlchte des Humanismus und der Reformation, ed. Bernard Wendt, ( Munlch: 1964),Band V. It also appears wi+h a modern german translation in Johanness Reuchlin, Gutachten Hber das jüdische Schrifttum, transe and ed. Antonie Leinz von Dessauer (Stuttgart: 1965). This is the edition consulted in this thesis. A thorough bibliography of works written in the controversy can be found

'in Ulrich Von Hutten, Operum Supplementum ..

9Reuchli~, Gutachten, pp. 20, 74, 78; also Overfield, p. 1 76. ~

10Cabala is a~Jewish mystical tradition. The word means "tradition." It was believed that when God gave the law to Moses, he also 'gave a ~econd revelation as to thé secret meaning of the law. The belief that one could search for the hidden meaning of the law in the Scriptures by mani~ulating thé Hehrew alphabet, each letter of which has a numerical equivalent is the essence of cabala and the principal upon which cabalistic exegesis is based. For a basic understanding of cabala see th"e wri tings of Gersholm Scholem esp. Major Trends in Jewish Mys,ticisrn,3rd ed. (1954; rpt. New York: 1961); and the bibliography, listed in the EJ, 10, p. 654.

" . llReuchlin, Gu tachten", p. 30; Overfield, p • 176. . 12Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 48; Overfield, p. l 77.

l3Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. Ill.

,

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14 See above n. 8. , \.

1 5 t,{'l \"", C>-Thl~\summary of the Reuchlln-Pfeffe~korn .controversy lS

taken from Overfleld's artlc1~ on the tOplC (see above n. 3). Detalled accounts of the events of the d~ntroversy are also found ln LudwIg Geiger~ .fohanness Reuchl n SeIn Leben und seine \\erke (LeIpzIg: l~", _ , pp. 203-45'4; ,(Max Brod, Johannes Reuchlin und seIn kampf (Stuttgart: 1965), pp. 178-290; Salo. Wittmay€r Ba~on A ocial and ~eli ious Hlst~ of the Jews, 2nd' ed~, (New York: 1952-1969 , XIII'-; pp. 182-191; Heinrich Graet~, Geschlchte der Juden, 4th ed. (Leipzig: 1907), IX, pp. 63-195: English translation wlthout footnotes History of the Jews IV (PhiladelphIa: 1897), pp. 382-422; Carl Kr,ause,

, Hel ius Eobanus Hessus, Sein Leben und seine Werke, l (Gotha: 1879); Paul Joachlmsen "Der Humanismus und die Entwlcklung

,des Deutschen Geistes" Deutsche Viertel]ahrssc::hrift für Literatur Wissenschaft und Gelstesgeschichte, VIII (1930); Majo Holborn, Ulrich von Hutten and the German ReformatIon (New York: 1965); Roth, "Kampf um die Judenb<ncher und Reuchlin von der t heolog ischen Fakul tat zu' Malnz~ 1509-1513." Der Ké)i tholik, LXXXIX (1909) 139-144. . 1

~1

16Summarized in Overfie1d, pp. 169-171.

17In 1520, the papacy p.ssed a fInal congemnatlon of Der Augen$piegel.

18overfield, p. 170 cItes ~he wrltings of Ludwig Geiger, Carl Krause, Paul Joachimsen, Hajo Holborq, (see above n. 15).

i90verfield, p. 170 cites the works of Graetz and Baron (see above n. 15) .

;,

20overfield, p. 170.

21overfield, p. 170.

22overfield, p. 141 fully acknowledges the difference be~ween medieval,and modern anti-Judaisru that medieval anti-Jud­aism had a different basis than the race oriented theories of t'he nineteenth and twentieth centries. • For c1ear d·iscussions

'of the nature of medieval anti-Judaism see baron, XI, pp. 122-191; Joshua Trachtenber~ The Devil and the Jews. (New Haven: 1945): < Synan; The Popes and Jews. I.n terms of the perlod under' discussion, the term anti-~em1tism 1s ~nachronistic. In this thesl.s the term anti-Judaism will be used.

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23 Overfleld, p. 169. OverfIeld's Interpretatlort lS supported by anotfier ReuchlIn schola~ Charles Zlka,flReuchlln ~ and Erasmus: Humanlsm and Occu1 t Phl1osophy." -J-Ourna"l of Religious History, 9 <1976-'77), pp. 223-246, p}/U6.

/'

24(On the Supresslon of Jewish BoofS>, Augsburg, E. Ogle!n: 1510.' For Pffeferkorn' s publicatIons prIor to and during the contrdversy see above n. 3.

25 See above n. 15.

26Th1S woodc~t is mentioned by ErIC Zafran ln The Icono ra h of Antl-semltism, 1400-1600. Diss. Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 1973 Ann Arbour, 1982), pp. 262-64, in the context of a briefo dlS~Ession of imagery re1atIng to the Reuch1in-Pffeferkorn cont~t~sy. To my know1edge, Zafran's dIssertatIon is the on1y work which looks at pIctorial imagery connected wlth the controversy.

27 See above n. 26.

28 Grinm, Harold J'I~ Spengler. (Columbus: 1978), ;?25. Key rneffibers of the soaalitas'Pirçkheimer were' the Treasurers Hieronymous Ebner and Anton Tucher,'Endres and Martin Tucher Kaspar NUtzel, Christoph and Sigmund FOrer, Albrecht Durer.

29Th1S interpretation was fir~t argued by P. Reutersward, "Sinn undo Nebensinn bei Dürer. Randbemerkul~en zut. ''Uelancolia 1" Gestal.t und ihrlichkel t, in Festgabe für Ferdinand Weirhandl. ed. R. Muh1er (Berlin: 1967), pp. 424-29. A summary " of scholarship on this engraving up to the year 1977 is found in Walter L. Strauss, ed., The Intag1io Prints of !1brecht Durer (New York: 1977), pp. 212-215 (Hereafter clted as Strauss, Intaglio) .

30Art Bulletin, 42 (1971): pp. 303-305.

3lparsha11, p. 303.

31bparshal1, p. 303.

32 ..... diese la.cberliche Kürbisfrage ... " Christ licher Humanismus in Dürers Hieronymusbild."Zeitschrift fur

" Kunstgeschichte, 45 (1982~, pp. 195-201, p. ' 198.

33W. L . Strauss, The Woodcuts and Woodblocks of Albrecht Durer (New York: 1980). p. 38 (Hereafter cited as Strauss, Woodcuts) . .

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, 34 Parsha;ll, p. 303; Strauss ~ Woodcuts, p. 38. Jerome' s

epistles were a~so published in Lyons ln 1507, 1508, 1513. "

35 Woodcuts, 38. StrauSls, p.

36 1 303. Parshall , p. "'""-,

37 303. Parshal1, p.

38 1 303. Parsh,all, p.

39See above n. 32.

40 w ' e~s, p. 201.

41 198. Wei.s, p.

42weis , p. 197.

43 '. 198. We~s, p.

44w . e~s, p. 199.

45see above p.

46 . J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome (London: 1975), p. 156.

'agint was universal1y used by Christians and believed been produced by seventy dlvinely inspired scholars.

47..., . ne~s, p. 199.

The Septu­to have

4gsancti Eusebii Hier.on mi E 1s tol'ae, Rescensvi t Isidoru$ H:i:lberg R.R.R. New York: 19 1 , Pars II; Lette.rs XXXVI, XX.2, XXI.5, XXJII.5 to Marcella: "thus have we quaffed from tliile innermost fountain of, the Hebrews, .not fo11owing the strealll­l~s of opinions and error of wHich the whole wor1d is full." (cited in L.A. Hughes, The Christian Church in the Epistles o~ St. Jerome (London: 1923), pp. 32, 33; and epistl~ CVI.2; Afso see Jay Braverman Jerome's Commentary on Daniel A Study of Comparative Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Hebrew Bible (Washington: 1978) p. 10; JE,VII, pp. 115-116· James Barr, M.A.D.D., St. Jerome's Appreciation of Hebréw.~ John R~lands 'Library Bul1etln, 40 (l96n-6 7) pp. 281- 302, esp. pp. 28 -87; S.J. sutcliffe,"St. Jerome's Hebrew ~ .. anuscripts."

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Bl.blica, 29 (1948), pp .... 195-204: P. Schaff The Hl.s tory of the Chrl.stian Church (N,ew Y0rk: 1895),' III, 9 70, "Unlike 'most of the other Church Fathers, Jerome was three tongued, that is, master of the three prl.nciple languages, Latl.n, Greek

.. and Hebrew, of the then cl.vl.lized world. Though his knowledge of Hébrew was flawed, it was much greater than that of Origan, Epiphanus and Ephraen Syrus, the only other F~thers besides himself who understood Hebrew."

49S 'E b" h' E . anctl use l.1 l.eronyml.. p1stolae, Pars II, letters LXXI, CXX, VIL2. Aiso see Barr, p. 287, n. 1; Kelly, p. 156.

50 For detal.ls of Jerome's Jewish teachers see L.I. New­man~ Jewlsh Influence on Chrlstian Reform Movements (New York: 1960), pp. 27-29; JE,Vî~ pp. 116-117; Barr, p. 286; Sutcliffe, p. 296~(Eplstle CXXV.12}.

51W. Schwarz, princirles and Problems of Biblical Translation ~ambridge: 1955 , p. 83, nts. 2, 3;in his Praefatio in Paralipomenon (PL vol. XXVlI'I, col. 1326) Jerome main talns that Hebrew is the rang~age WhlCh God has spoken. In hlS Commentarium in So honiam Pro hetam Llber (vL, vol. XXV, col. 1384b Jerome descrlbed Heb~ew as the sou~ce of all~lan­guages.

52 JE,VII, p. 117;" See Kelly, p. 160 for Je.rome's accep-tance of the Hebrew canon.

53 For the order in which Jerome translated the books 'of the Old Testament (completed in 40S-6) see Jerome, "Apology

against Ruflnus," ln St. Jerome the Do matic and Polemical Works; transe John N. Hritzu , Ph. O~ Washlngton~ 1965 , p. 153, n. 122.

54 Ke Il y, p. 50.

55Commentary on Zephaniah, 3.18 (Linguam Hebraicam omnium linguarum esse ma tricum (CCL 76A; 730 ); Kelly, p. 1 S4 "Jerome took lt for granted, liki most Christians of the early centuries th'at al,l languages descended from Hebrew, the ori­ginal speech of manklnd until the presumptuous building of the tower of Babel.

56parshall, p. 303; JE,VII, p. 117, "Whl.le in Rome, Jerome obtalned from a Jew a-synagogue roll (Eplstolae XXXVI) because he considered the Hebrew text as the only correct one as the Hebralca Veritas from which this time on be regarded as authoritative in aIl exege-tlcai disputes."

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57Kelly, p. 168. '.

58 4" 84 Braverman, ~. , Kelly p. •

595 'E b" H' , E ' t 1 P II 1 tt anct1 use 11 1eronym1 p1S 0 ae, ars , e er -XXXV.l quoted in Braverman 1 p. 4.

60 See ~chwarz p .bS'; also p. 35 of this thesis.

6\anct1 Eusebii Hieron'{m1 Epistolae, Par's II, letter XXXVI.~; Also see Kelly, p. 84.

62 Jerome, "Apol~gy," p. 146.

63. .. , ( 1e. See Kelly, Chapter XV "From Septuagint to Hebrew

Verity," pp. 153-168. ~ ..

64Schaff, History of the Christian Church. Vol. III, p. 970.

65Rufinus (B. AD. 345) was a priest, writer, theologian translator Qf Greek theological works into Latin.

66see below n. 68.

67 For a discussion of Rufinus t objections' see 'l<elly' pp • 169, 196.

- 68 In A Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. 2nd series, ed. and tranSe Philip Schaff, D.D.L.L.D., Henry Wace, D.D., et al (New York: 1892) vol. III; Rufinu~"Apolog~was a response to St. Jero~ets let~er of 399 to Pammachius.Humanist knowledge of this treatise is hinted at in one of Mut.i'an's letters (see below p. 41.)

69 . "Apology", 4'66, 4·76, 477. Rufinus, pp.

70 see below n. 69.

7IR f' U 1nus, "Apology," p. 475.

72R f' U 1nus, • , Apology , Il p. '47~ •

73 R f' u 1nus, "Kpology, Il p. 477.

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74Jerome's "Apology agal.nst 'Rufinus" consists of three books, the tl)ird completed in 402. Seè Jerome, "Apology against Rufinus," p. 56, n. 22 . for a list of docu~ts in Jerome's . po~session while he wrote the~Apology~ "

750er Guta~hten , XI. Rufinus 1S ~lso mentioned in Der Augenspiegel, XII, XXIX; (in the Gutachten, XXIX).

76or . W.M. Smith and Dr. Wake, A ~icfionary of Christian Biography (London: 1880), vol. II, p. 865.

77 Jerome, "Apology", p. 74.

78 Jerome, Il Apology", p. 81.

79 J.erome, "Apo1ogy", p. 74-75.

80 e

Jerome, "Apology", p. 143.

81 Jerome, "Apology", p. 155.

82Kelly, p. l53.~is tract, a critieal examination of the different passages i~ Genesis, i5 the third work in a trilogy which inc1uded an ety~ologica1 dictionary of bib1ical names and places (Hebrew names or omnasticon) an~ a gazeteer of places mentièned in the Scripture (Liber Locorum). Kelly 156 "In the quest1ons, hav1ng lost fai th in the Insp1rat'ion of the Seventy, he was opening a debatable 'campaign in favour of the Hebrew V~rity (Hebraica Veritas) as he was henceforth to calI it by seeking to remove the w1despread suspicion and distrust people felt for it."

83 Jerome, "Apology"t.,p. 147.

B4 See Jerome, IJApology", p. 84, n. 52; KeIly~ p. 150 for the evolution of Jerome's treatment of the psalter. Jerome made three translations of the psalms.

85Jerome, • "Apology", p. 155. •

86~It is important to note that "the impetus behind O~igen'~ and Jerome's search for the correct text and canon was the controversy between Christians and Jews which frequently was based on Scriptural texts and their interpretation. The Alexandrian Septuagint (LXX) which according to tradition,

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had originally been translated by Jews c. 270 B.C. and was later accepted by Christianity in lts infancy because a source of contention in the second century B.C. Jews in Palestine began to doubt its accuracy and claimed that it had become corrupt, whiie at the same time Christian writers cited it with increased authority and devotion." (Braverman, p. 15).

87 Jerome, "Apology", p. 150.

88preface to Isaiah (PL, 28 f 71-4). Braverman'e p. ",15.

89preface to Voshua; to Isaiah (Vulgate) PL, 46.4; 2'75 f;"Ap91oqy,"III 25; Kelly, p. i60.

90 ~

Quoted in Braverman, p. 47.

91 "Apology", 155. Jerome, p.

·92 "Apology", 57, 29. ..:terome, p~ n.

94Kelly, pp. 217-218.

, 28,

96St . Augustine, The Works, vol. VI, l, letter LXXI, CH. II.3.

96St • 'Augustin~, .The Works, vol. yI, l', letter LXXI, CH. ,11.4. ..

97For analyses of debates over Jerome '8 treatrœnt of Jonah see P. Antin O.S~B., Saint Jêr6me sur Jonas (Paris: 1956)~' Y. M. Duval, "Saint Augustln et le Commental.re sur Jonas de Saint Jêr5me." Revue des Etudes Augustiennes, 12 (1966), pp. 9-40.

98St . Augustine, Thé Works, vol. VI, l,' letter LXXI, CH. III. 5.

99 10. ) Duval, p.

100 . 11, 8'. Duval, p. n.

;

~_......; _________ ... _ .. , ...... -~-.---~- ""-'''-.......-,.---------'''''l'r''

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" v

1095 'E b" H' . E . t 1 P II eIV anct~ use ,~1 1eronym~ p1S 0 ae, ars f f

~V. eX!I, CXV, CXVI. '" .

llDgan~ti Eusebii Hieronymi Episto1ae,' Pars II. exv-.

III Parshall. p. 309: n.4.

1121 D . d .. E . 0" O· d J Cl . . n es~ er~~ rasm1 p~ra mn~a, e. • er1C1S (Hildesheim: 1962), vol. IX.

113 D d ,. E . 0 rù' l' 1 X 137B es~ er1~ rasm1 pera mn~a vo. • p. " ••• In veteris Instrumenti libris quam mu1ta mutavit quae tum diffidebant ab ecclesiastica 1ectione? Quam vero deridet cuçurbi tari os illos Deos in Africa qui ob voculam mutatem in Jona seditionem excitarant?"

ll4Mutian 's, Urban 's, and Spalatin 's o\\'n support and involve": ment in hebraic studies are repeatedly indicated in their correspondence with Johannes Reuchlin (See Reuch1ins Brief­wechsel, gesammelt und herausgegeben von Ludwig &eiger (Tubingen: 1875).

, ,

1- ' ... ---....... ----_r-------, ... ----, ..... --~ - , _~ .... ~.:._:... __ ---------,~,:""~.I,..a--_..- ~4 ~~ -,..,~""_ r""""', ---:...<'-------.e;

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115 Der Briefwechsel des 'Mut~anus Rufus, ed. Charles Krause (Kassel: 1885>, p. 89.

116Enrico Bianchi,- Raffaello Bianch~, Onorio Lelli Dizionario Illustrato della lin ua lat~na con prefazions di Francesco Della Corte Le Monnier: 1972 p. 1189,"pileo: burè­tto di feltro portato dai Romani ne~ giorni di festa ne~ convi ti, e veniva dato agli schiavi nel momento deI lono ." affrancamento come segno dl 11berta, Il Plaut., L1{V. ,~)val. Max.; Handw~rterbuch der Lateinisch~n Sprache Herausg~qeben von Reinhold Klotz unter M~twirkung von Fr. Lubker und~E.E. Hudemann 7 Absdruck Zweiter Band I-Z (Çraz: 19p,3),"pileolus, 1.M.V. pileolum, i, n. de.min. v. pilens, das kappchen ... Hi~ronyll1. ep. 64, 13.85, 6.

j 117 . . Duval, p. 32 "Pour Augus,tin Jonah represente Israel,: a cucurbita represente les prom~sse~ en partie deja realiz'.

de l'Ancien Testament, ombre des biens a venir ... Jerome dit jamais que Jonas dans sa personne represente Israel.": à1so see Kelly, p. 221; Antin, pp. 109-113.

118 See above P.o 24.

1 l19Reuchlins Brlefwechsel, p. 130 "Quod ante in graeco emendavimus, id jam cernis et in hebraica lingua complementum; mitto enim prophetas minores 12 e~ Isaiam, qui' prlus Ezechielem ad te misl. Habes 19itur libros'S. Hieronyml per me Castigatos tam graece qua'!l hebraice: super ,geneslm, super 12 prophetas ••. "

120"Erasmus taught at Cambn.dge in 1511-1513. He first came to Base1 in August 1514 (J.C. 01~n, Six Essays on Erasmus (New York: 1979) p. 36). The strength of Erasmus' presence

'-

in these circ1es at this time 1S challenged from another point of view. Paul Weber ( eltrage zu Dürer's Weltan~haung.Strassburg: 1900) argues that the popu arlty 0 Erasmus' an 00 for Durer's engraving "K'night, Death and the Devil" of 1513 does O~ot begin before ISIS."

1210er Briefwechsel des Mutianus, p. 511

122 Parshall, p. 304.

~23W . ~ ~lS, p. 20.

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124 ~ Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus, trans .. R.A.B.

Mynors, D.F.S. Thomson, annotated by Ua11ace K. Ferguson (Toronto: 1976), vols. 1-5, vol. -4, p. 59.

125 Henry Loyd Jones, The Discovery of Hebre~ in Tudor Eng1and: A Third Language (Manchester: 1983), pp. 31-32.

126 Erasmus, Correspondence, vol. 3, p. 87, ~. 187.

127 Erasmus, Correspondence, vol. 3, p.168, Erasmus to Pirch-heimer: "Distant as we are trom one another, that is no reason why we should not be very close friends, and we must do ~hat we can to achieve' a meeting." '

128 Erasmus, Correspondence, vol. 4, p. pondenz, Bearbeitet und-Herausgegeben Alfred 1942) Ban~ 1-11, Band 1 (1481-1513), p. 67: in 1516: "Ipse ~n litteris hebl\aicis tondum ut mihi judicanùi someram autoritam."

63; Die Amorbachkorres­Hartmann TBasel: Erasmus to Amorbach . so prosseniam,

• 129 .

Newman, p. 96', "Erasmus feared the study of Hebrew would promo te Judaism." (Schwarz, p. 64). This hostile attitude towacds Hebrew is,we1l summarized in th~ attitude 'of the 1ate fifteenth century polemiclst, the Dominican Petrus Nigri. In 1477 Negri produced a tract Stern det Mesch~ah which argues that the Jewish ipterpretatlon of the sacred texts was written' to mislead the writer. He concludes that nobody should read Jewish lnterpretatlons and gives the following reasons tor publishing his text: Chr1stians should be aware and guard themse1ves against thé false lnterpretatlons of the Jews. who have rejected those bibllcal sayings which refer to the Christian faith.· ,

\

130Quoted in Overfield, p. 199 . .'cl

13lQuoted in Overfie1d, p. 201.

132F . Rosentha1,"The Rlse of -Christlan Hebraism in/the Sixteenth Century," H~, 7-8 (1944.,46), pp. 167-191.

·133F . Barham, The Llfe and Times of Johannes Reuchlin (London-: 1843), p. 100 "The manda te was lssued by Hochstraten at Cologne ... Everyman who pos~essed Der Augenspiegel must give ,lt up to the lnqulsltlon upon pàin of exposing hlmself to thelpunlshm~nt of excommunicatlon. For a dlScusslon of the popularity of Der Augensplege1 see Barham, p. 1~3: for its burnlng, Barham, p. 153.

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'134 Barham 1 p. Il. ..--

135In ltf12-,' Ortwin Gratius' produced a poem e\nti tled "Elegy ta the( Jewsy and Perverted Jew Lovers" (Over\field, p. 192). , ,

- 13-6 --~ Overfield, p. 184. Other noted Ghrlstian'Hebraists

faced such, or similar accusations; Newman, pp. 12-77. "A case in point is the gre~test exegete o~ the mlddle ages, Nicolas de Lyra '(1270-1340) whose exegesis closely follows that of,Jerome's. A tradltlon has long obtalned credence in many quarters that Lyra was born of Jewish parents and became, a convert to the Church. It appears to have arisen af~er Lyra obtalned hlS reputatIon as a heb~aIst, and It galned acceptance because of hlS extensive familiarity wlth the hebrew language and Jewish literatur~. The accusatIon that Lyra was of Jewish orlgin lS as Interestlng ln his case as ln the case of other Christlan scbola~s and reformers who sought aid' from Jewlsh 11terary sources or Jewlsh teachers; It lS demonstrated that orthodox Chr~stians were quick to sense any Judaic inclinations in their mldst; Rosenthal, pp. 182-289.' The career of Sebastlan MUt)ster (1489-1552) provldes another telling example of refuge -sought.....-_I,lnder Jerome' s name; Munster lS consldered one of the f~rst ln the cl~y of Basel t.o have taken up the s tudy o,f seml:Üc lan.guages. He leaned heavlly on Jerome's example to defend his llngulstic Interests. In one of hlS works IT1S Praefatio Hebraeorum commentaril non contemnendi he wri tes (Rosenthal 188-189) "The works' of St. Jerome teach us that the wrltings of the Hebrews are not aIl to be condemned ~y dne who tries to render the holy Hebrew codices 'into Latln." •.• There are many points in the commen­taries of Jerome which he asserts te have learned from the Jews· ••. Il For a discussl0n of Chrlstian hebralsts and the problems they faced in the fifteenth and slxteenth centurles see the works of Rosenthal, Schwarz, and most recently FrIedman. esp. Chapter II f p. 182-195 "Judal zation and P ract lce. Il

137 Frances A. Yates, Occult Phllosophy ln the Elizabethan Age (London: 1979), p. 23.

13BQuoted in W.I. SpItz, "Reuchlln's Philosophy: Pythagoras and Cabala for Christ. Il Archiv for ReformatlOfs'­qeschicte, 47 (1956), p.2.

139St . J., PL, vol. XXVII', 'col., 1244.

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~40original1y pub1ished by Amorbach 1n Basel. The Edition consulted in this thesis 1~ Johannes Reuchlin De Verbo Mirlfico 1494, de Arte Cabalistica 1517, Fakslmi1e, (Stuttgart: 1964 ) •

14lThe most .recent bibliography of 1iterature on Reuchlln 1 s Chrlst1an cabalistic studies is found in FriedmaQ, ch. 7.' n. 12.

142A concise explanatiori Reuchlin's extrapolation of the tetragrammaton to the pentagrammatr~n is lound in Spitz, p. 8.

1431n ~he tradition of his predecessor Origen, Jerome had produced a number of works inspired by caba1istic exegesis. This particular aspect of Jerome's hebraic exegesis is discussed by Brian P. Copenhaver, "LeFêvre D'Etaples, Symphorien Champier. and the secret name;s of God." ~, 40 (1-977), pp. 189-211.

l44Quoted ln Copenhaver, p. 195 (Epistle 25)'. ~

145 see Kelly, p. 67. •

146Quoted in Copenhaver, p. 196 (Epistle 30).

147 Copènhaver, p. 197.

148 ' Copenhaver. p. 197.

149 Copenhaver. p. 197.

150 De Verbo M1rifico, p. 99.

151De Verbo Mirifico, p. 102-3.

152 ' . Frledman, p. 24.

153char1es Zika, The Place of Johannes Reuchlin inc the Renaissance Occult Tradition.M.A. thesis University of Melbourne 1974 (Melbourne: 1975), p. 297.

154Quo~ed in Reuchlins Briefwechse~, pp. 95-96, "Dicent enim non me potuisse in senilibus annis absque praeceptore etiam qualicumque conatu ab tantum hebraicae lectionis fastiquim

.... _~_ .. _-

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65

abscendere, ut studla mea ceter1s prosint, quibus statlm Origenem Ob)lClam, sanctumque Hleropymum et ilIum de Lyra NdÇolaum; qui omnes approplnquante senio primum hebralcls stud1sse probàntur. QU1n potuis nemo ferme omnium post apost~ 0105 orthodoxam eccleslam hebralcis. 11 tet1s illustravl t, qUl non ea~ in aetate provecta dlscere coeper1t, p~eter 1nslgnem magistrum 11fum Paulu~ episcopam Burgensem. Judeorum ollm doctiss1mum cUJas ad nos sera conversio plurlmis fuit homln1bus salutl, et cui me posthabitls ~e,llquis. herbam dare n1hil pudet."

155 For a note on the Ilfe of Paul or Burgo~ see the article ln the JE. Reuchlin also mentions him in Der Augensplegel, I-,-VII, IX.

IS6Reuchlins Br1efwechsel. p. 97. Hieronymus V1r sanctus LXX. carpi t 1 n te,rpretes, non semel, "b1S, terve, sed saepis­Slme numero. Nunc illos errasse diclt errore consplcuo, nunc, inceptos 19norantla. tum dlscordare a veritate hebralèa. tum. falsatos slml11tudine literarum, tum consulto aliqua coelasse aut om1sisse, ne sacra panderent mysterla, quos tamen Ptolomaeus Alexandrlae res d1vlna credldlt vlrtute transtulisse· ..• " .

lS7Quoted in Spitz, p. 7; Also see Schwarz, p. 74.

158 Charles Zika, The Place, p. 197. ,

159 ,Erasmus, Cotrespondence, vol. l, p. 63, n. 28.

160· r v v r XV Joh~nnes Reuchlin, Gutachten, II , IV , IX , X, ,

< v r v XVIII, XIV, XV , XVI, XVI,

161 Johannes Reuchl1n; Gutachten, p. 28, "Ob man den Juden sarntliche Bücher Beschlagnahmen, beseitigen und verbrennen <

solle."

162 Johannes Reuchlln, Gutachten, R. 28, 1. Wel1 Sle gegen die Chrlsten verfasst selen 2. S~e beleidigen Jesu~, Maria und die Apostel, au ch uns und unsere christliche Ordnung. 3. Weil Sle falsch seien. 4. Werden dadurch die Juden dazu verlei tet, im Judentum zu verharren und nicht zurn' chrlstlichen Glauben zu kommen.

1~3JOhannes Reuchlin, Gutachten. p. 30. "finde\lch die erhabenen Geheimnisse der Ausspruche und worte Gotte~;die Sie "Kabbala" nennen."

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164 . . Johannes Reuchlln., Gutachten, p. 42, "ist elner gerecht,

so tad1e er mlch und unterwelse mlch in Barm~rzigkei t Wl.e kann aber elner auf etwas ~ntegnen und es wider1egen, das er nl.cht versteht."

165 . Johannes Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 62, "Der Wel.se kann aus Druc~ gold Machen."

166J6hannes Reuchlin, Gutachten,B,p. 64-66.

167 Johannes Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 80. "Der-hôchbedeu-tende Lehrer St. Hi1arl.us hat zur hl. Schrift Komment und christ1ichen Klrche gerühmt und0angenOmmen' sind; aber er macht oft Fehler bei der Worterkl~rung ln Ermangelung der hebral.sch Sprache, die er nicht konnte. Und das Grleçhische hat lhn nur gerade so angeweht oder angehaucht, Wl.e St. Hl.eronymus im Brief an Marcella über den 126 Psalm und in·sel.nem Brl.ef an Damasus über "Hosanna" schrl.bt und ebenso an vie<3..en andern' Stellen, dl.e in meinem Werk "De Rudimenl.s Hebraicis" ausfi1hrlich nachgew'l.esen sl.nd." Also Der Augenspiegel, XlIII.

16BJohannes Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 28; also see above ') n. 4. in regards to thoe Church 1 s a ttl. tude towards Jewish bÇ)oks ~

169 Johannes Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 90.

170 Johannes Reuchll.n, Gu tach ten, p. 92, "Wie werden nicht als Chrlsten geboren."

171 24. Frl.edman, p.

172Quoted in Zika, The Place, p. 135.

173Quoted in Zika, The Place, p. 135.

174 83 Schwarz, p.

175 \ Reuchltn.51 Brlefwechsel, p.- 156, "Sed quod me insimu-

lant fautoriae juaaicae perfidiae notam incurisse, non assentior, t vere'cum Sancto Hieronymo in Apologia super schedulis ad

P mmachlum et Oceanum assere possum testando deum~et dicere " . expedi t odisse homlnes et gentes allquas", detes'taf:-i mina od 0 adversor clrcunsionem et Ob]lCl.at mihi quispiam cur hominem Jud eum habuerl";) praeceptorum. 'II

176 If Anshelm: Tublngen.

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177Quoted ln Overfield, p. 183.

178 Anshelm: Tüblngen.

179 Anshelm: TÜblngen.

180 ' Anshelm: T~blngen. . .'

18lJerome, ,"Apology against Rufinus", p. 142, n., 89 4-"St.' Jerpme' s work on Chri,stian wri ters, his De Viris Illustribus

,was composed 'at Bethlehem in the year 392 at the suçgestion of the Prae,torian guard De~ter. l t professes to be a brief

count of all those eccles~astical writers who have written \ -on r the sâcred' Scriptures from the crucifixl.on to the fourteenth

year of the rel.gn of Theodosius, ( 392) . "

182Reuchlins Briefwechse1. p. 241, "Die gegner hofften auf der macht ihres geldes

c' 'verspote~ten darum die Befehle

des papstes, er hoffe alle in auf die papstiche milde unè gerechtigkeit Der papste werde dem Hoochstraten der ,sich zu sein~n Fürbein krümme und heuchlerisdie thranen weine, mit .Jesaias worten das vergebliche seiher anstrengung, kundgeben~ PaJ;:!st Damasus habe sich durch dl.e rettung des Hieronymus, papst Julius durch die de Athanasius ruhm erworben ••• "

183Reuchlins Briefwechsel, p. 50, "Den gelehrtesten ma'nn Deu tschl ands. j,a aller lSnder. ungeheures Lob: verg leidi t ihn Illit Hieronymus."

184 A~orbach. Korrespondenzamorbacb, Band l, pp. 447-448.

185A b h K '-, ' mor ac, orrespoudenzaffiorbach J Band 1 p. 447 ilL d ' , . au es _~c vlrtutas tuas, preclarissimo viro, audivi a egregio

\ vJ.ro domJ.no Ju. Rochelino et a venerabilis pater Pellicano guardiano bene merito J viro doctissimo, amici nostri et tul et ab eiis intelexerarn, ,quot tu haberes per manibus v (ener~­bilem) diyem et sanctum Jeronimum et esse conectum 'per d . doctore Rochelino et per pv Pellicano et per multis aliis. Quoa li~et ipS'é i>unt docti atamen ego scio" quot scientia eorum HOu sufficet ad corigenàum sanctum Jeronimum nec Lirra nec aliquos libros hebraicos." '

186 ' , ~ Hutten' s poem was nct pub11shed until 1519 "Erasmus,

who was cr~i tical of ~he y-ou.ng Reuchlinl.s ts clflimed to have "taken pains" to suppress publication of Hutten's poem= (Overfie1d, p. 197) •

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187 :-Hutten "Trlumphans Capnlon~s," quoted in Overfield, p. 204. (See above n. 186):

~ 188For a d~Scu5sion of . Mutlan 's behaviour durlng the controversy see Overf1e1d, pp. 193-196.

189Der Briefwechse1 Mutianus Rufus, p. 441.

190Der Briefwechsel Mutianus, p. 442.

19lRufinus _ is mentioned elsewhere" in -Der Augenspiege1, XII, XXIX. Jerome 's "Apo1ogy against Rufinus" was published in Basel in 1516 (Dr. W.M. Smith and Dr. Wake, A Dictionary, vol. III, p. 865).

1925ee Charles Zika, "Reuchlin and Erasmus," for a good .. analysis of Erasmus 1 reaction to Reuchlin' s predicament.

193 . Erasmus, Correspon~ence, vol. 4, no. 33, p. 90f.

194 Era~mus, Correspondence, vol. 4," p. 107.

195 Jerome, "Apology," p. 141. \

196 -Jerome, Il Apology, Il p. 170.

197R d d' l' h 1 t' . B h r epro uce ln an eng 15 trans a ~on, ~n ar am, Appendix II', pp. 235-241.

198Erasmus, in Barham, p. 241. ,

199 Erasmus, in Barham, p. , 241.

200 in Barham, 240. Erasmus, p. -201 E ' rasmus, in Barham, p. 240.

202 in Barham, 241. Erasmus, p.

203 in Barham, 241. ' Erasmus, p.

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204pe111can was' taught by _Reuchlln (Barham, p. 65). ---------205 -' Amorbach, Korrespondenzamorbach, Band l, p. 446 "Est

profundlssimus Hebraes ••• Videbis Hebra1cae Veri taHs mysteria Latlnis invo1ucrls objectum."

206Der Briefwechse1 Mu'tianus, p. 410, "Capnion noster, magni via animi et fortis et propter Hebraicas et Graecas literas in quibus rnirabi11ter exeé11it."

207Der \ Briefwechse1 Mutianus, p. 511, "Homo trium ling­uarum peri t1ssime Capnion. ~I

208Reuchllns Brie:fwechsel, p. 215.

209 Rosentha1, p. i 73.

210 Reuchllns Briefwechsel, pp. 198-99.

2110verfield, p. 202.

212Reuchlins Briefwechsel, p. 36. For a d-iscussion of Pirckheimer 1 s correspondence in this period see Wilehad Paul Eckert and Cilristoph von Imhoff, Willibald Pirckheirner (Koln: 19~2) pp. 183-184.

213 ' Reuch1ins Briefwechsel, p. 183.

, , 1

214 R hl' B' f h 1 euc lns rle wec se , p. 183.

21SJohannes Reuchlin, Gutachten, p. 14.

216R cd d' epr uce ln Eckert' and von Irnhoff, pp.244-"

217 "Fischerll, (Nurernburg: 1517).

217b . Reprodu('.p.d ,in Eckert and von Imhoff 1 p. 256.

218p ' l·h· . E k . 1rcr. elmer 1 ln c. ert and von· Imhoff 1 p. 26Q, "D~e hebraische hast du mit einzigarten eiser und zu unsete grossten Bewunderung" studiert . " " ,

219Pirckheimer, in Eckert anô von Imhoff, p. 260.

" \~ . .~. 220p ' kh' . E k ff' 1rc elmer 1 ln c ert and von Imho 1 p. 260,

ui eronymus, d€ssen Ansich t frei li ch von uer eigen

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Abneigung gegeh den R~mischen Klerus bestlmmt ist, meinte" dessen Schm~hungen hatten Tertulllan aus der Kirehe getrieben .•• Der hei11ge Hieronymus und Aurelius Augustinus waren niemals gefeit vor den h~mlsehen Angriffen der Ruehlosen. Darum Weiehe auct,1 Du, sehr Hochherziger Reuchlln 1 nicht vor dem Bosen, sondern s ~e11e Dich i,hnen sehr wagenmu tig. Il,

221. See Eckert an.d Imboff, Willibald Pirckheimer p. ~43.

222Wi11iba1d Pirckheimerts Briefwechsel, ed. Dr. Emil Reieke (Munchen: 140), Band I, p. 113, n. 7. '

223Reuchlins Briefweehsel, p. 245.

224 p ' kh' -1re elmer, ln Eekert and von Imhoff, p.258.

225 Parshall, p. 304'"."1

226p ' kh' , E k t d h ff 256 1re elmer, ln . C er an von lm 0 , p. • "Die Kenntnis der grammatik ist es ja notwendig in der Latein­ischen Griechischen und HebnHschen."

227Quoted in H. Rupprich, Willibald Pirokheimer und die Erste Reisé Durer's Naeh Italien (Wien: 1930), p. 90. "Reuchlinium et- Bilibaldum vobis non reeenseo iuris quidem i110s 'peritos et legem linguarumque eum Graecae tum H~raeae et Latinae, quos PiCb :tuo, Lili, e'arissimos fuisse intel.lego. Eorum tameR versus habeo nullos, quos proferam: audivi ex ex n~stris illos non amorisous fuisse."

228 Strauss, Woodcuts, p. 38.

22~St W d 3'8 •. rauss, 00 cuts, p.

2~O -Schwarz, p. 67.

231 Strauss, Woodcuts, p. 685.

232' ,. F.A. Nagel, Der Kristal~ auf Durer's Melaneholie

(Nurnberg: 1922), pp. 19-20. __

23?Vita Il,lustris Bilibaldi Pirckheimer· (Frankfort: 1610),p.25. /

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234 Durer, The Wrltlngs, p. 89.

235 Durer, The Writings, p. 89.

236 D Th W' , urer,. e rltlngs, p. 98; Barham, pp. 182, 269; also see Reuchlins Briefwechsel.

237Pirckheimer, Willibald Pirckheimer Briefwechsel, Band' II p. 281. "Quid ingeniperda lues ( nam novis verbis cum monstris, qUI sic quotidie (novi aliquid exogitant, age~dum est) c~m Doctissimo ac optimo nostro Reychleyn egerit, adhuc ignoro, prope meim tamên intelligerim. Q

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1

;. ". . '

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