Changing Jerome’s Bible: Biblical quotations in the patristic translations of Lampugnino Birago (1390–1472) and George of Trebizond (1396–1472/3)☆

Abstract

AbstractThe fifteenth‐century Italian humanists applied their ideas on translation and textual scholarship not only to classical texts, but also to Scripture. One problem they encountered was the rendering of biblical passages in their patristic translations. The Church Fathers had occasionally based their exegesis on variant readings or interpretations that clashed with ‘Jerome’s translation’, the Latin translation in common use in the fifteenth century and traditionally ascribed to Jerome. When the patristic source text demanded it, changing Jerome’s translation was therefore surely justified – but perhaps it was justified in other cases too. This article analyses how humanist translators treated biblical quotations in patristic texts, focusing on the Latin translations of Basil’s Hexaemeron by Lampugnino Birago (1390–1472) and Cyril’s Commentary on John by George of Trebizond (1396–1472/3), and explores what their practice can tell us about humanist approaches to translation and the biblical text.