In the centuries following his death, Jerome (c.347-420) was venerated as a saint and as one of the four Doctors of the Latin church. In his own lifetime, however, he was a severely marginalized figure whose intellectual and spiritual authority did not go unchallenged, at times even by those in his inner circle. His ascetic theology was rejected by the vast majority of Christian contemporaries, his Hebrew scholarship was called into question by the leading Biblical authorities of the day, and the reputation he cultivated as a pious monk was compromised by allegations of moral impropriety with some of his female disciples. In view of the extremely problematic nature of his profile, how did Jerome seek to bring credibility to himself and his various causes? In this book, the first of its kind in any language, Andrew Cain answers this crucial question through a systematic examination of Jerome's idealized self-presentation across the whole range of his extant epistolary corpus. Modern scholars overwhelmingly either access the letters as historical sources or appreciate their aesthetic properties. Cain offers a new approach and explores the largely neglected but nonetheless fundamental propagandistic dimension of the correspondence. In particular, he proposes theories about how, and above all why, Jerome used individual letters and letter-collections to bid for status as an expert on the Bible and ascetic spirituality.

The present volume’s focus lies on the formation of a multifaccetted discourse on Christian martyrdom in Late Antiquity. While martyrdom accounts remain a central means of defining Christian identity, new literary genres emerge, e.g., the Lives of Saints (Athanasius on Antony), sermons (the Cappadocians), hynms (Prudentius) and more. Authors like Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustine employ martyrological language and motifs in their apologetical and polemic writings, while the Gesta Martyrum Romanorum represent a new type of veneration of the martyrs of a single site. Beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, new martyrs’ narratives can be found. Additionally, two essays deal with methodological questions of research of such sources, thereby highlighting the hitherto understudied innovations of martyrology in Late Antiquity, that is, after the end of the persecutions of Christianity by Roman Emperors. Since then, martyrology gained new importance for the formation of Christian identity within the context of a Christianized imperium. The volume thus enlarges and specifies our knowledge of this fundamental Christian discourse.

Jusqu'a maintenant, l'intitulatio et l'inscriptio avaient ete suffisamment etudiees, mais la salutatio restait relativement negligee. Cette lacune est aujourd'hui en partie comblee. C. D. Lanham a l'art de situer la question qu'elle traite dans le cadre plus vaste des regles du style epistolaire; elle ouvre des apercus interessants sur certains aspects de l'education medievale, et ne manque pas de signaler des problemes qui meriteraient l'attention des chercheurs. Revue des etudes latines (1977) Ms. Lanham's study has the great merit first of all of reflecting her own eager interest in pursuing such an apparently narrow theme. Her enthusiasm even leads her to conclude with a postscript suggesting further research. [Lanham is] obviously a born medievalist. Her work has the further merit of providing us fully and reliably with the means necessary to enable us to make our own interpretations and reach our own conclusions. It is well organized; the problems...are clearly stated at the outset, and every promise is fulfilled. She starts with the obligatory rapid survey of classical usage, both Greek and Latin, then passes to a detailed and skillful analysis of the various types of conventional epistolary formulas that developed from it in the Middle Ages. This is clearly not a work that can be summarized; suffice it to say that the transition...is indeed a wondrous one, and every step of the way is here clearly illuminated. The Classical Journal (1977) Das Buch der Schulerin von Bengt Lofstedt ist ein bedeutender Beitrag fur die Erforschung der Epistolographie des Mittelalters, ausgezeichnet durch die absolute Neuartigkeit der Untersuchung bei nur minimalen und sporadischen bisherigen Beitragen; die Untersuchung ist gleichzeitig ein Musterbeispiel fur wissenschaftliches Arbeiten im Hinblick auf die sorgfaltig genaue dokumentarische und bibliographische Information, die methodische Strenge und Vorsicht, die bei einem so stark formalisierten und daher willkurlichen Manipulationen ausgesetzten Bereich nichts zulasst, was nicht eindeutig belegt werden kann, und ebenso hinsichtlich der reichen und treffenden Ergebnisse, die des ofteren uber den Ausgangspunkt der Arbeit hinausgehen und Auswirkungen haben fur einen viel umfassenderen Bereich der mal. Kultur. Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch (1979)