Carlo Vercellone (10 January 181419 January 1869) was an Italian

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

scholar.

Biography

Carlo was born at

Biella Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...

. He entered the Order of the

Barnabites The Barnabites (), officially named as the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (), are a religious order of clerics regular founded in 1530 in the Catholic Church. They are associated with the Angelic Sisters of Saint Paul and the members of the Ba ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, in 1829; studied philosophy at

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

and theology at Rome, under Luigi Ungarelli. He taught the sacred sciences at

Alessandria Alessandria (; ) is a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. It is also the largest municipality of the region. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, ...

, Turin,

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

and

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. In 1847, was made president of the college of the Barnabites at Rome, a position which he held together with the charge first of procurator, and then

superior general A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of his order, and with various offices in several Roman Congregations, until his death in Rome on 19 January 1869 at the age of 55.

Works

His first publication was (1857) the edition (5 quarto volumes) of the Vatican manuscript (B) of the

Scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

prepared by Cardinal Mai under the auspices of Leo XII and printed from 1828 to 1838, to which he added by way of preface a letter to the reader. That this edition was far from perfect, Mai himself had well realized, and Vercellone publicly acknowledged in the above-mentioned letter; he at once set out to have it corrected mainly from Mai's notes, the outcome of his labours being a new octavo edition of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

(Rome, 1859), prefaced by an epistle. A few months before, a poor reprint of the New Testament edition of 1857 had been struck off at Leipzig for a London firm. Yet critics persisted in thinking a new and accurate edition of the "Vaticanus" was imperatively needed, and

Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

manifested his intention to carry out the design and entrust it to Vercellone. The latter helped Tischendorf in the preparation of his "Nov. Test. Vat." (Leipzig, 1867). In 1868 appeared the first volume of the "Bibliorum sacrorum graecus codex vaticanus, auspice PIO IX...editus", the work of Vercellone and the Basilian monk Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi; the second volume (Genesis-Josue) followed in 1869, shortly before Vercellone's death, and the others in 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1881, Gaetano Sergio and Canon Enrico Fabiani having replaced Vercellone. Vercellone's critical studies on the text of the Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

, although he brought the work only as far as IV Kings, contributed more to his fame than the editing of the Vatican manuscript. These studies, with important and valuable prolegomena, appeared (2 volumes, 1860–64) under the title, "Variae lectiones Vulgatae latinae editionis Bibliorum", and may be said to have paved the way for the revision of the Vulgate. As preparatory to his edition of the Greek Bible, Vercellone wrote "Ulteriori studii sul N. T. greco dell' antichissimo Cod. Vaticano" (Rome, 1866); in 1867 he published a critical study, "La Storia dell' adultera nel Vangelo di s. Giovanni" (Rome), in which he defended the authenticity of the passage ( John 7:53-8:11). He also edited nine pamphlets of Gerdil on the Hierarchy of the Church. In 1869 he published a "Discours sur l'histoire des langues semitiques de Renan", in which he refuted some of the assertions of the French critic.

Sources

External links

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''Variae lectiones Vulgatae Latinae Bibliorum editionis'' (1860)

''Sulla autenticità delle singole parti della Bibbia Volgata secondo il Decreto Tridentino''
(1866)
''Un codice greco palimpsesto scoperto dai monaci basiliani di Grottaferata''
(1866) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vercellone, Carlo 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians Italian biblical scholars 1814 births 1869 deaths