Letter P

P

Paduanus Crassus [Paduano Grasso], an Apulian by nation, of Barletta by fatherland, of the Franciscan institute, a scholastic theologian, worn down by constant exercise in the Schools of the Scotists, also a declaimer famous for his Italian eloquence, collected — in the manner of a dialogue, out of Augustine and other Fathers — a compendium of the Passages [Loci], in all the epistles of Paul, that apparently conflict, which he entitled The Council of Paul [Concilium Pauli]. He flourished in the year from the birth of Christ our Savior, [1]547 [so printed “547”].

Paganus of Bergamo, of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], wrote a scholastic Postil on the Song of Songs, beginning, The bridegroom and the bride say, Come. It is extant at Venice, in the library of St. John and [St.] Paul [Santi Giovanni e Paolo].

Pantaleon, a deacon of the great Church of God, wrote — in elegant Greek eloquence — on the holy Lights [the Feast of Lights], on the Lord Jesus Christ and on St. John his forerunner, a sermon upon that [text], I ought to be baptized by thee; which begins, Τὴν τῆς πανηγύρεως χάριν [so printed; the 16th-c. Greek type is hard], that is, The grace of this festive assembly.

Pantaenus, a philosopher of the Stoic sect — after his conversion [made] prefect of the ancient Alexandrian school founded by Mark the Evangelist, on account of his outstanding glory both in secular literature and in sacred erudition — by Demetrius [Demetrian], [bishop] of Ale-

…[bishop] of Alexandria, [Pantaenus] was sent into India, that he himself, a Philosopher, might preach Christ among the Brahmans, the Gymnosophists, and the other Philosophers of that nation. Jerome testifies that many commentaries of his upon the holy Scriptures were extant in his own times; among whom [the Indians], when he had preached the Gospel according to Matthew, written in Hebrew letters, he — returning — brought it back with him to Alexandria. He flourished under Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla, in the year of the Lord 200.

Paterius, a hearer of St. Gregory the Pope, the first of that name, a disciple and notary — secundicerius — of the Holy Roman See, a man devoted to the divine Letters, patched together, out of all the works of St. Gregory, three books of Explanations on various Passages of both Testaments, preserving in them the number and order of the books and chapters of sacred Scripture, and citing by name the books of the blessed Gregory, and the chapters of the books, from which he took those explanations; of which, when St. Gregory had read a part already begun, he commended it, and urged Paterius himself to complete the work. Bede mentions this work in the preface of the seventh book on the Song of Songs, saying: I have heard that a certain Paterius, a disciple of the blessed Pope Gregory, gathered together, in order, into one volume, [the things] collected from the whole holy Scripture, whatsoever [Gregory] explained in his works. The beginning of this work, which was lately printed at Rome, runs thus: While [the writings] of the most blessed and Apostolic [men]… He flourished under the Emperors Maurice and Phocas, in the year of the Lord 600.

Paschasius Radbertus, Abbot of Corbie, a Benedictine monk, a theologian and philosopher learned in Greek and Latin, as strong in verse as in prose, wrote, in elegant eloquence, on the Lamentations, 1 book. He flourished under the Emperor Charles the Fat, in the year of the Lord 808 [so printed; the date and the reign of Charles the Fat (881–888) do not agree].

Patrophilus of Scythopolis, a bishop of Palestine, distinguished in the first Council of Nicaea, translated the whole Hebrew Scripture into Greek, in the year of the Lord 300. Gregory, bishop of Laodicea, mentions this translation in the Life of Eusebius of Emesa.

Paul of Burgos [Pablo de Santa María], bishop of Burgos, a Spaniard by nation, from the town of Santa María, a Hebrew by race, of Levitical blood among his own people, a most excellent Rabbi or master; and, after his conversion, first prelate of the church of Cartagena [Carthago Nova], and then of Burgos, of the Spanish churches, and arch-chancellor of the most invincible king of the Spains — discoursed, for the sake of his son Alfonso, Dean of the church of Compostela, upon very many Passages from the several books of divine Scripture, against the commentaries of Nicholas of Lyra, to which he added these disputations of his, endeavoring in them to correct all of Lyra’s explanations either as worthy of reproof, or to supply them as incomplete and deficient. He entitled this work Notable Additions to the Postil of Nicholas of Lyra [Additiones notabiles ad Postillam Nicolai de Lyra], of which the beginning is, What would you have me, while living, bestow [on you]… He flourished under the Emperor Sigismund, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and thirty [1430].

Paul, bishop of Emesa, in the Council of Ephesus delivered a sermon upon that sentence from John’s gospel, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. In which, when he had most brilliantly demonstrated the two natures in one and the same Christ, he took away — to the great joy of all — the schism which was in the council on account of this dogma, and restored peace to the church, in the year of the Lord 436.

Paul de Palacio wrote commentaries on the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Paul Ricius [Paulus Ricius], an Israelite, a most learned man, converted to the Christian faith a few years ago, and made physician to the Emperor Maximilian. He composed many excellent volumes; but among the rest, one book On the six hundred and thirteen [precepts] of the Mosaic sanction, or of the Pentateuch. Likewise, he composed on Psalm 1 one book On Divine Providence. He flourished in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred [1500].

Paulinus, bishop of Nola in Campania, bound by the highest friendship with Rufinus, Jerome, and Augustine, was a man most devoted to divine Scripture and of singular eloquence. Concerning whom Jerome, in a certain letter, [says]: Paulinus, he says, representing almost a [second] Tully in the study of letter-writing, provokes me by his voice to write, [and] frightens [me] by his eloquence. But he was distinguished also by such virtue of piety and compassion that, when he had paid out everything to the poor, he at last offered himself, ready, into servitude for the redemption of a certain widow’s son; and, dismissed by them [the captors] a little afterward on account of the admirable sanctity of his life, he wrote many pious volumes up to his death; among which he also published On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, according to allegory, in Latin and polished discourse, one book — in imitation of Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, from whom by letters he had obtained two books of the same subject. He flourished in the year of the Lord 420.

Peregrino Grimaldi [Peregrinus Grimaldus], a Genoese, wrote a Meditation on Psalm 102, to Vittoria [Colonna] of Pescara, a most illustrious woman, which begins, What shall we do, O soul? He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.

Peter of Ailly [Petrus Aliacus], bishop of Cambrai, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, formerly Chancellor of the University of Paris, teacher of John Gerson, a man most skilled in the divine Scriptures and most consummate in Peripatetic Philosophy and in the Astronomical disciplines, elegant in speech and an eloquent declaimer, gathered together, out of Augustine and other Fathers, very many volumes upon the sacred letters; of which I have read:

• One book of Questions on the Hexaemeron, whose beginning is, In the beginning of the book.
• A paraphrastic exposition on the whole Psalter, which begins, The abbreviated word.
• Meditations on the 7 penitential psalms, which are also ascribed to Gerson.
• On Psalm 30, a Meditation, which begins, It frightens me.
• On Psalm 41, a Meditation, whose beginning is, O highest Priest.
• On the Song of Songs, a Meditation, 1 book: Let him kiss me.

He flourished under Sigismund Augustus, distinguished in the Council of Constance, in the year of the Lord 1416.

Peter, Archbishop of Sens [Senonensis], learned in the divine Scriptures by continual study, and of the ancient

…[Peter, Archbishop of Sens] — rich in the reading of the ancients, and nobly learned in secular letters, subtle in wit, and distinguished in eloquence — wrote on all the epistles of Paul, fourteen books. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1200.

Peter Bersuire [Petrus Berthorius], a Gaul by nation, a Poitevin by fatherland, prior of the monastery of St. Éloi at Paris, of the Benedictine order, wrote on the whole Bible four notable volumes:

• The first he entitled The Moral Reductorium of Both Testaments, divided into four books; in which, the historical sense being passed over, he briefly expounded all the chapters of Scripture tropologically, with allegories sometimes interspersed, using a style lowered, open, and most accommodated to explaining the meanings of the mind. The beginning of the work is, When now, through the shadowy wood of nature…
• The second volume is headed The Moral Repertory, or Biblical Dictionary, divided into three large volumes and arranged in the order of the alphabet. Its beginning is, To the reverend father in Christ.
• The third, which is entitled The Moral Inductorium, divided into three books, begins, See that not only…
• The fourth, which is called A Breviary of the Histories of the Bible, thus begins, Considering the history…

He flourished in the times of the Emperor Charles the Fourth and of Pope Innocent VI, in the year of the Lord 1260 [so printed; Charles IV and Innocent VI place him rather c. 1360].

Peter, bishop of Città Nuova [Novae civitatis], an Italian by nation, from the town of Brunaquello, an Augustinian Hermit by profession, a teacher of Scholastic Theology, is said to have published scholastic Lectures on the whole Bible, of which I recall having seen none; but I have heard that his commentaries on the three books of Solomon — that is, on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs — are still extant in Germany. He flourished under Rupert, king of the Romans, in the year of the Lord 1410.

Peter Canisius, a theologian of the Society of Jesus, of outstanding piety and erudition, vindicated the most blessed Virgin Mother of God, and St. John the Baptist, the Lord’s forerunner, from the calumnies of the heretics, and in the first place of the Centuriators [the Magdeburg Centuriators]; and he wrote a Catechism, by an excellent method easy for understanding; and, as we hope, in his extreme old age he will bring forth into the light other excellent works — for he does not cease to deserve well of the Catholic Church, both by preaching and by writing. He now dwells among the Catholic Swiss, in the College of Fribourg of the Society of Jesus. His works have been printed several times, both in France and in Germany. [Later-edition detail — Canisius resided at Fribourg from 1580 until his death in 1597; this notice reflects the later printing, not the 1569 primary.]

Peter the Chanter [Petrus Cantor] of Paris, and afterward — as is reported — bishop of the same city, among other excellent works published by him, wrote a scholastic Gloss on the whole sacrosanct Bible: of which I myself, in the Dominican Library at Lyons, saw the books written below:

• On the Psalter, 1 book — [incipit] John was weeping, because there was none who could open the book.
• On Proverbs, 1 book — The parable of Solomon according to the Hebrew truth.
• On Ecclesiastes, 1 book — Blessed the man whose help is from thee.
• On Wisdom, 1 book — The palace of the highest king.
• On Ezekiel, 1 book — And it came to pass in the thirtieth year.
• On the Acts of the Apostles, 1 book — The earth was melted.
• On the Canonical Epistles, 1 book — My mouth shall speak wisdom.
• On the Apocalypse, 1 book — This alone among the books of the New Testament is called Prophecy.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1200.

Peter Comestor [Peter the Eater], a presbyter of the church of Troyes, who by the Scholastics was called, by way of excellence, Master of the Scholastic History, reduced all the historical books, both of the Old and of the New Testament, in a continuous series of the Scriptures, briefly into one body; interweaving — for the complete supplement of a finished structure — not only many external histories, handed down in the writing of the most approved authors, but also many apocryphal narratives, received by the sole tradition of the ancients without any writing; and he added likewise, in various places, certain brief annotations from the sayings of the Fathers, which might illustrate obscure passages of the history. His work — which by usage is now entitled Historia Scholastica — thus begins, To the Imperial Majesty, etc. He flourished under Frederick [Barbarossa] the First, Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1160. Walter Hunter, an Englishman, abridged his work.

Peter, Archbishop of Ravenna [Peter Chrysologus], from the Forum of Cornelius, which they call Imola, born of distinguished parents, a man excelling as much in the sanctity of life as in every kind of erudition, and — on account of the golden abundance of his wit and eloquence — having obtained the surname CHRYSOLOGUS [Golden-worded], dictated, upon the various readings of the four Gospels, one hundred and twenty-two sermons: brief indeed, but venerable for the weight of their meaning; pleasant for the brightness of the discourse and the charming little flowers of words; delightful for certain witty little sentences flowing with a certain natural ease; and admirable for certain strong emotions, sometimes expressed in tragic words. He dies at Forum Cornelii [Imola] about the year of the Lord 500, under Anastasius Augustus, when he had already presided over the church of Ravenna about sixty years — greatly distinguished by the two Councils in which he took part with the highest praise.

Peter, a presbyter of the church of Edessa, wrote — in the manner of St. Ephrem, in the Syriac tongue — most elegant Homilies on the several Psalms, kindled with the fervid ardor of the spirit. And the same man sang the whole Psalter in Greek verses of various kinds. He flourished in the year of the Lord 450.

Peter Gottfried [Petrus Gottifredus], a doctor of scholastic Theology, published a scholastic commentary on Proverbs.

Peter of Herentals [Petrus Herentalsius], of Floreffe, a Premonstratensian monk, collected a Catena of explanations on the Psalms from various monuments of the orthodox Fathers, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety [1490; so printed — the known Peter of Herentals flourished rather in the late 1300s].

Peter Izuzqui [Petrus Izuzquius], from Navarre in Spain, of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], illuminated with a clear exposition one work compiled by himself out of the four Gospels, and [entitled] it *The Series of the Sacred Gos-

…[Peter Izuzqui] entitled [it] The Series of the Sacred Gospel of Jesus Christ, pieced together out of the four Gospels.

Peter John [Petrus Ioannis], of the Order of Minors [Franciscan], a formed Bachelor of the Sorbonne of Paris, wrote Postils on almost the whole of divine Scripture, in the year of the Lord 1400.

Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris, whom all the Schools of the Theologians, by a certain singular excellence of veneration, call the Master of the Sentences, and upon whose compendium of Theology the most learned Theologians of the most illustrious Academies throughout the whole Christian world have elaborated innumerable volumes of disputations — gathered, on all the Psalms of David and on all the epistles of Paul, commentaries most replete with all erudition, out of the opinions of Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Cassiodorus, and Remigius (their names being suppressed); in which he also interposed some things of his own, not wholly to be rejected. The commentaries on the Psalms begin, Since it is established that all the Prophets spoke by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. But the commentaries on Paul begin, The beginnings of things are to be inquired into. He flourished under the Emperor Conrad III, in the year of the Lord 1140.

Peter of Lautern [Petrus de Lutra], of the Premonstratensian order, wrote on the Gospel of John. He lived in the year of the Lord 1330.

Peter Nannius [Petrus Nannius], of Alkmaar, professor of the Latin tongue in the Busleyden College [at Louvain], wrote a Paraphrase and Scholia on the Song of Songs, beginning, With the common [reading]… Likewise, on the Wisdom of Solomon in the same manner, beginning, Often having been asked… He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

Peter of La Palud [Petrus Paludanus], Patriarch of Jerusalem, a Gaul by race, a Dominican by institute, most skilled in Canon Law, a theologian sufficiently celebrated among the scholastics, and a foremost defender of the Thomistic doctrine, wrote — according to the threefold sense, literal, moral, and allegorical — a Postil on the whole sacrosanct Bible, of which I myself, in the Dominican Library at Lyons, read only the [books] written below:

• On the whole Bible, one book of most ample Prefaces, which begins, Establishing a Library.
• On Genesis, 1 book — [incipit] This is the book of Adam.
• On Exodus, 1 book — God led them out of Egypt.
• On the Psalter, a huge work, digested into seven volumes, which begins, Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1330.

Peter of Perpignan [Petrus Perpinianus], surnamed Rimes, a Catalan by nation, a Carmelite, in whom the erudition of secular Philosophy and of the holy Scriptures was equal, wrote — according to the custom of the school — on the whole Psalter a Lecture not to be despised. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1300.

Peter Riga [Petrus Riga], a presbyter of the church of Rheims, a scholastic poet, celebrated as far as his times allowed, and illustrious for his knowledge of the holy Letters, briefly expounded all the historical books of divine Scripture in verse — partly in elegiacs, and partly in hexameters of the Leonine kind — according to the literal and allegorical sense. He entitled his work AURORA. Its books, and their beginnings, taken from the Dominican Library at Lyons, are these:

• On Genesis, 1 book — Initium mundi quales.
• On Exodus, 1 book — These are the names of the twelve fathers.
• On Leviticus, 1 book — The voice of the Lord [came] to Moses.
• On Numbers, 1 book — God addresses Moses.
• On Deuteronomy, 1 book — These are the words of God.
• On Joshua, 1 book — After Moses, Joshua [came] to the people.
• On Judges, 1 book — The Hebrew sins, he says.
• On Ruth, 1 book — He hastens to Ruth.
• On Kings, 3 books — Monte manens Effra [obscure — so printed].
• On the Song of Songs, 1 book — Origen alone, when he has surpassed all the learned.
• On the fourth [book] of Kings, 1 book — Solomon reigned.
• On Daniel, 1 book — After [he had made] them subject to himself.
• On Tobit, 1 book — You who read the history.
• On Job, 2 books — Librum Iob Mosi quidam [obscure — so printed].
• On Judith, 1 book — To Eustochium and Paula.
• On Esther, 1 book — Up to [the reign] under the Ethiopians.
• On the books of the Maccabees, 1 book — Alexander the Great.
• On the four Gospels, 1 book — He grew illustrious in the [days of] Herod.
• On the Acts of the Apostles, 1 book — In the nineteenth [year] of Tiberius.
• Of Recapitulations, 1 book — Concerning the new law and the old.

He flourished under Frederick I, Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1170.

Peter of Rosenheim [Petrus Rosenheimensis], a German, a Benedictine monk in the monastery of Melk in Austria, a scholastic poet, not unacquainted with the divine Letters, wrote to Branda [Castiglioni], Cardinal of the title of St. Clement, a little work concise in elegiac distichs, briefly touching upon all the chapters of both Testaments; to which he gave the title ROSEUM MEMORIALE DIVINORUM [The Rosy Memorial of Divine Things], its beginning being such: Astripotens coelum terram [The star-ruling (God made) heaven (and) earth]. He flourished under the Emperor Sigismund, in the year of the Lord 1440.

Peter Rufus [Petrus Rufus], the thirty-second prior of the Charterhouse, wrote commentaries on the Psalter and on the Song of Songs, in the year of the Lord 1503.

Peter of Santa Fe [Petrus de sancta fide], an Englishman, a Carmelite, wrote commentaries on the Epistles of St. Peter. He lived in the year 1452.

Peter Scala [Petrus Scala], bishop of Verona, of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], published a scholastic Postil on John, which — written by hand on parchment — I saw at Genoa in the Library of the Observant Minorites. Its beginning is, Shall the eagle be lifted up at thy command? etc. [Job 39:27]

Peter Sutor [Pierre Cousturier] wrote On the Translations of the Bibles, against Erasmus, in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and forty.

Peter of Tarentaise [Petrus de Tarantasia], of the Order of Preachers — [Pope] Innocent [V], the holy Supreme Pontiff — wrote commentaries on the Psalms, the Canticles, and on the epistles of St. Paul. Likewise, postils on the 5 books of Moses. He lived in the year of the Lord 1275.

Peter, Abbot of Tripoli [Tripolitanus], as Cassiodorus testifies in the first book On the Institution of the Divine Scriptures, collected from the sayings of the little works of the blessed Augustine commentaries on all the epistles of Paul, in the year 498. They are preserved at Bologna in the Dominican Library, bearing this beginning: First, why after the Gospels, which etc.

Peter Auriol [Petrus Verberius, surnamed Aureolus], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, bishop of Aix, a Franciscan by profession, doctor and rector of the University of Paris, in which — in the times of Louis [IV] the Bavarian, Emperor — he publicly taught the scholastic kind of Theology; a man most distinguished in the skill of all the sciences, an ecclesiast and preacher, held in the highest admiration among his own on account of his singular erudition in the Scriptures; wrote, in a scholastic style, a brief compendium of all the holy volumes, an articulated BREVIARY OF THE BIBLE, whose beginning is, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. He flourished under Louis the Bavarian, Emperor, in the year of the Lord 1317.

Philibert Aresches [Philibertus Aresches], a doctor of the Augustinian family, a theologian by faculty, and by origin and convent a Parisian, published brief and clear commentaries on the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans; in which, after an exact exposition of the Apostolic mind, he explained with most lucid annotations the definitions of the more difficult words, and the acceptations of their various significations, and their authorities; likewise [passages] from the Old Testament — whether of the Septuagint interpreters or of the Hebrew truth, which the Apostle sometimes follows. In the year of the Lord 1540.

Philip, Abbot of the monastery of Otterberg [Otterburgensis], in the diocese of Worms, of the Cistercian order, a German, whose soul and conduct sanctity and the study of divine things adorned, put forth a noble and notable work of commentaries on the Canticles.

Philip Albert of Neuss [Philippus Alberti de Nussia], a German, a Carmelite, made a Postil on the Canticles, in the year of the Lord 1495.

Philip the Chancellor of Paris [Philippus Cancellarius], and prefect of the great school of the Parisians, a man learned in every respect, and dear to the people in sacred declamations, delivered on the several Psalms two or three learned and eloquent sermons. He flourished in the year of the Lord 140— [so printed; the final digit(s) do not print].

Philip, a presbyter and monk, an excellent hearer of the blessed Jerome, and a very great lover of poverty, published — in a simple discourse, as Gennadius says — commentaries on Job; in place of which Adam of Basel, the printer, in recent years published three books of a mystical exposition of commentaries on Job, to Bishop Nectarius, beginning, At your exhorting, or rather compelling, most blessed father Nectarius. These, again, John Herwagen, printer of Basel, printed among the works of Bede and under the title of BEDE. But Bede himself, in the little book On the reckoning of ounces, claims these very commentaries for their [true] author, [saying]: He disturbs many of the unskilled, he says, because Philip, in the exposition of the blessed Job, describing the tide of the Ocean sea, added that it comes on three-quarters of an hour later at the equinoctial hour, without intermission, whether by day or by night. But this passage is cited by Bede in the explanations on Job which lately, under the name of Philip, the same Herwagen printed, book 3, on the exposition of that sentence, Hast thou entered into the depths of the sea? etc., Job 38. He dies, Marcian and Avitus reigning, in the year of the Lord 430.

Philip of Side [Philippus Sidetes], a presbyter, born at Side in Pamphylia, a kinsman of Troilus the sophist, [who], when he was a deacon, was a hearer of John Chrysostom; and, affecting much the Asiatic kind of speaking, he wrote many things, but especially a magnificent work in defense of the whole divine Scripture, in which he overthrew the seven books published by the Emperor Julian against the sacrosanct Bible. He dies in the year of the Lord 440, leaving behind thirty-six books of Histories.

Philo, bishop of Carpasia [Philo Carpathius], wrote a Greek exposition on the Song of Songs, of which the beginning is, Who [likens thee to] the contests of horses… — which is thought to be [the work] not of one Philo, but of several authors; of whom the commentary which is circulated among the Greeks under the name of Philo is quite a brief little work. There are some who think that it was enriched with many additions by Eustathius and Eusebius, at whose request Philo himself had composed this little commentary. Whether this is so, I would not rashly venture to affirm. Concerning Philo, moreover, Suidas is witness in these words: Φίλων Καρπάθιος ἔγραψεν ὑπόμνημα εἰς ᾆσμα τῶν ᾀσμάτων [so printed; the 16th-c. Greek type is hard] — [that is, Philo of Carpasia wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs]. But concerning those [other Philos] I do not recall having read anything certain, nor at what time he lived. Stephen Salutatus of Pescia made these commentaries into Latin.

Philo the Jew [Philo Judaeus], an Alexandrian by fatherland, of Levitical blood, upon whom alone all the praises of the Christian fathers pour themselves out,¹ was placed by Eusebius and Jerome in the catalog of the Writers of the Church for this reason: that, writing a book On the first church of Mark the Evangelist at Alexandria, he adorned the nation of the Christians with wondrous encomia. This man indeed was, in the skill of Pythagorean, Platonic, and Aristotelian Philosophy, far superior to all the men of his age; and in Greek eloquence he easily held the first place among all — Christians, Jews, and Gentiles alike — of his age. Whence also by the Greeks themselves he was called the Jewish Plato, and there passed among them concerning him into a proverb, ἢ Πλάτων φιλωνίζει, ἢ Φίλων πλατωνίζει — that is, Either Plato philonizes, or Philo platonizes — so great was the resemblance of both in thought and in eloquence. Yet there were not lacking those who ascribed to him an ignorance of his own, that is, of the Hebrew tongue. His works the Romans so greatly admired that they judged them worthy to be placed in their public Library, as certain monuments. He was besides — beyond what can be told — admirable in expounding the divine Scriptures, which he explained most excellently in a threefold sense according to the LXX edition, namely the literal, the moral, and especially the allegorical; in which kind of exposition indeed he so excelled that all the most ancient Doctors of the church imitated him in drawing out mystical allegories, as [the] first

…[they imitated him] as the first inventor and craftsman of the sacred allegories;² who, that he might set divine wisdom, as it were a queen, more honorably upon her throne, attended by the retinue of her handmaids, took up in his explanations innumerable [things] from the secular sciences — but especially concerning the natural disciplines according to the opinion of the Peripatetics, and concerning supra-mundane speculations according to the mind of Pythagoras and Plato.

He wrote, moreover, upon the Old Testament many and most noble volumes, which Eusebius, in the second [book] of the Ecclesiastical History, digested into three classes; that is: first, into books of continuous explanation; in the second, into books of questions, containing scattered [treatments] of the various chapters of Scripture, in which he both proposes and resolves the things that ought to be inquired into; third, into books of propositions, in which he treats the various sentences of Scripture in separate commentaries. To these classes can be added three other orders of his books, namely: the Grammatical, the Historical (or Paraphrastic), and the Chronographical — which he wrote for the understanding of the words, the histories, and the times contained in the sacred Letters.

From these little works, then, of so diverse a kind, I have found only the [following] written below — of which the greater part pertain to the Pentateuch — under diverse titles, partly translated into Latin by Lelio Tifernate and by Sigismund Gelenius, partly cited here and there by ancient authors. They are these:

• On the interpretation of the Hebrew names which are found in the Old Testament, according to the order of the volumes of holy Scripture, one book, arranged according to the series of the letters [alphabetically]: in which the etymologies, or properties, of all the names are explained in Greek with the utmost fidelity and diligence. To this Origen Adamantius added the interpretations of all the Hebrew words which are had in the New Testament, so that what Philo, as a Jew, had omitted, he himself, as a Christian, might supply. The blessed Jerome translated this book, prefixing a little preface which would attest the author of the work. It begins, Philo, a most eloquent man, etc.
• An Epitome of the Chronicle, that is, A Breviary of the times: in which, the fabulous reckonings of the Gentile historians being omitted, the whole number of the years from the beginning of the world up to Christ is reckoned most exactly and most faithfully, according to the truth of sacred Scripture, and according to the times of the life of the illustrious men of the Old Testament. This [work] John Annius of Viterbo, of the Order of Preachers, most splendidly illustrated with most copious commentaries, gathered out of Berosus, Metasthenes, Manetho, Xenophon, Fabius Pictor, and Cato. The beginning of the work is, From Adam up to the flood.
• The book which is entitled Of Biblical Antiquities, in which the whole Old Testament is run through in the manner of a brief history — but its phrasing everywhere smacking of a Hebraism, and its narrative abounding here and there in Apocryphal matters, indicate that the work is either not Philo’s, or, if perchance it be his, that it was written by him not in Greek but in the Hebrew tongue. The beginning of the work is, In the beginning of the world Adam begot three sons. Of which I have seen only a fragment, that is, from the generation of the sons of Adam up to the death of Saul, the first king of the Jews.

On the whole book of Genesis, according to the edition of the LXX interpreters, [he wrote] very many [works] — under diverse titles, most elegant little Greek works, distinguished by the threefold kind of explanation, that is: into Commentaries of continuous exposition; into Commentaries of propositions set forth from Genesis; and into Commentaries of questions and solutions. Of which little works I have found only thirty-five books, for the greater part printed by the typographers, the rest cited partly by various ancient authors, partly by Philo himself. The inscriptions of all these, [their] arguments and beginnings, arranged by us for the first time according to the series of the chapters of Genesis, are these:

• On the first chapter of Genesis, περὶ τῆς κοσμοποιίας — that is, On the Fabric of the World, or On that generation of the world which Moses describes, one book: in which the words of the whole first chapter are explained sublimely and copiously, with a literal and allegorical explanation. The book begins, τῶν ἄλλων νομοθετῶν — [The other lawgivers…]³
• On Genesis ch. 2, On the allegories of the sacred Law after the work of the six days, book one: in which all the things narrated from the beginning of the second chapter are expounded allegorically, up to those words of the same chapter, In whatever hour you shall eat, you shall die the death. The book’s beginning is, So the heavens were finished, etc.
• On Genesis ch. 3, On the allegories of the sacred Law, book 2: containing the allegorical exposition of those words, And Adam hid himself, up to those, Thou art earth, and unto earth shalt thou return. The book’s opening is, Ἄδυμα εἰσηγέναι [so printed; corrupt] — [that is,] A doctrine is introduced.
• On Genesis ch. 3, On the Cherubim and the flaming sword, and on Cain, who was the first born of man, one book: in which the words of Moses are narrated in a threefold sense, from that place, And the Lord drove Adam out of Paradise, up to that place in chapter 4, I have gotten a man through God. The book has this beginning: καὶ ἐξέβαλε τὸν Ἀδάμ — that is, And the Lord drove out Adam.
• On Genesis ch. 4, On the sacrifices of Abel and Cain, one book: in which that place is explained, And again she bore his brother Abel, up to that place of the same chapter, Under thee shall be thy appetite, etc. The book’s beginning is, καὶ προσέθηκε τεκεῖν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ Ἀβέλ — that is, And she went on to bear his brother Abel.
• On Genesis ch. 5 [so printed; the content is Genesis 4], On [the fact] that the worse is wont to lie in wait for the better, one book, explaining the remainder of this chapter from that sentence, And Cain said, Let us go forth abroad, up to that, Cain went out from the face of the Lord. The book so begins: καὶ εἶπε Κάϊν πρὸς Ἀβέλ — And Cain said to Abel.
• On Genesis ch. 5, On the succession of the human race, one book, containing the narration of the genealogy, or posterity, of Adam. The book begins, Ἀδὰμ ἐγένετο — Adam begot three sons.
• On Genesis chapter 6, On the Giants, one book, expounding those words at the beginning of the chapter, And when men had begun to multiply, up to those, After the sons of God went in to the daughters of men. The book begins, καὶ ἐγένετο — And it came to pass, etc. One must inquire, I think, why after, etc.

- On Genesis ch. 6, That God is unchangeable, one book: in which those words are explained, After the sons of God went in, etc., and, It repents me that I made man, up to those, The end of all flesh is come before me. The book so begins, καὶ μετ᾽ ἐκεῖνο φησίν — And after this he says.

• On Genesis ch. 9, On Agriculture, one book, expounding that proposition, And Noah, a husbandman, began to till the earth; in which he treats of the spiritual cultivation of the soul through the virtues. Its beginning is, καὶ ἤρξατο Νῶε — And Noah began.
• On Genesis ch. 9, On the planting of Noah, one book, upon that saying, Noah planted a vineyard. [Incipit] ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ βιβλίῳ — In the first book indeed.
• On Genesis ch. 9, On the drunkenness of Noah, one book, upon that saying, And Noah, drinking wine, became drunk; its beginning is, ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις φιλοσόφοις εἰρημένα περὶ μέθης — The things said by other philosophers concerning drunkenness; in which he narrates what Noah’s drunkenness mystically signifies.
• On Genesis ch. 9, On the sobering of Noah, one book, upon that saying, But Noah, awaking from the wine, etc.; which begins, Τὰ περὶ μέθης — After those things which [were said] concerning drunkenness.
• On Genesis ch. 11, On the confusion of tongues, one book, upon that [text], And the earth was of one lip [language], etc.; which begins, περὶ μὲν δὴ τούτων ἀρκέσει τὰ εἰρημένα — Concerning these things, let what has been said suffice.
• On Genesis ch. 12, On the migration of Abraham, one book, upon that [text], The Lord said to Abraham, Go forth from thy land, up to that, And he took Sara his wife. Its beginning is, καὶ [εἶπε κύριος] [so printed, corrupt] — And the Lord said.
• On Genesis ch. 12, On Abraham, or On the life of the wise man made perfect through doctrine, or On the unwritten laws, one book: in which Philo expounds, historically and mystically, the life of Abraham and his several deeds, which are related from the beginning of chapter 12 up to chapter 23; showing that Moses, in Abraham, painted — in colors somehow living — the image and exemplar and law of the theoretical [contemplative] man, that is, of the man made wise through contemplation.⁴ The book begins, τῶν ἱερῶν νόμων ἐν πέντε βιβλίοις — that is, The five volumes of the sacred law.
• On Genesis ch. 15, On rewards, one book, upon that [text], I am thy reward exceeding great, which I have not seen: yet it is cited by Philo in the preface of the book On the heir of divine things.
• On Genesis ch. 15, On the heir of divine things, or Who is the heir of divine things, one book: in which the whole fifteenth chapter is explained in a series of continuous exposition. The book’s beginning is, ἐν τῇ πρὸ ταύτης βίβλῳ — In the book immediately preceding.
• On Genesis ch. 16, On the union to be sought for the sake of acquiring erudition, one book, upon that [text], Now Sara, [Abraham’s] wife, had not borne children, up to that, Sara therefore afflicting her. In which book he shows allegorically that our soul is not fit to receive the offspring of good works from divine wisdom, unless it first unites with wisdom’s handmaid — that is, with secular literature — by the example of Abraham, who could not receive offspring from Sara until after he had lain with Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid.⁵ The book begins, Σάρρα ἦν γυνὴ Ἀβραάμ — Now Sara was the wife of Abraham.
• On Genesis ch. 16, On fugitives, one book, in which the words of Scripture are expounded from that place, Sara therefore afflicting her, up to the end of the same chapter. Its beginning is, καὶ ἐκάκωσεν αὐτὴν Σάρρα — And Sara afflicted her.
• On Genesis 17, On circumcision, one book, upon that [text], [Every male among you] shall be circumcised, etc.; in which it is delivered that circumcision was instituted by God for six causes — namely four natural [physical] and two mystical.⁶ [Incipit] The heads of the laws, etc.
• On Genesis ch. 28, On dreams, one book — to which Philo testifies that he had also sent ahead another book on dreams, thus writing in the preface: In the earlier treatise we spoke of the first kind of dreams divinely sent, when the heavenly Godhead of its own accord sends visions through sleep; we shall now speak of the latter kind, when our mind, once moved, seems by itself to divine and foretell what times to come may bring. But in this book he explains the mystical signification of that famous dream of Jacob concerning the heavenly ladder, described in chapter 28. Jerome and Sophronius assert that Philo wrote five books On dreams; but of these I have seen none except this one, whose beginning is, ἡ μὲν οὖν πρὸ ταύτης γραφή — In the treatise immediately preceding.
• On Genesis chapter 35, On the change of names, or Why the names of certain [persons] were changed in the Scriptures, one book, upon that [text], Thou shalt no more be called Jacob, but Israel. Which book, cited by Jerome and Sophronius, I have not yet seen.
• On Genesis ch. 37, On the life of the civil [political] man, or On Joseph, one book: in which the life and deeds of Joseph are narrated, and are expounded according to the things written from chapter 37 to the end of the book; and it is shown, by the example of Joseph, what sort [of man] the truly Political man is, and fit for the helm of the commonwealth.⁷ The book begins, Τρεῖς μέν εἰσιν ἰδέαι — There are indeed three kinds.

Besides these he also wrote three books of Questions and Solutions on the whole volume of Genesis, which I have not yet seen; but I have read, under the name of Philo the Jew, a fragment of Questions and Solutions on Genesis — which indeed the very doctrine and phrasing prove to be [the work] of a Jewish man, yet not of Philo. For, besides that the name of Philo is cited more than once in the work itself, and his opinion is censured, there are also condemned in it, by name, the Apollinarist heretics, because they denied that a human soul was in Christ. Although I would not deny that this could have happened by the fault of an unskilled copyist, who inserted into the author’s text those [remarks] which perhaps some studious person had noted, outside the text of the letter, in the margin of the book. But in this fragment are expounded allegorically almost the whole of chapters 25 and 27 of Genesis. Its beginning is, Why was Isaac forty years old when he had married?

Beyond the aforesaid books, Eusebius, Jerome, and Sophronius testify that Philo wrote on Genesis: On the nature and discovery of things, one book; On the division of equal and unequal things, one book; On covenants, two books. And this is the sum of the thirty-five books of Philo on Genesis; from which Basil and Ambrose borrowed much in their commentaries on Genesis, as we shall note below. He is said also to have composed many other excellent works on Genesis, which

…[many other excellent works on Genesis] which are wholly hidden from me. Wolfgang Lazius, a Viennese, historian of the Imperial Majesty, says that there are extant in his own Library certain commentaries of Philo on Genesis and on Exodus, with a preface of St. Jerome, translated by an uncertain translator. He wrote after these:

On Exodus, 13 books, whose inscriptions and beginnings are these:

• Of Questions and Solutions on Exodus, five books.
• On the life of Moses, or A universal history of a paraphrase [of that] which is described in Exodus and the three following books, four books, whose beginning is, Μωσέως τοῦ κατά μέν τινας νομοθέτου — that is, Of Moses, as some think, the lawgiver.
• On Exodus ch. 20, On the Decalogue, which is the summary of the whole law, one book. [Incipit] Βίος τῶν κατὰ Μωσέα σοφῶν — that is, The life of the wise men whom Moses [describes].
• On Exodus ch. 20, On the special laws, which are referred to two precepts of the Decalogue — namely the sixth, against the lustful, and the seventh, against murderers — one book. [Incipit] ἦν ποτὲ χρόνος — There was once a time.
• On Exodus ch. 20, On the Judge and witnesses, which pertains to the penultimate precept of the Decalogue, one book. [Incipit] It pleases some.
• On Exodus ch. 25, περὶ τῆς σκηνῆς — that is, On the Tabernacle, one book.

On Leviticus, On monarchy, one book — which is entitled THE SECOND — treating of the conditions and offices of the priests, enumerated in Leviticus. Its beginning is, Τὸ μὲν ἀνωτάτω — The highest indeed.

• On the rewards and honors of the priests, described in Leviticus, one book. [Incipit] Τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν — that is, To the priests, etc.
• On the Victims, or On the animals fit for sacrifice, and on the kinds of victims which are related in Leviticus, one book. [Incipit] τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἱερουργίαις ζώων — [On] the animals which [are used] in the sacrifices.
• On those offering the victims, or what sort the offerers of victims ought to be, one book. [Incipit] Βούλεται τὸν ἄγοντα τὰς θυσίας — that is, [He] wishes that the one bringing the sacrifices [should be…].

On Deuteronomy, four books of propositions expounded, whose inscriptions and beginnings are these:

• On Deuteronomy 17, upon that [text], Thou shalt not be able to make a man of another nation king: one book, explaining what conditions the one to be chosen as ruler requires. Its beginning is, ἔνιοί τὰς κληρωτὰς εἰσηγήσαντο ἀρχάς — [Some have introduced offices [assigned] by lot.]
• On Deuteronomy 20 and 22, On fortitude, one book: in which he abridged and expounded the precepts of those setting out to war, which are had in Deuteronomy 20, and the precepts pertaining to dress — both men’s and women’s — from chapter 22 of Deuteronomy. The beginning of the work is, On justice, and on these things, etc.; in whose preface he testifies that he wrote two other books — one On Justice, the other On Modesty.
• On Deuteronomy 23, one book, On the harlot’s wage not to be received into the sanctuary, upon that [text], Thou shalt not offer the wage of a prostitute. Which begins, Πάνυ καλῶς ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς τοῦ νόμου — Very beautifully, in the sacred [books] of the law.
• On Deuteronomy 28, one book. Περὶ εὐλογιῶν καὶ ἐπιτιμιῶν — that is, On the rewards, penalties, and curses which God sets before those who observe or neglect the laws [both human and divine]. Its beginning is, τοῦ προφήτου Μωϋσέως λογίων — Of the sayings of Moses the Prophet.

He is also said to have written many other things on Moses, which have not come to my hands. He flourished under the Emperor Caius [Caligula] — to whom he was sent as ambassador of his nation — and under the Emperors Claudius and Nero, up to the fiftieth year of our salvation.

Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, diligent in gathering the opinions of the Fathers, excerpted from various commentaries of authors most praiseworthy scholia on all the Epistles of Paul: a great part of which is read in the Catena of expositions of Oecumenius. He flourished under Michael [III], with his mother Theodora, in the year of the Lord 810 [so printed; Photius flourished rather c. 858–886].

Pierius, a presbyter of the Church of Alexandria, under the Princes Caius [so printed; = Carus] and Diocletian, at the time when Theonas the Bishop governed that same church, most flourishingly taught the people, and came to such elegance of discourse and of diverse treatises that he was called Origen the Younger. It is established that he [lived] wonderfully in an ascetic manner [ἀσκητικῶς], a lover of voluntary poverty, most learned in the dialectic and rhetorical art; and that after the persecution he spent all the time of his life at Rome. He left a very long treatise on the Prophet Hosea, which he poured out upon the exordium of this Prophet, on the day of the vigils of the Lord’s Passion, in an extempore and eloquent discourse. Thus Jerome, in the Catalog and in the preface to Hosea. He also wrote most copious commentaries on the first Epistle to the Corinthians, of which Jerome makes mention in the letter to Pammachius, which begins, Of Christian modesty. He flourished under the Emperor Diocletian, in the year of the Lord 290.

Placido of Parma [Placidus Parmensis], of the Order of Preachers [Dominican], a theologian celebrated in our times, left an explanation on all the Psalms of David — notable for its erudition, elegance, and brevity — which the Venetian Academy lately printed with its own types, dedicated to Henry, king of the French [Henri II]. He dies in the year of the Lord 1558.

Polychronius, bishop of Apamea, brother of Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, and a hearer of Diodore, bishop of Tarsus, teaching excellently both by life and by word, wrote Greek commentaries on Job and on Ezekiel: very many fragments of which are had in the Greek Catena of explanations on Job; and in the volume of John Damascene against the destroyers of images [the iconoclasts] some [passages] are cited. He flourished in the year of the Lord 400.

Pontius Carbonell [Pontius Carbonellus], of the Order of Minors [Franciscan], teacher of St. Louis, king of France, wrote a Postil on both Testaments.

A Precious Catena, upon forty Psalms, following [each other] in number and order, gathered from the Orthodox fathers in the Latin tongue, and not yet printed, is had at Venice in the most noble Academy of the Venetians.

A Precious Greek Catena on all the Prophets, both major and minor, gathered from the explanations of the most excellent Fathers, is extant, written by hand, in the renowned Academy of the Venetians — which we hope will shortly come forth into the light.

Primasius, bishop of Utica in Africa, a disciple (as is believed) of St. Augustine, gathered, on all the epistles of Paul, from [the works] of Ambrose, Je-

…[Primasius] gathered, on all the epistles of Paul, from the monuments of Jerome, Augustine, and the other Fathers, a Collectanea; in which he inveighs so against the Pelagians, in defense of grace, that at times he seems to prejudge the liberty of our will and our merits. Their beginning is, First we must understand. He also wrote to Castorius commentaries on the Apocalypse, of a mystical exposition, gathered both from Augustine’s explanations and from the commentaries of Tyconius the African — from which, separating, as it were, gems from dung, he culled only those things which were to be chosen, omitting those which were not consonant with sound doctrine. The work begins, Thou, illustrious man. He flourished in the year of the Lord 440.

Proba Falconia, an illustrious woman, wife of Adelphius the Roman proconsul, a matron of rare and elegant genius, most highly learned in Greek and Latin, most devoted to the divine letters, and, as it were, a second Latin Sappho of the Christians, first of all [women] devised to describe in verse the various Passages of both Testaments out of the verses of Virgil Maro, whom she held whole in her memory. Having therefore excerpted, here and there from Virgil’s poem, now whole verses, now hemistichs and portions of hemistichs, she gathered the intended work — like a cento sewn together from many precious rags and shreds, the law of the hexameter being preserved — and entitled it THE VIRGILIAN CENTOS [Virgiliocentonas]. Its beginning is:

Iandudum temerasse duces pia foedera pacis — That the leaders had long since violated the pious covenants of peace.

Fulgosio [Battista Fregoso], in his Collectanea, relates that the same woman composed this very thing in Homeric verses. There are some who think that by the works of this woman the city of Rome first came into the power of the Goths, in the year 1164 from its founding. For, when Alaric, King of the Goths, had already for two years been besieging the city, and the Roman populace, without any hope of aid, was falling everywhere by famine and by disease after the manner of cattle, Proba, pitying the common calamity, opened a gate to the Goths — judging it more tolerable to endure the rule of barbarians than that the whole city should perish by famine and plague. She flourished under Honorius and Theodosius the Younger, about the year of the Lord 430.

Proclus, after Maximian [bishop] of Constantinople, was from his earliest age a Lector, and devoted himself to contemplative study; but when he had grown to manhood, he was frequently present with John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, and had been the amanuensis of his books; by whom he was ordained deacon and presbyter, then [became] Bishop of Cyzicus, afterward of Constantinople, and was most dear to Theodosius the Younger. When the Scythians, under their leader Rugas [Rua], had taken up arms against the Roman empire, he published, on the Prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 39, Son of man, prophesy against Gog and Magog, a most brilliant oration; in which, adapting the prophecy to the occasion of the present war, he foretold that the penalties predicted by Ezekiel were threatening the Barbarians — which prediction God immediately confirmed by fire sent down from heaven, the chief of the Barbarians being consumed by the conflagration. He also wrote, upon that [text] of Isaiah 9, A child is born to us, one sermon, whose beginning is, Τὸ παιδίον ἐγεννήθη ἡμῖν — [A child is born to us] — which Theodorus the Monk cites in the book That the Father always begets. He flourished under Theodosius the Younger, in the year of the Lord 400.

Procopius of Gaza [Procopius Gazaeus], a sophist, a Christian, a man liberally educated and eloquent in Greek speech, composed first, in the Greek tongue, Narrative-Expositions on the Octateuch, which he gathered with great diligence from the Orthodox fathers and from other Greek authors, following various monuments and homilies of pious men. But since he had set forth in that work the opinions of the several [authors], with the words not even changed, caring little whether they disagreed among themselves or agreed, and since his volume had thence grown to an immense size, he resolved to reduce the size of the volume a little; and, that this might be done more conveniently, he determined to say once [only] those things in which the authors unanimously agreed, but wherever they differed, in order that this might be made known to the reader, he explained these in very few words — wishing to reduce the interpretations of all into the consonance of a perfect body, from which, as from a single fountain, the Reader might draw the explanations of all, as if one man, and he alone, were speaking. But, that everything might be more clear and perspicuous, he sometimes added something of his own as well. He is fuller on Genesis and Exodus, more compressed on the six following books, in which he gathered, as it were, certain annotations. He expounds according to the fourfold understanding of the divine Scripture, [using] not only the editions of the Seventy interpreters, of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the codices of the Samaritans and the Jews, but also the version of St. Jerome — whom he often cites by name — turned by Sophronius from Latin into Greek. The beginning of the work is: Before, indeed, with God kindly favoring the undertaking, etc. He wrote, in the same order and with the same care, a commentary on Isaiah, which — not yet turned into Latin — is preserved in the Marcian Library of the Venetians. He flourished, as far as we could reach by conjecture, under the Emperor Anastasius, in the year of the Lord 500.

Prosper [of Aquitaine], bishop of Reggio of Flaminia in Italy, an Aquitanian by nation, formerly a notary of Pope Leo the First, a man of keen wit, of compressed, sinewy, and elegant diction, having — together with sanctity of life — great erudition in divine and human matters, wrote, on the last fifty Psalms (that is, from the hundredth Psalm up to the last) very brief commentaries according to the literal and the spiritual sense, comprised in a terse and pointed kind of exposition, whose beginning is, Mercy and judgment, etc. This Psalm, from the first verse, etc. Likewise, three books On the promises and predictions of God, in which he elucidated all the prophecies and promises concerning Christ and the Church expressed in the sacred letters. The book’s opening is, The whole rationale of faith [Omnis fidei ratio]. He flourished under Leo the Great, Augustus, in the year of the Lord 460.

Psellus [Michael Psellus], a Greek author, wrote on the Song of Songs, to Stephephorus, brief and clear commentaries, whose beginning is, Since your mind, O Stephephorus, [is] eager to learn.