Carlo Vercellone
Encyclopedia
Biography
Carlo was born at BiellaBiella
Biella is a town and comune in the northern Italian region of Piemonte, the capital of the province of the same name, with some 45,800 inhabitants as of 2009. It is located about 80 km northeast of Turin and about 80 km west-northwest of Milan.It lies in the foothills of the Alps,...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. He entered the Order of the Barnabites
Barnabites
The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic order.-Establishment of the Order :It was founded in 1530 by three Italian noblemen: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli, abbr. B.) is a Roman Catholic...
at Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, in 1829; studied philosophy at Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and theology at Rome, under Aloysius Ungarelli.
He taught the sacred sciences at Alessandria
Alessandria
-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
, Turin, Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
and Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
.
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
Superior general
A Superior General, or General Superior, is the Superior at the head of a whole religious order or congregation.The term is mainly used as a generic term, while many orders and congregations use other specific titles, notably:* Abbot general...
of his order, and with various offices in several Roman Congregations, until his death at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on 19 January, 1869.
Works
His first publication was (1857) the edition (5 quarto volumes) of the Vatican manuscript (B) of the Scriptures 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
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
(Rome, 1859), prefaced by an excellent 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 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 monk
Basilian monks are monks who follow the "Rule" of Saint Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea. The chief importance of the monastic rules and institutes of St. Basil lies in the fact that to this day his reconstruction of the monastic life is the basis of most of the monasticism practiced in the...
Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi
Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi
Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi was an Italian savant, Abbot of the Basilian monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome.-Biography:...
; the second volume (Genesis-Josue) followed in 1869, shortly before Vercellone's death, and the others in 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1881, Cajetan Sergio and Canon Henry Fabiani having replaced Vercellone.
Vercellone's critical studies on the text of the Latin Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
, 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 now in progress.
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.