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

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

scholar.

Biography

Carlo was born at

Biella Biella (; pms, Biela; la, Bugella) is a city and ''comune'' in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of Turin an ...

. He entered the Order of the

Barnabites The Barnabites ( la, Barnabitum), officially named as the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul ( la, Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli), are a religious order of clerics regular founded in 1530 in the Catholic Church. They are associated with the Angelic ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

, in 1829; studied philosophy at

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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. Th ...

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

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and par ...

and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. 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 Procurator (with procuracy or procuratorate referring to the office itself) may refer to: * Procurator, one engaged in procuration, the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency * ''Procurator'' (Ancient Rome), the title o ...

, and then

superior general A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of a religious institute in the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized ...

of his order, and with various offices in several

Roman Congregation In the Roman Curia, a congregation ( lat, Sacræ Cardinalium Congregationes) is a type of department of the Curia. They are second-highest-ranking departments, ranking below the two Secretariats, and above the pontifical councils, pontifical com ...

s, until his death at Rome on 19 January 1869.

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 differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pract ...

prepared by Cardinal Mai under the auspices of

Leo XII Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * '' Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Art ...

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 grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

(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 ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

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 Basilian monks are Roman Catholic monks who follow the rule of Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea (330–379). The term 'Basilian' is typically used only in the Catholic Church to distinguish Greek Catholic monks from other forms of monastic l ...

Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi (24 December 1837 – 1 June 1905) was an Italian savant and abbot of the Basilian monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome. Biography Cozza-Luzi was born in 1837 at Bolsena in the Province of Rome. In early youth he entered the an ...

; 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 (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus&nbs ...

, 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

*
''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