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Giovanni Stefano Menochio

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Giovanni Stefano Menochio
Born9 December 1575 Edit this on Wikidata
Padua, Republic of Venice
Died4 February 1655 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 79)
Rome, Papal States
NationalityItalian
Other namesGiovanni Corona
OccupationBiblical scholar, Latin Catholic priest Edit this on Wikidata
Employer
Parent(s)
  • Giacomo Menochio Edit this on Wikidata

Giovanni Stefano Menochio, (1575-12-09)9 December 1575 - 4 February 1655(1655-02-04) (aged 79), was an Italian Jesuit biblical scholar.

Life

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Menochio was born at Padua, and entered the Society of Jesus on 25 May 1594. After the usual years of training and teaching the classics, he became professor of sacred scripture and then of moral theology at Milan; thereafter began his long life of superiorship. He was successively superior of Cremona, Milan, and Genoa, rector of the Roman College, provincial of the provinces of Milan and Rome, assistant of Italy, and admonitor to the Fathers-General Vincenzo Carafa and Francesco Piccolomini. He died in Rome.

Works

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His first exegetical essay was a politico-Biblical study: Hieropoliticon, sive Institutiones Politicæ e Sacris Scripturis depromptæ, 956 pages (Lyon, 1625). This book on theocratic politics was dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Orsini. A second edition (Cologne, 1626) was dedicated to Ferdinand III. The Jesuit poet Sarbewski made this study the subject of an ode (see "Lyrica", II, n. 18).

The next year there appeared an economic study of the Bible: Institutiones Oeconomicæ ex Sacris Litteris depromptæ, 543 pages (Lyon, 1627). The author translated into Italian these lessons on the care of one's own household; this translation was a posthumous publication: Economia Christiana, 542 pages (Venice, 1656).

His magnum opus was Brevis Explicatio Sensus Literalis Sacræ Scripturæ optimus quibusque Auctoribus per Epitomen Collecta, 3 vols., 115 pages, 449, 549+29 (Cologne, 1630). Many other editions of this commentary have been published in many lands: Cologne, 1659; Antwerp, 1679; Lyons, 1683, 1697, 1703; the revised edition of René-Joseph Tournemine, published at Paris, 1719, 1721, 1731; Avignon, 1768; Ghent, 1829; the enlarged and revised edition of Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, published at Venice, 1743, 1755, 1761.

The scholia of Menochio are introduced into the Bibla Magna and the Bibla Maxima of Jean de La Haye; the Bibla Sacra of Lucas Brugensis; the Cursus Script. Sacr. of Migne; fourteen editions of the Sainte Bible of Louis de Carrières; and La Sainte Bible of Claude-Joseph Drioux (Paris, 1873).

A later critic, Simon, though not at all in sympathy with Menochio's orthodoxy, says "C'est un des plus judicieux scoliates que nous ayons tant sur le Vieux que sur le Nouveau Testament" (Hist. Crit. du N. T., xliv). Reusch (Kirchenlexikon) prefers the notes of Menochio to those of Manuel de Sá and Mariana.

This commentator sought to find the literal meaning of the Bible and the Church Fathers. Menochio studied the text in its original, and brought to bear upon that study knowledge of Jewish antiquities.

Main works

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  • Menochio, Giovanni Stefano (1625). Sumptibus Ludovici Prost, haeredis Roville (ed.). Hieropoliticωn siue Institutiones politicæ e S. Scripturis depromptæ, libri tres (in Latin). Lugduni. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  • Menochio, Giovanni Stefano (1627). ex officina Rouilliana : sumptib. Andreae et Iacobi Prost (ed.). Institutionis oeconomicae ex sacris litteris depromptae libri duo (in Latin). Lugduni. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  • Menochio, Giovanni Stefano (1630). Ioannes Kinchius (ed.). Brevis explicatio sensus litteralis totius Scripturae (in Latin). Coloniae Agrippinae. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  • Le stuore, tessute di varia erudizione sacra, morale e profana (Rome, 1646-54, 6 vols. 4to); the first published under the fictitious name of Giovanni Corona.
  • Menochio, Giovanni Stefano (1648). sumptibus Antonii Bertier, via Iacobæa, sub signo Fortunæ (ed.). De republica Hebreorum (in Latin). Parisiis. Retrieved 9 July 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)

See also

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References

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