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Werner de Laer [Vernerus], a German [Teutonic] by nation, a Westphalian by homeland, of the Order of the Carthusians, of the house of St. Barbara in Cologne [Colonia Agrippina], most studious in the divine Scriptures and very learned, devout in life and conversation, published a great work on all the epistles of Paul, which he entitled the DOCTRINAL OF PAUL [Doctrinale Pauli]: whose beginning is, The doctrine of Paul the Apostle. Likewise he composed On the praises of Paul, seven books, whose beginning is, As it was with Moses, so, etc. He flourished under Maximilian, in the year from the Virgin’s childbirth 1494.
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus [Venantius Fortunatus], an Italian presbyter, wrote on the Lord’s Prayer a brief exposition — pious, elegant, and fertile in various interpretations; its beginning is, So deep a mercy of such great piety. He flourished in the year of the Lord 700.
Victorinus, Bishop of Poitiers [so printed, Pitauiensis; the martyr-commentator meant is Victorinus of Poetovio, i.e. Pettau] and martyr, was very studious of the divine volumes. Jerome, granting him erudition but taking away eloquence, says in his book On illustrious men: “Victorinus the Martyr, since he did not know Latin as well as Greek, wrote in the Latin tongue many works — grand indeed in their meanings, but rather poor in the composition of words.” And in his epistle to Paulinus, repeating the same, he says: “The renowned Victorinus, crowned with martyrdom, cannot express what he understands.” But in his epistle to Magnus the Orator, he seems to take erudition from him too, saying: “Although in the martyr Victorinus’s books there is lacking erudition, yet there is not lacking the will to erudition.” Which words of Jerome, indeed, are to be understood not of sacred, but of the profane learning of the secular disciplines. He, therefore, wrote Explanations on Genesis, on Exodus, on Leviticus, on Ecclesiastes, on the Song of Songs, on Isaiah (as far as the vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert), on Ezekiel, on Habakkuk, on Matthew, and on the Apocalypse a brief commentary of annotations disposed at intervals: which now, printed in type, is circulated, with a preface of Jerome of this kind:
Jerome, to Anatolius.
Those who cross the perils of the sea meet with various mishaps, if the tumult of the winds be rather violent; but there is [also] fear if a gentler breeze has ruffled the back of the recumbent element — [for then] they dread ambushes. So it seems to me in this volume which you have sent, which seems to contain the explanation of Victorinus on the Apocalypse. And it is dangerous, and open to the barkings of detractors, to pass judgment on the little works of an excellent man. For both the earlier Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, and Nepos, a Bishop in the regions of Egypt, held [the same] concerning the reign of a thousand years as Victorinus did. But since you have adjured me by letter, I was unwilling to delay; and, lest I should scorn one who entreats, I at once turned over the books of the elders, and what I found in their commentaries I joined to the little works of Victorinus, from the iota onward — where he understood [things] according to the letter — from the beginning of the book to the sign of the cross, correcting the passages which had been corrupted by unskilled scribes; from there to the end of the volume, know that [things] have been added. Now it is yours to discern, and to approve what pleases you. If life be our companion, and the Lord grant health, our genius shall sweat for you especially in this volume, most dear Anatolius.
Pope Gelasius, in distinction 15, casts the writings of Victorinus among the Apocrypha. He flourished under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus, in the year of the Lord 270.
Victorinus of Marseilles [Massiliensis], a Rhetor, addressing the person of his son Etherius, commented — in a continuous series of exposition — the first twenty-five chapters of the book of Genesis, that is, from the beginning of the book up to the death of Abraham the patriarch, with a pious sense indeed; but, being a man occupied with secular literature, and exercised under no master’s teaching in the divine Scriptures, he framed opinions of lighter weight, as Gennadius says. He died when Theodosius and Valentinian were reigning, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 430.
Williram [Villeramus], a German by nation, a monk of St. Benedict by profession, Abbot of Maspurg [Maspurgensis], a man of elegant genius and erudition, no less strong in verse than in loose [prose] discourse, published on the Song of Songs — composed of verses of various kinds with prose interspersed — three books of commentaries, arranged with a pleasant variety, and elegantly fashioned in imitation of the books of Martianus Capella On the Nuptials of Philology and Mercury: which he entitled the EPITHALAMION ON THE NUPTIALS OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. Their beginning is, When the studies of the elders. He flourished under Henry III, in the year of the Lord 1070.
Vincent the Presbyter [Vincentius], a Gaul by nation, having a tongue polished by the practice of speaking and by the reading of the elders, commented on the first several Psalms, of which he read some to the holy man of God Canatus, in the hearing of Gennadius, presbyter of the church of Marseilles — promising at the same time that, if the Lord gave him life and strength, he would labor in the same style upon the whole Psalter. He flourished under the Emperor Marcian, in the year of the Lord 450.
Vincent of Beauvais [Vincentius Bellouacensis], Bishop [so printed; Vincent of Beauvais was a Dominican friar, not a bishop], a Burgundian by nation, of the Order of Preachers, with an insatiable
…[with an insatiable] ardor of learning, teaching, reading, and writing, and never wearied by any labors and vigils of study — when he had, over a long time and with assiduous diligence, turned over the books of almost all the nations of [all] kinds, at the exhortation of friends and aided by the funds of Philip of Valois, King of the French, he gathered from the sayings of innumerable authors, both Christian and heathen, a huge volume On the Hexaemeron, divided into thirty-two great books, which he therefore entitled the MIRROR OF NATURE [Speculum Naturale], because in this one [work] he embraced whatever can be found worthy of speculation, admiration, and imitation in those things which — in the visible and invisible world, from the beginning up to the end — have been done or said, or are even still to come; the names of the several authors being noted within the very lines of the text, from whose writings he patched together this work. Now the sum of the books of the present volume is this, namely:
- On the first creation of the world — that is, On the Creator, and on those things which were created by Him before any day — book 1: which begins, Since the multitude of books.
- On the work of the first day — 1 book.
- On the work of the second day — 2 books.
- On the work of the third day — 10 books.
- On the work of the fourth day — 1 book.
- On the work of the fifth day — 2 books.
- On the work of the sixth day — 11 books.
- On the work of the seventh day (in which God, after He rested on the seventh day, works even until now) — 4 books.
He flourished under the Emperor Frederick II, in the year of the Lord 1240.
Vincent [Ferrer] of Valencia [Valentinus], of the Order of Preachers, the most celebrated preacher of all in his time, wrote on the Gospel Lections which are read on the several days of the year in the Church, three volumes of sermons, which hold the first place among the scholastic Sermon-writers. He flourished at the Council of Constance, and died in the year of the Lord 1420 [so printed “420”]; and he was enrolled among the saints by Pope Callistus, the third of that name.
Vitalis, of the Order of Minors [Franciscan], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, made a Postil on the Apocalypse, which begins, With a great spirit he saw the last things. It is kept at Bologna, in the library of the Preachers, in manuscript.
Umbert [Umbertus], Bishop of Chartres [Carnotensis], wrote against the Jews one book on that [text] of Genesis 49, The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, in the year of the Lord 1100.
Ulfilas [Wulphilas] the Goth, Bishop of the Goths — whom Socrates mentions in his Ecclesiastical History — first invented the Letters of the Goths, and first delivered to them all the divine Scriptures translated by himself from Greek into the Gothic tongue, and expounded them in the Catholic [manner], for a long time contending much against the Arians. Yet Theodoret writes that he, moved by the threats and promises of Eudoxius the Arian, at last inclined to the party of Valens Augustus, [who was] laboring under the Arian plague. He flourished in the year of the Lord 370.