Consoling Heliodorus: A Commentary on Jerome, Letter 60 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Consoling Heliodorus: A Commentary on Jerome, Letter 60 P. L. Buck J. H. D. Scourfield . Consoling Heliodorus: A Commentary on Jerome, Letter 60. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Consoling Heliodorus: A Commentary on Jerome, Letter 60 is intended "as a contribution to the study of an author whose enormous literary output has not received the degree of scholarly attention it deserves." With very few exceptions, writes Scourfield, "no commentary on anything like the scale attempted in this book has ever been published [on a work of Jerome]." This book derives from the author's D.Phil, thesis which was submitted to the University of Oxford in 1983. Since then, he states in his Preface, the introduction and commentary have been considerably revised, the appendices have been expanded, and a text and translation of Letter 60 have been added. The book falls naturally into three sections: an introduction to Jerome and the consolatory tradition, a text and translation of Letter 60, and a lengthy literary commentary. The two appendices examine respectively the date of the letter and the use of prose-rhythm in Jerome's writings. In his Introduction, Scourfield gives a brief overview of Jerome's life and work which, as he himself admits, is heavily dependent on the biography of Jerome written by J. N. D. Kelly in 1975. This is followed by a general treatment of Letter 60 and the consolatory tradition. Here Scourfield cites many and varied instances of earlier consolatory literature by Greek and Latin authors, both pagan and Christian, which will no doubt prove to be a useful and convenient resource for literary scholars. One can only wish, however, that the author had considered these earlier works more fully in their wider context, i.e., as part of what he himself sees as an established consolatory tradition from early Antiquity to the Middle Ages. As they stand, these numerous examples are treated rather too cursorily to convey any sense of continuity or progression from one to the other, and they are too wide-ranging to provide an adequate notion of where Letter 60 falls within the tradition. An introduction which treated more precisely and in greater depth the epistolary antecedents of Jerome would have been more useful in a study as specific as this. The text and translation, on facing pages, make for ease of reference and study. Scourfield uses the text based on that of I. Hilberg in the Vienna corpus, which as yet "has not been superseded." Although the author himself has not done any original work on the manuscripts of Letter 60, he duly considers the variant readings noted in Hilberg's apparatus and at times offers a divergent text in order to avoid awkwardness or obscurity. He also examines in depth the various textual problems which he encounters. [End Page 223] Scourfield's translation of Letter 60 is on the whole straightforward and clear. It is worth asking, however, whether another English translation of this letter is really needed. The most recent previous translation was by F. A. Wright (Loeb Classical Library, 1933) who, according to Scourfield himself, "misunderstands the Latin" in some instances, and "seems to hit the mark exactly" in others so that it is not even necessary to alter his wording. Indeed many of Jerome's writings have no English translation at all, and it is regrettable that Scourfield's energies could not have been directed to one of these works. The commentary on Letter 60 comprises the bulk of this work. It is first and foremost a literary commentary, and thus the author offers many helpful suggestions to aid translation and explores the finer points of Latin literary style in some detail. He also provides numerous Latin and Greek parallel passages in both pagan and Christian literature and frequently quotes them at great length. Sadly, however, herein lies one of the major defects of the commentary, for very often too little attempt is made to decipher, interpret, and evaluate Jerome's letter in the light of these analogous texts. A marked example can be found at 1.3 (rerum . . . senes), where the author cites a plethora of ancient texts echoing the notion that people naturally and...