Pauline RENOUX-CARON

Original title: San Jerónimo en España en el siglo XVI

Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)  

Keywords: Biblical Philology, Christian Humanism, José de Sigüenza, Order of Saint Jerome, Saint Jerome.

A Doctor of the Church and a polyglot philologist, Saint Jerome influenced generations of Spanish men of letters and men of the Church and was a central figure of 16th centu-ry humanism. Many studies have focused on the numerous representations of the Saint in Spanish art, but little has been written about the texts that testify to the importance of Saint Jerome in 16th century Spain. Saint Jerome can be defined in various ways: as an observant monk, he was chosen by the monastic Order of the Hieronymites as their patron; he was also considered as the spokesman of Erasmus’s humanism; as a Chris-tian Hebrew scholar, he interested Spanish Bible scholars; as a man of the Church, he was frequently quoted in arguments and debates over the ideas of the Counter-Reformation. Once his Latin Vulgate was declared to be ‘authentic’ at the Council of Trente, he appeared as the defender of the Roman church. A Hebrew scholar and a Bible translator, the Doctor Maximus was both from East and West, and his influence never was greater than in the late 16th century, a time of controversies between the ad-vocates of biblical philology and the partisans of the Vulgate in a climate of anti-Judaism. Saint Jerome thus appears as a great and multifaceted figure, who demon-strates the intensity of the spiritual and intelectual life in 16th century Spain.