S. Gregorii Thaumaturgi Metaphrasis in Ecclesiasten; in Greek and Latin. He supposes that Solomon wrote this Work as a Monument of his Repentance, and Return to God. It is in the Edition of his Works published by Gerard Vossius, at Paris, 1622, in fol. and in Latin only in the new Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. 3. Rufinus says that the Style of it is magnificent, magnificentissimè Scripta. He was born at Neocæsarea in Pontus, about the Year 215. descended from heathen Parents; but having lost his Father at 14 years of age, he became Origen’s Disciple; was made Bishop in 240, and died in 265. All the Eloquence of Greece, and a Sanctity of Life much to be admired, met together in his Person.
St. Jerom has likewise a good Comment upon Ecclesiastes. We find it in the 2d Tome of the new Edition, p. 715. together with his Notes at the end. F. Martianay has translated it into French with the same Notes, at Paris, 1715, in 12mo. The Notes are designed as a Defense of this Saint against Simon, who asserted that he was not the only Author of the Vulgate.
S. Gregory of Nyssa has eight Homilies on the same Book, which are moral and spiritual Expositions. His last Homily ends at the 13th Verse of the 3d Chapter. They are in Greek and Latin in the 1st Tome of his Works, whereof we have said something upon Genesis.
There are likewise Olympiodorus’s Comments printed in the Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. 18. p. 491. This Explanation is in Greek and Latin in the Biblioth. of the Greek Fathers, tom. 4. p. 602. It had been printed before at Paris, 1511, in 4to. at Basil, 1551, in 8vo. Sixtus of Siena says it is short and elegant.
Item, other Comments, by Salonius; printed in the Bibl. PP. tom. 8. p. 401.
Item, by Honorius of Autun, in the Bibl.
PP. tom. 20. p. 1148. This had been already printed with that which he composed upon the Proverbs. See above.
Alcuinus, and Hugo de S. Victor, have also written on this Book. Alcuinus calls his Work a simple Exposition, or an Abridgment extracted from the Fathers; Breviarium parvum. It had been before printed at Basil, in 1531, in 8vo. and was afterwards inserted in his Works. See upon Genesis.
St. Bonaventure, Cajetan, Titelman, Lorin, Maldonat, Cornelius à Lapide, Gerard Moringus, Constantine de la Fuente, John Arboreus, Victorinus Mansus a Benedictine, and Jerom Osorius the younger, have all published Comments upon Ecclesiastes.
St. Bonaventure’s Comment was printed at Venice, 1559, in 8vo. and afterwards in the 1st Tome of his Works. He makes great use in it of the Authority of the Scripture, and produces Passages from the Fathers.
Cajetan’s was printed at Lyons, in 1552, in fol. and that of Titelman at Paris, 1581, in 12mo. the seventh Edition. See upon the Psalms. That of Lorinus at Lyons, 1619, in fol. the third Edition, with very useful Prolegomena by Maldonat, and with what he had published upon the Psalms and Proverbs.
Gerard Moringus of Gelderland, and a Divine of Louvain, died in 1556. He kept close to the literal Sense in his Comment printed at Antwerp, in 1533, in 8vo. He avoids Allegories; is sometimes paraphrastical, and sometimes too long.
John Arboreus’s Comment was printed at Paris, in 1537, in fol. the second Edition; and with what he had performed upon the Proverbs. See above.
Victor, or Victorinus Manso, of Naples, and Abbot of Cave in the 16th Century, made only a paraphrastical Exposition; which was printed at Florence, in 1580, in 8vo.
Jerom Osorius joined a Paraphrase with his Comment; printed at Lyons, in 1611, in 8vo. and in the Edition of his Uncle’s Works. See upon Job. He was of Lisbon, as well as his Uncle; a Canon of Evora about 1592. He did not write so well, but he had more Learning. His Paraphrases and Notes are good; and, in the Judgment of M. Du Pin, abound with critical Remarks.
Augustus Thuanus wrote a Paraphrase in verse upon the same Book. It was printed with that which he made on Job and Jeremiah, at Tours, 1588, in 8vo.
John de Pineda, a Jesuit, has composed an excellent Comment upon Ecclesiastes, with good Prolegomena; wherein he resolves all the Questions that can be proposed concerning this Work. Nor is this a Comment only; for with it there is the Text of the Vulgate, the Venetian Version, as the Author calls it, that of Robert Shirwood, the various Readings of the Hebrew taken from several good Interpreters, the Translation of the Chaldee Paraphrase, by Cirvele and Zamora, and another Chaldee Paraphrase translated by Peter Coste; then the Translation of the Syriac and Arabic, and, last of all, the Catena of the Greek Fathers. The whole in Latin. After this comes the Author’s Comment, which is very diffuse: So that with this Comment printed in fol. at Paris, 1620, all others upon Ecclesiastes are unnecessary. Besides the Edition of it mentioned by us, there was one at Seville, 1619.