De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)
| Author | Jerome |
|---|---|
| Original title | De viris illustribus |
| Translator | Ernest Cushing Richardson Ernest J. Engler Philip Schaff Thomas P. Halton |
| Language | Latin |
| Genre | Biography, bibliography |
| Published | AD 393 |
| Publication place | Roman Empire (Palaestina Prima) |
| Media type | Manuscript |
| 270.1 | |
| LC Class | BR60.F3 J4713 |
Original text | De viris illustribus at Latin Wikisource |
| Translation | De Viris Illustribus at Wikisource |
De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) is a Latin biobibliographical collection by Jerome completed at Bethlehem in 392–393 AD. It consists of a prologue and 135 chapters, each giving a brief account of an author and a list of writings, beginning with figures from the apostolic age and ending with Jerome.
Jerome presented the book as a Christian counterpart to biographical catalogues associated with Suetonius and other classical writers, and much of the early material is taken with little alteration from Eusebius of Caesarea. The work was dedicated to the Roman official Nummius Aemilianus Dexter. In the preface Jerome casts the collection as an apologetic defence of Christian learning.
The text circulated widely. It was continued by Gennadius of Massilia and later by Isidore of Seville, and the three works were often copied together. Later scholarship has criticised it as rushed and incomplete, being flattering and insulting depending on the subject and Jerome's opinion of them.