525
Izvirni znanstveni članek/Article (1.01)
Bogoslovni vestnik/Theological Quarterly 81 (2021) 2, 525—538
Besedilo prejeto/Received:12/2020; sprejeto/Accepted:02/2021
UDK: 27-36-1sv.Hieronim 
DOI: 10.34291/BV2021/02/Bozic
© 2021 Božič, CC BY 4.0
 Anja Božič
»Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome: Pier Paolo 
Vergerio’s Fifth Sermon pro Sancto Hieronymo
»Movere et delectare« po sv. Hieronimu: Vergerijev 
peti govor pro Sancto Hieronymo
Abstract: The present paper analyzes the personal devotion to St. Jerome as ex-
pressed in the works of Pier Paolo Vergerio, one of the leading humanist au-
thors of his generation. Jerome’s simultaneous investment in theology and clas-
sical learning made him a famed saint among the humanists. By transforming St. 
Jerome into a model of a pious scholar, Vergerio was, therefore, one of the key 
proponents in the dissemination of St. Jerome’s cult in the Renaissance. Verge-
rio’s ten lively Sermones pro Sancto Hieronymo (1392–1408) are considered 
the earliest examples of the classicizing orations (panegyrics) in the context of 
devotional public oratory. Vergerio includes traditional elements of Jerome’s 
hagiography in his orations yet charges them with a personal dimension. Refer-
ring to the ancient tradition of his family, Vergerio portrays St. Jerome as their 
protector and patron saint and commends his recently deceased father into the 
saint’s care. There is, however, no extant information about the family’s ritu-
als regarding St. Jerome and Vergerio does not refer to their devotion in all of 
his orations in honour of the saint. This paper explores Vergerio’s creation of a 
personal cult of St. Jerome and interprets it as a self-fashioning device, aiming 
to establish Vergerio as an eloquent humanist intellectual. 
Keywords: Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder, St. Jerome, patron saint, epideictic orati-
on, humanist self-fashioning
Povzetek: Članek obravnava sv. Hieronima kot osebnega in družinskega zavetnika 
v slavilnih govorih enega najpomembnejših humanističnih avtorjev svoje ge-
neracije, Koprčana Petra Pavla Vergerija Starejšega. Hieronim je zaradi svoje 
ljubezni tako do Biblije kakor do klasičnih avtorjev postal priljubljen zavetnik 
humanistov, ki so ga razumeli kot ideal sinteze med krščanstvom in antiko. Ver-
gerij je s prevrednotenjem sv. Hieronima v lik pobožnega učenjaka postal eden 
glavnih glasnikov Hieronimovega humanističnega kulta. Vergerijev slavospev v 
čast sv. Hieronimu se razlega iz desetih živahnih govorov Sermones pro Sancto 
Hieronymo (1392–1408), ki jih je Vergerij spisal po vzoru klasičnega slavilnega 
526 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
govorništva. Kljub resda standardnim elementom Hieronimovih hagiografskih 
upodobitev pa Vergerijevi govori izstopajo zaradi dodatne, osebne note. Hu-
manist sv. Hieronima časti kot osebnega in družinskega zavetnika in mu v skrb 
priporoča svojega umrlega očeta. Vendar ni znano, da bi Hieronim v resnici 
veljal za družinskega zavetnika družine Vergerijev, poleg tega pa ga Vergerij ne 
naslavlja tako v vseh desetih govorih. Članek pojasnjuje Vergerijevo prevzetje 
sv. Hieronima za osebnega in družinskega zavetnika kot spretno govorniško po-
tezo, ki jo je humanist uporabil predvsem za samoupodabljanje na renesanč-
nem govorniškem odru.
Ključne besede: Peter Pavel Vergerij Starejši, sv. Hieronim, zavetnik, govor, huma-
nistično samoupodabljanje
1. Introduction
During 1390–1408, Pier Paolo Vergerio, one of the leading humanists of his gene-
ration, delivered at least ten public orations in honour of Saint Jerome. His Ser-
mones pro Sancto Hieronymo counts as the earliest examples of the classicizing 
orations (panegyrics) in devotional public oratory (O’Malley 1979, 86).1 Following 
the classical precepts, rather than the traditional thematic form of late medieval 
speeches, Vergerio’s orations illustrate one of the most discernible aspects of the 
humanists’ amalgamation of classicizing elements and hagiography.2 The omissi-
on of biblical quotations, which otherwise guided thematic sermons, opened the 
ground for humanist innovation and self-fashioning. Accordingly, the contents of 
the orations ceased to focus on the saints’ performances of miracles, and inste-
ad replaced them with their lives and deeds, interpreted in conformity with the 
preferences of their audience.
Vergerio began his public speaking career in Padua around 1390.3 His tradition 
of annual orations in honour of St. Jerome probably began around the same time, 
although the precise year has not yet been identified. In his Ep. 42, Vergerio states 
1 On epideictic oratory, see Pernot, La Rhétorique de l‘éloge dans le monde gréco-romain (1993) or Ken-
nedy (1999) for a summarization. For humanist oratory in imitation of Ciceronian handbooks, see Witt 
1990, and for humanist devotional oratory, McManamon’s Funeral Oratory of the Papal Court (2017). 
When referring to the format of Vergerio’s Sermones, the secondary scholarship employs different 
terminology. The expressions ‚sermon,‘ ‚oration‘, ‚speech‘,and ‚panegyric‘ are used interchangeably by 
the previous scholarship; I will refer to these texts as sermones, since this is the label used in the ma-
nuscripts.
2 The thematic form appeared in the late twelfth century and coincides with the birth of Scholasticism. 
The central study of the theme remains Caplan’s Of Eloquence (1970). For Latin medieval preaching see 
Modern Questions About Medieval Sermons by Nicole Bériou and David D’Avray (1994).
3 There is no evidence of any public activity before this time. These early speeches are Vergerio’s judici-
al oration in defense of Francesco Novello da Carrara’s lieutenant Bartolomeo Cermisone (1390–1392), 
an oration celebrating Francesco Novello’s recovery of Padua (1392) and the well-known funeral orati-
on for Francesco Carrara the Elder (1393) (Katchmer 1998, 15; Simoniti 1979, 27–29). For Vergerio’s 
biography, see Katchmer (1998, 1–77).
527 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
that his practice started four years before the letter’s composition (Smith 1934, 
91). If Smith’s dating of the letter to 1392–1394, more probably to 1394, is cor-
rect, Vergerio possibly delivered his first oration in 1390. Two of the orations are 
dated in the manuscripts: Sermo 5 to 1392 and Sermo 9 to 1408. Sermo 8 can be 
dated to 1406, based on internal evidence (Robey 1973, 27). The exact order of 
the orations, however, does not depend on manuscript numbering and remains 
unknown.4 Three of the orations were delivered in monastic environments (1; 5; 
10), two were delivered close to Vergerio’s hometown in Istria (3; 6) (Robey 1973, 
37), and Sermo 8 was delivered at the papal court in Rome. 
In his panegyrics, Vergerio actively contributed to shaping the humanist cult 
of St. Jerome. As an active scholar in numerous fields, from the theory of educa-
tion, canon law, and medicine to logic and rhetoric, Vergerio portrayed a similarly 
active figure of Jerome and called to the imitation of his countless virtues. He 
emphasized Jerome’s erudition and piety and portrayed him as a pious scholar. 
Touching upon merely a few of his most famous miracles, Vergerio emphasized 
Jerome’s human aspects and depicted him as a familiar figure, approachable for 
imitation of everyone. Vergerio’s orations were circulated in numerous codices, 
often functioning as prefaces to Jerome’s works. The orations became a new and 
influential model for the humanists’ epideictic oratory. This made Vergerio’s pan-
egyrics so famous that they survived in many manuscripts and even in the first 
incunabula of Jerome’s collected works.
While praising St. Jerome, Vergerio offers himself as a witness of the saint’s 
excellence. In Serm. 5 and 8, and one of his letters, Vergerio explains that his inspi-
ration to praise Jerome derives from his family’s ancient tradition and his personal 
experience of Jerome’s sanctity.5 On these grounds, he vowed to annually deliver 
a public oration in the saint’s honour on his feast-day (McManamon 1985, 185). 
His vow is often referred to at the beginning of the orations’ exordia. However, 
there is no information about Vergerio’s family partaking in any specific rituals 
in honour of the saint, nor did St. Jerome remain the patron saint of the Vergerii 
family (Marinčič 2018, 13). Usually taken for granted, Vergerio’s invocations of St. 
Jerome as his family patron have not been probed to a satisfactory degree by the 
existent scholarship.6 McManamon takes it at face value in his seminal edition 
and does not pause much at Vergerio’s words.7
This paper, however, is meant to signal that Vergerio’s appropriation of St. Je-
rome as his personal and family patron was his rhetorical device to add to the 
emotionality of his orations and contribute to his fame. On these grounds, I will 
discuss the unique features of Vergerio’s authorial approach in his fifth pane-
4 I use the numbering and sequence of delivery suggested in McManamon’s edition, which, due to dif-
ferent manuscript referencing, differs from the one used earlier by Robey and Smith.
5 Ep. 79 to Vergerio’s father (Smith 1934, 186–187).
6 See the article by Marinčič (2018) for a welcome exception to this trend.
7 The full title of McMannamon’s book is Pierpaolo Vergerio the Elder and Saint Jerome: An Edition and 
Translation of Sermones Pro Sancto Hieronymo (1999).
528 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
gyric and compare it to his other panegyrics in honour of St. Jerome as well as to 
Vergerio’s letters. Taking the orations in parallel with later panegyrics to St. Jero-
me composed by other humanists, I will illustrate Vergerio’s appropriation of St. 
Jerome as a smart rhetoric device to establish himself on the humanist stage of 
classicizing rhetoric.
2. Departing From the Tradition: Sermon 5
According to the manuscripts, Vergerio’s fifth sermon was delivered in 1392 to 
Benedictine monks in Padua (McManamon 1985, 185). This is Vergerio’s most 
extended oration, and, according to Robey, it may have been the earliest (Robey 
1973, 37). Indeed, the oration does not refer to any previous speeches, which is 
otherwise a systematic way for Vergerio to start the exordium. Although Robey’s 
argument is based only on his opinion, according to which the oration is relatively 
immature in style and hesitant in its approach to the subject (37), the speech is 
the least coherent among Vergerio’s orations and often jumps between the topics.
Moreover, Sermo 5 is famously unique owing to Vergerio’s explicit declaration 
of his complete break with the thematic structure of the scholastic sermons. This 
might be another argument in favour of the oration being the first one. Vergerio 
straightforwardly draws attention to his omission of the usual biblical verse at the 
beginning of the sermon: 
»With your kind permission, I will slightly depart today from the usual 
manner of delivering a sermon, and leaving aside the thematic verse from 
the Scripture (a convention that is no longer observed by the most up-to-
date-preachers), right at the beginning, I will call to my aid the most glori-
ous Virgin.« (McManamon 1999, 172)8
Owing to the lack of materials, the veracity of Vergerio’s claim that this was 
already part of contemporary practice cannot be established. Nevertheless, even 
though not a single example of sermons delivered from the pulpit and following 
classical norms has been found up to date, as O’Mally (1979, 86) and Knowles 
Frazier (2005, 213) report, Vergerio already used the new format in his earlier 
funeral orations.9 In any case, the emphasized opening remark served chiefly to 
underline his classicizing program. 
Moving on, Vergerio inserted an emotional confession of his family’s devotion 
to St. Jerome in a first-person narrative. He reported that his family arranged an-
nual feasts in St. Jerome’s honour as long as they could afford them:
8 »Cum bona venia vestra praetermiteram nunc parumper solitum morem sermocinandi, et, omisso 
themate (qui mos iam apud modernos deciderat) primo gloriossisimam virginem ad auxilium mihi vo-
cabo.« (McManamon 1999, 171) I quote Vergerio’s orations in McManamon’s English translation, occa-
sionally modified.
9 See note 3.
529 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
»They were accustomed for as long as their resources permitted them to 
offer a solemn feast for the poor of the city. Moreover, they used to re-
member that their own ancestors had consistently performed the same 
service on this feast day. /…/ If ever fortune should look and smile upon 
me once again, I will not hesitate to revive this ancient custom of our fam-
ily.« (McManamon 1999, 178–179)10
He then vowed to continue with the tradition to honour St. Jerome on his name 
day and started to ponder which of his many virtues he should praise. Vergerio 
does not share the information about the aftermath of his family’s devotion in this 
oration; however, he recounts it in Sermo 8 (McManamon 1985, 224). As a result 
of Jerome’s divine intercession, Vergerio’s family survived the attacks of Genoans 
on their hometown, Justinopolis (now Koper, in Slovenia). This deepened much 
further their already ardent devotion, cultivated most notably by Vergerio’s father, 
who, at the time of Sermo 8, according to Vergerio, was just recently deceased. 
After his father’s death, Vergerio presented himself as the sole heir to the family 
tradition, whereby he vowed to deliver a speech in the saint’s honour each year. 
The oration becomes highly emotional when Vergerio speaks of his father’s legacy, 
and its style frequently borders on theatricality.
However, one might wonder whether Vergerio was, in fact, »[n]ourished in an 
environment that saw the family as honoured clients of a powerful heavenly pa-
tron [and] committed himself to a public act of devotion to Jerome for the rest of 
his life« on this ground, as stated by McManamon in his seminal work (1999, 16). 
There is no actual evidence about St. Jerome as the patron saint of the Vergerii 
family (Marinčič 2018, 13) or their special rituals in honour of the saint in Justi-
nopolis. The patron saints of the town were, at the time, St. Nazarius and St. 
Alexandrus,11 who, in contrast to St. Jerome, are not mentioned in any of Vergerio’s 
extant works, nor his letters.12 However, as indicated by Frazier, appropriation of 
,personal saints‘ was the standard humanist practice (Frazier 2005, 16). Vergerio 
probably familiarized himself with the humanist cult of St. Jerome in the learned 
university milieus of Florence, Bologna, and Padua. Jerome was an ideal epitome 
for the humanists’ Christian universalism, owing to his simultaneous enthusiasm 
for the classical authors and biblical exegesis.
10 »[S]olebant parentes mei, dum fortuna laetaeque res starent, atque id a suis fieri solitum commemo-
rabant perpetuo hoc ipso festo die, cum sacra ritu debito et solito more peracta essent, sollemne 
convivium pauperibus facere. Si quando tamen fortuna placide vultu faverit, ne vetustum quidem mo-
rem familiae nostrae praetermittam.« (McManamon 1999, 176–177)
11 The cult of these two saints was in fact very popular in Justinopolis. The requisition of St. Nazarius’s 
relics was, for example, the main calamity during the attack of Genovese on Koper which also forced 
the Vergerio family to leave their hometown. St. Alexander’s relics are preserved in the cathedral church 
of Koper (Smith 1934, 506).
12 Although Smith reports on four hymns in honor of St. Nazarius in Vergerio’s Epistolario, he already 
emphasizes that they were wrongly attributed to Vergerio, since they were added to one of the manu-
scripts with his Sermones. They were, in fact, written in 1422 to celebrate the return of the relics to 
Koper, arranged by archbishop of Genoa, Pileo de Marini (Smith 1934, 506). The hymns are listed as 
anonymous in McManamon, „Research Aids: Pierpaolo Vergerio the Elder.“
530 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
Moreover, in their lively interest for textual criticism, the humanists also fiercely 
transcribed and compiled his letters (Cain 2009, 225). Devotional texts, transcrip-
tion of a saint’s works, or production of his vitae served as an ex-voto to the saint. 
Passing through Italian cities, courts, and university towns, thus encountering dif-
ferent local cultures, humanists depended on their rhetorical abilities, and they 
tailored them according to the circumstances. Thus, looking closer into the con-
texts of Serm. 5 and 8 and comparing them with the circumstances of deliveries 
of other orations by Vergerio might shed light upon some additional arguments 
for his references to the family and personality cult of St. Jerome precisely in 
these two sermons.
3. Effigiem mihi confingo: Sermons 5 and 8 Among the 
Other Vergerio’s Orations
Vergerio’s Sermones were treated as a corpus by the previous scholarship, and 
the specific contents or backgrounds of the individual orations have not been 
analyzed in much depth. Despite their differences, McManamon’s edition and 
English translation of Vergerio’s speeches do not observe Vergerio’s orations as 
individual texts. Vergerio’s works are looked upon in the same way by Rice’s mo-
nograph on the cult of St. Jerome in the Renaissance (1988), and the orations are 
treated merely as a product of a new rhetorical style, intended to promote the 
revised image of St. Jerome.13 However, by examining the orations one by one 
as individual pieces, it is possible to grasp Vergerio’s program of remodelling the 
image of St. Jerome according to his different audiences. As there are no other 
humanist authors who produced more than one oration on St. Jerome, Vergerio’s 
orations offer a unique opportunity to inspect the changes of his rhetorical appro-
ach according to the contexts in which the orations were delivered, by the same 
author and in praise of the same subject. A captivating performance was essential 
for the epideictic genre of Vergerio’s speeches, which therefore focused prima-
rily on the audience. Vergerio aptly devised the rhetorical topoi and shaped the 
entire contents of his orations to secure the audience’s sympathy. The imitation 
of examples is indeed the chief motto of his work. Nevertheless, the examples 
given in the orations are different when it comes to an audience of different so-
cial backgrounds.
For example, in the orations delivered to monks, Vergerio demonstrates praise 
to be instructional on the grounds of Jerome’s biographies, which praised the des-
ert fathers. Writing about the lives of these, Jerome was motivated to imitate their 
austerity as well.14 According to his teaching, Jerome’s lifestyle is highlighted, and 
13 McManamon looks into the classicizing features of Vergerio’s oratory also in his monograph Pierpaolo 
Vergerio the Elder: The Humanist as Orator (1996) and in his earlier article „Pier Paolo Vergerio (the 
Elder) and the Beginnings of the Humanist Cult of Jerome“ (1985).
14 See Bobovnik and Derhard 2020, 3–31 on Jerome as a chief promotor of the philosophy of desert 
ascetics.
531 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
the Benedictine monks are exhorted to imitate it. Not only does Vergerio empha-
size Jerome’s extreme endurance and piety while enumerating his deeds, but the 
orations also echo criticism and blame, clearly in line with the reform movement 
inside religious orders (McManamon 1985, 354). In contrast, speaking in front of 
lay audiences, Vergerio paraphrased classical authors15 and illustrated praise as 
an already ancient practice, which taught the examples for imitation.
In the orations delivered in Istria (Serm. 3; 6), Vergerio argued that owing to the 
location of Jerome’s birthplace near ,this particular region‘ (regio ista), the audi-
ence, in this case, lay locals has a special duty to venerate the saint and imitate his 
deeds.16 He portrayed Jerome as one of the illustrious fellow citizens, only that he 
is immensely more praiseworthy and learned. He emphasized the saint’s shared 
humanity with the audience and characterized him in terms of the audience’s in-
tercessor with God. If the audience joins Vergerio in faithful praise of St. Jerome, 
they, now living close to Jerome’s earthly residence, will make themselves »mem-
bers of his heavenly lineage« in the afterlife (Mcmannamon 189, 355). However, 
even though Vergerio sided with the audience and depicted himself as one of the 
local populace, he spoke here in a considerably less personal tone than in Serm. 
5 and 8. However, his orations echo the language of late-antique local cults,17 his 
Jerome does not figure as a ,national‘ saint of Dalmatia.18 Moreover, in Sermo 3, 
Vergerio carefully warns against an affection towards St. Jerome merely on ac-
count of his origins:
»But indeed, neither proximity of birth, nor blood relationship, nor any 
earthly bond renders us acceptable and gratifying to the saints of God; 
only moral integrity, sanctity of life, and spiritual devotion can do that. As a 
matter of fact, we can please the saints only by doing the same things that 
made the saints themselves pleasing to God.« (McManamon 1999, 99)19
Going even further, in Sermo 6, Vergerio delivered a semi-historical lecture about 
a historically unfounded local veneration based on resemblances of the names of a 
small nearby village Stregna and Jerome’s Stridon.20 He labels it as ,a local rumour‘ 
(dictum est) and straightforwardly condemns it. Jerome was born in a ,place nearby‘ 
(hinc proximo loco), but not in Stregna, the village closest to Vergerio’s hometown 
15 E.g. Ovid in Serm. 2 (McManamon 1999, 143) or Seneca in Ep. 78 (McManamon 1985, 185).
16 The infamous question of the exact location of Jerome’s birthplace, Stridon, remains unanswered. On 
various placements of Stridon by the humanists, see the article by Grubišić (2008, 227–298).
17 For the function of medieval cults of saints see, for instance, Brown’s The Cult of Saints (1989), and 
Klaniczay, „Using Saint: Intercession, Healing, Sanctity“ (2014, 217–237).
18 On this topic, see the article by Ivić „Jerome comes home“ (2016, 618–644), and her dissertation „The 
Birth of the National Saint: The Cult of St. Jerome in Late Medieval Dalmatia“ (2020). On the cult of St. 
Jerome among the Slavs, see Verkholantsev, The Slavic Letters of St. Jerome: The History of the Legend 
and Its Legacy, or, How the Translator of the Vulgate Became an Apostle of the Slavs (2014).
19 »Verum enimvero non ortus propinquitas, non coniunctio sanguinis, non ulla mundialis necessitudo, 
sed honestas morum, vitae sanctitas, ac mentis devotio Sanctis Dei acceptabiles nos reddit et gratos. 
Per ea etenim sola placere ipsis possumus per quae et ipsi Deo placuerunt.« (McManamon 1999, 198)
20 For the translation of the entire passage to Slovenian, see Marinčič 2018, 14.
532 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
(McManamon 1999, 201). Additionally, Vergerio does not honour St. Jerome as a 
national saint, as was the practice within the Dalmatian cult of the saint.21 More-
over, in none of the panegyrics from Istria did he ever refer to St. Jerome as his fam-
ily’s patron saint, as he does in Serm. 5 and 8. One might ask why Vergerio opted to 
denounce local rumours rather than referring to his family’s devotion to the saint, 
particularly in these orations delivered closest to his hometown.
It might not be too far-fetched to infer some explanations from the same ven-
ues of the orations’ performances. Compared to the orations delivered in the small 
provincial towns of Istria, the circumstance of Serm. 5 and 8 were far more critical. 
Even though Sermo 5 was delivered in front of monks, it was among Vergerio’s 
first orations (if not the very first one), which made it significant for his rhetorical 
career. His arguments on account of the family tradition of praise would help him 
establish himself as a premier member of Jerome’s cult and add to his praise’s rhe-
torical ,veracity‘. Appealing to the traditional family veneration served as grounds 
for a popular epideictic device already part of the ancient oratory.22 Indeed, the 
cult of St. Jerome was already firmly established by the time Vergerio wrote his 
orations; however, it has to be kept in mind that Vergerio was promoting a par-
ticular representation of the saint – that of a learned orator and translator, includ-
ing a refurbished version of Jerome’s dream.23 He referred to his family as already 
,veteran‘ followers of Jerome’s cult and contributed to his fame.
Vergerio’s self-fashioning is even more evident concerning the particular cir-
cumstance of Sermo 8. This oration was delivered in front of the papal Curia in 
1406. It was probably one of the most renowned orations during the Renaissance, 
as it was included as a biographical appendix to the first edition of Jerome’s works 
published in Rome in 1468. It belonged among Vergerio’s most accomplished ora-
tions and was seen as advocacy of humanist studies by the later Renaissance au-
thors. Vergerio primarily reflected on Jerome’s dream in this sermon and offered 
a revised humanist interpretation (Belting 2014, 6). According to his own words, 
he described how Jerome continued to read the classics, but not as ardently as 
the Scripture (McManamon 1999, 155).
Moreover, he inferred that St. Jerome merely applied his classical studies in the 
service of his biblical work. This panegyric therefore comprised a call for humanism 
in the service of the religious community, announcing that the humanist studies 
would prepare learned clergy capable of moral reform by living exemplary lives.24 
Where could Vergerio more appropriately insert an emotional appeal to his fam-
21 On Slavic cult of St. Jerome, see Verkholantsev 2014 and Badurina-Stipčević 2013, 17–26.
22 The canon of epideictic topoi, listed by Menander, was transmitted to the humanists by Priscian’s han-
dbooks as loca laudis vel vituperationis (Simoniti 1979, 25). For the impact of humanist classicizing 
oratory on the preachers of the Catholic Reformation see, for instance, Visočnik 2018.
23 Ep. 22. For English translation, see Wright (1933, 52–157).
24 In ecclesiastical context, Vergerio used the image of St. Jerome in order to contrast him to the corrupted 
practice of the clergy of his time. He especially criticized the preachers, accusing them of delivering 
empty words in front of their audience while not providing an example of moral life themselves (McMa-
namon, 115–29).
533 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
ily tradition, boosted by the reference to his recently deceased father, if not in 
the refined background of the papal court and campaigning for classical learning?
Similar creation of saintly patronage was frequent in the Late Middle Ages, 
and the saints whose sanctity one heard of being experienced by those close 
to them immediately became more popular (Vauchez 1997, 133). On the other 
hand, there was no need to bring the saint closer by referring to his devotion in 
the orations in Istria; a local veneration was probably present there already in 
the late medieval period.25 Vergerio did not need an additional device to bring 
Jerome’s cult closer – a medieval cult of St. Jerome as a pious penitent saint was 
already widely disseminated within the area. What Vergerio instead focused on 
in his orations in Istria is Jerome’s reinterpreted image of a learned scholar and 
translator. Consequently, it was much more expected of Vergerio to exploit the 
proximity of the saint’s birthplace to display his linguistic knowledge by exposing 
the erroneous theory of Stregna as Stridon. In contrast, while speaking in faraway 
Padua or Rome and aiming to establish himself as Jerome’s spokesperson, a refer-
ence to the traditional family devotion to St. Jerome would likely add to Vergerio’s 
rhetorical authority. He did not argue his family’s or his father’s devotion to the 
saint, yet his affection for the cult was expressed with sufficient emotionality to 
make the oration effective.
4. Patronus meus: St. Jerome in the Context of Vergerio’s 
Letters
Even if Vergerio did not report the reasons for his family’s extraordinary devo-
tion to St. Jerome in his orations, he described them in one of his letters, Ep. 79, 
addressed to his father and dated in the year 1397 (Smith 1934, 186–87). The 
letter begins almost verbatim as some of Vergerio’s orations. He first asserts his 
rhetorical inadequacy to the subject yet immediately pledges to carry on with his 
practice of public preaching since it is a way to repay his father’s love. Then he 
makes several passionate exclamations, urging his father to honour St. Jerome 
and underlining it with a paraphrase from Seneca: »[T]o receive a favour without 
a single word of thanks comes close to denying it.«26 Afterwards he recounts the 
story about Jerome’s intercession but placing it at his father’s lips as if it were a 
recollection of something his father has once told him himself. Further, he inserts 
a series of rhetorical questions and reaching the climax by an appeal to St. Jerome 
as the one who saved the life of Vergerio’s father:
25 The Franciscan monastery in Justinopolis at the time belonged to the Dalmatian Franciscan province of 
St. Jerome. This is also reflected by a large number of local churches, consecrated to St. Jerome, which 
was the reason for a recent suggestion to declare St. Jerome for the main patron of the present-day 
bishopric of Koper (Valenčič 2007, 123–154). 
26 »Proximus est enim neganti beneficium is qui tacet.« (Smith 1934, 186). Cf. Seneca, De Beneficiis 2.1.: 
»[P]roximus est a negante, qui dubitavit, nullamque iniit gratiam.« For the entire translation of the 
letter, see Božič 2020, 90–91.
534 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
»Who was it that led us out alive from so many traps laid against us during 
that wartime clash, when everything was filled with terror and was col-
lapsing? Who was it that carried us safe and sound from the devastation 
and smouldering ashes of our pillaged homeland? /…/ Last but not least, 
who was it that saved your life after you had been condemned to death 
and exposed to many great dangers if not the one to whom you have en-
trusted your life?« (Smith 1934, 186)27
The letter closely echoes Serm. 5 and 8, and Vergerio sometimes repeats entire 
phrases from the orations. Curiously enough, Vergerio uses the same admonitions 
he used in his oration to the monks, and he seems to be reminding his father, sup-
posedly the initiator of the family’s devotion to St. Jerome, why the saint deserved 
to be praised by the family. One might reasonably wonder why Vergerio’s father 
would need to be reminded of the family tradition.
Vergerio’s letter belongs among the typical humanist stylistic letters that form 
their authors’ image as they each wanted it conveyed to posterity. It was not un-
usual for the humanist authors to combine themes and even phrases from their 
orations with those from the letters and vice versa. Ep. 79 is likely to have been 
designed precisely to enforce Vergerio’s auto-portrayal as Jerome’s disciple. The 
phrases that are repeated in his public oratory and stylistic letters are likely to 
serve as self-fashioning rhetoric devices, especially in the works that were ex-
pected to be disseminated or even included within the significant works.
Moreover, some other letters of Vergerio’s illustrate his inclination to the etio-
logical myths, a literalization of his hometown origins, and his aspirations to be 
bound with St. Jerome’s figure. Although pretending to disdain some of his let-
ters, Vergerio was quite concerned with the local history.28 He was also engaged 
in discussions about the origins of the name Justinopolis, claiming that the city 
was named by Emperor Justinian II (565–578). Justinian reinforced and regulated 
the original Roman settlement of Aegida or Capris, inhabited by fugitives of the 
Langobardic invasion at the time of his arrival. Vergerio describes the myth in 
one of his letters, where he also states that Justinopolis has now fallen into moral 
decay and ruins despite its noble history. The only reason it could be praised for 
nowadays is its proximity to Jerome’s birthplace:
»Because you see, even some obscure places had brought up great men, 
and celebrated cities ignoble ones, since, as it is indeed attested, it usually 
happens more often that extreme brilliance springs from an oppressed 
27 »[Q]uis nos belli fragore, quo cuncta terrebantur, cuncta ruebant, ex tot paratis insidiis vivos eripuit? 
Quis ex patrie, populate ruinis, ardentis cineribus, sanos et tutos evexit? Aut quis patrium solum egres-
sos ac alineno benigne receptos olim in patriam et revexit ac in tuto reposuit? Quis denique caput tuum 
damnatum, tot periculis expositum, nisi is cui fuerat commendatum, servavit incolume?« For leaving 
his post in order to flee, Vergerio’s father was at first condemned to death. Upon their return to Justi-
nopolis in 1483 he was acquitted, but the family never rose to the same distinguished position it held 
before. 
28 Vergerio’s two works that focus primarily on the region close to his hometown are De situ Iustinopolis 
and De republica Venetorum.
535 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
and unknown place. In this regard, you could give many ancient examples, 
yet you could hardly quote any worthier or one that would be dearer to 
me, than, as you have remarked, St. Jerome, my patron, ‚the star of the 
Church', to praise him in your words, and, as you ought to have added, of 
exceptional learning. He was born not far from my fatherland’s borders in 
a humble place, which became therefore revered before many other most 
splendid cities.« (Smith 1934, 145)29 
In this passage, Vergerio refers to one of the common topoi of the epideictic 
genre, which links the subject of praise to his birthplace. As recommended by the 
handbooks, when the homeland of the subject praised was already remarkable, 
the panegyrist should refer to it as foretelling the glory of the one being praised. 
In contrast, if their birthplace was humble or disreputable, this should be empha-
sized to point out how gloriously the subject being praised surpassed their little 
background (Kennedy 2003, 156). The reference clearly illustrates Vergerio’s in-
tentions and is underlined in his orations from Istria, where he highlights Jerome 
having departed for Rome to become »better and more learned«, despite his love 
for his homeland (McManamon 1999, 156).30 By emphasizing the proximity of St. 
Jerome’s origins and his birth town in this letter, Vergerio, in a way, binds himself 
with his successful compatriot. It was not only Jerome who rose above his humble 
origins but also Vergerio, coming from the same region—aligning his family and 
upbringing to a famous figure of an erudite theologian added to his promotion. 
Emphasis on the saint’s humanist activities presented St. Jerome as a model for 
imitation. Vergerio’s self-representation as a paragon of Jerome’s cult also shaped 
his portrait – in close resemblance to that of his patron.
5. Closing Remarks: Vergerio’s Orations in Parallel With 
Other Panegyrics on St. Jerome
Vergerio’s other panegyrics and letters are not only texts that invite for a closer 
examination, especially in a comparative context. By focusing on Jerome as the 
subject of praise, I have been able to locate a set of epideictic orations composed 
throughout the fifteenth century. The first one of these was delivered in 1410 in 
Padua by Nicolaus (Niccolò) Bonavia of Lucca.31 Soon after that, there was a simi-
29 »Sed, ut vix ullum dignius, ita nullum michi gratius adhibere potuisses quam quod Hieronymum memo-
ras, patronum meum, Ecclesie, ut voce tua suo cum titulo decorem, sidus, et, ut adicere debueras, 
summum doctrine, quem non procul a patrie mee finibus humilis locus sed hoc uno plurimis amplissi-
mis urbibus.« (Ep. 62, to Giovanni Zabarella)
30 The passage in fact turned out to be extremely far-reaching. Owing to Vergerio’s self-representation, 
the famous Italian historian Fabio Biondo (1392–1463) listed Vergerio and Jerome as the most prominent 
people from the region, and on this grounds classified Istria as an Italian province.
31 Biographical information about Bonavia is sparse. So far, the only detail I have been able to gather is 
that he was an erudite poet and at the time of delivering the oration, a student at the University of 
Padua. His oration is preserved in two manuscripts: Vatican library, BAV Vat. lat. 5994 3r–7v, and in 
Biblioteca Ambrosiana, R 92 sup. 2, 13r–17r.
536 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
lar oration in praise of St. Jerome in Siena, no later than 1447, by Agostino Dati.32 
They offer a contrast to Vergerio’s earlier work, and none of them represents Je-
rome as the personal patron of the authors or their families. Bonavia’s oration 
was delivered in 1410 in Padua (Rice 1988, 95). Instead of offering a personal mo-
tivation to praise St. Jerome, Bonavia employs the Platonic doctrine of the four 
cardinal virtues and introduces Jerome’s deeds as evidence of these virtues. His 
oration thus closely adheres to the scheme of ancient funerary encomia and is 
exceptionally detailed when it comes to Jerome’s biographical details. Dati’s ora-
tion offers a similar example and turns into a catalogue of Jerome’s translations. 
Again, there is no reference to Dati’s devotion to St. Jerome; on the contrary, the 
oration is characterized by a rather detached tone.
Another oration was delivered in Verona in 1453 by one of the first female hu-
manists, Isotta Nogarola.33 Instead of a detailed biography, Nogarola focuses on 
Jerome’s persistent pursuit of knowledge. Going against Jerome’s emphasis in his 
famous letter to Eustochium,34 she promoted his learning over the virtue of virgin-
ity, thus justifying her scholarly ambitions and using the oration as a personal apol-
ogy. Nogarola exploited the rhetoric tropes to position herself as a female author. 
Even though she did not offer her audience any explicit incentive to imitate the 
saint, the human quality of her portrayal of St. Jerome recalls Vergerio’s patron. 
However, compared to Vergerio’s works, these later pieces were less vivid in terms 
of authorial presence and the authors’ affection for St. Jerome. These orators did 
not offer any argumentation for their praise, and they did not present it as part of 
their devotion to the saint. Even if the pieces are long and meticulously crafted, 
they inspire far less emotional effect than Vergerio’s narrative. Curiously, however, 
none of these panegyrics attained such wide promulgation as did Vergerio’s; they 
often survived in a unique version. Vergerio’s panegyrics, in contrast, circulated 
in several manuscripts, even though none of them includes all ten orations (Mc-
Mannamon 1999, 137). Their presence in the volumes, originating from Northern 
Italy, suggests that the students often turned to them as models for their rhetori-
cal compositions, regardless of their interest in St. Jerome.
The humanist scholars already acknowledged this variety of epideictic ora-
tory in praise of civil or ecclesiastical governors. »Nobody remains unaware that 
panegyrics reflect not their subjects’ merits, but their author’s ingenuity,« stated 
Desiderius Erasmus (Rundle 2007, 159).35 Was the personal appropriation of St. 
Jerome and his representation as a patron saint one of the critical features of 
32 Agostino Dati: Incipit Oratio prima de laudibus divi Hieronymi. For a summary of his life, see Dizionario 
Biografico degli Italiani (1987, 15–21).
33 The oration was composed as a public welcome of the new Veronese bishop Ermolao Barbaro. It is 
translated to English in Nogarola’s Complete Writings, edited by Margeret L. King and Diana Maury 
Robin (2003, 159–74).
34 Ep. 22.7.
35 »Ac minus quidem laedunt Poetae Rhetoresque, quorum nemini iam ignotum est institutum, Principum 
laudes non ex ipsorum meritis, sed ex suo metiri ingenio.« (Desiderius Erasmus, Institutio Principis 
Christiani II, 2.4, 1335–1337 [Rundle 2007, 159]).
537 Anja Božič - »Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome
Vergerio’s authorship? It is impossible to speculate whether Nogarola’s oration 
would have made it to later collections were it not composed by a female ora-
trix, and therefore disseminated primarily in her local background. Nevertheless, 
Vergerio’s affectionate representation of St. Jerome as his and a humanist patron 
saint beyond any doubt promoted the dissemination of the famous Sermo 8, as 
well as contributed to Vergerio’s popularity as a rhetorician. The utilization of the 
historical background to give authority to a speech was widely acknowledged 
already by contemporary writers. To quote another famous humanist, Leonardo 
Bruni openly renounced the historical fidelity of praise while commenting on his 
panegyric to Florence: »History must follow the truth, but praise raises many 
things above the truth.« (1998, 487–88)36 Vergerio masterly raised his Jerome 
above all. Regardless of the veracity of his family devotion to St. Jerome, his ref-
erences are convincingly exploited in order to point out his path to proper ven-
eration of the saint: not only through imitations of Jerome’s piety but also, and 
especially, through the emulation of his eloquence.
References
36 »Aliud est historia aliud laudatio. Historia quidem veritatem sequi debet, laudatio verum multa supra 
veritatem extolit.« L. Bruni Epistolarum Libri VIII, ed. L. Mehus (Florence, 1714), Ep. 8.4.
Primary sources
Bonavia, Niccolò. 1416. Oratio de Ieronimi laudi-
bus habita coram episcopis anno 1410 Patavii. 
Vatican Library, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana 
Vat. lat. 5994 3r–7v; Biblioteca Ambrosiana, R 
92 sup.; 2,13r.
Dati, Augustino. 1502. Incipit Oratio prima de 
laudibus divi Hieronymi. In: Augustini dati se-
nensis opera, fol. 56b. Siena: Ex archetypo per 
Symionem Nicolai Nardi.
McManamon, John M, ed. 1999. Pierpaolo Verge-
rio the Elder and Saint Jerome: An Edition and 
Translation of Sermones pro Sancto Hieronymo. 
Tempe, AR: Center for Medieval and Renais-
sance Studies. 
Smith, Leonardo, ed. 1934. Epistolario di Pier Pao-
lo Vergerio. Rome: Tipografia del Senato.
Secondary sources 
Badurina-Stipčević, Vesna. 2013. Legenda o Je-
ronimu u starijoj hrvatskoj književnoj tradiciji 
[Jerome’s legend in old Croatian literary tradi-
tion]. Wiener Slawistischer Almanach 85:17–26.
Belting, Hans. 2014. St. Jerome in Venice: Giovan-
ni Bellini and the Dream of Solitary Life. I 
Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 17, no. 
1:5–33.
Bobovnik, Nena, and Gina Derhard. 2020. Eremita 
alter philosophus: Understanding Ascesis in 
Pagan and Christian Philosophy. Clotho 2, no. 
1:5–31.
Božič, Anja. 2020. Praising St. Jerome or Praising 
Eloquence: Pier Paolo Vergerio’s Sermones pro 
Sancto Hieronymo and His Letters. MA Thesis, 
Central European University.
Brown, Peter. 1989. Society and the Holy in Late 
Antiquity. Berkeley: University of California 
Press.
Cain, Andrew. 2009. The Letters of Jerome: Asceti-
cism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of 
Christian Authority in Late Antiquity. Oxford: 
Oxford University Press. 
Caplan, Harry. 1970. Of Eloquence: Studies in An-
cient and Mediaeval Rhetoric. Ithaca, NY: Cor-
nell University Press.
D’Avray, David, and Nicole Bériou. 1994. Modern 
Questions about Medieval Sermons: Essays on 
Marriage, Death, History and Sanctity. Spoleto: 
CISAM. 
Grubišić, Vinko. 2008. Trojica humanista o rod-
nome mjestu svetog Jeronima: Flavio Biondo, 
Marko Marulić i José De Espinoza De Sigüenza 
[Three humanists about the birthplace of St. 
Jerome: Flavio Biondo, Marko Marulić and José 
De Espinoza De Sigüenza]. Colloquia Maruliana 
17:227–298. 
538 Bogoslovni vestnik 81 (2021) • 2
Ivić, Ines. 2016. Jerome Comes Home: The Cult of 
Saint Jerome in Late Medieval Dalmatia. Hun-
garian Historical Review 5, no. 3:618–644.
Katchmer, Michael. 1998. Pier Paolo Vergerio and 
the Paulus, a Latin Comedy. New York: Peter 
Lang Publishing. 
Kennedy, George. 1999. Classical Rhetoric & Its 
Christian & Secular Tradition from Ancient to 
Modern Times. Chapel Hill: The University of 
North Carolina Press.
Klaniczay, Gábor. 2014. Using Saint: Intercession, 
Healing, Sanctity. In: John Arnold, ed. The Ox-
ford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, 217–
237. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Knowles Frazier, Alison. 2005. Possible Lives: Au-
thors and Saints in Renaissance Italy. New York: 
Columbia University Press.
Marinčič, Marko. 2018. Amore patriae teneri non 
potuit: dva Vergerija o Hieronimu in mejah lo-
kalnega patriotizma [Amore patriae teneri non 
potuit: Two Vergerios about Jerome and the 
limits of local patriotism]. In: Gregor Pobežin 
and Peter Štoka, ed. Secretarii Actiones Petri 
Pauli Vergerii, 10–25. Bibliotheca Iustinopolita-
na 9. Koper: Osrednja knjižnica Srečka Vilharja. 
McManamon, John M. 1996. Pierpaolo Vergerio 
the Elder: The Humanist as Orator. Tempe, AZ: 
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
– – –. 1985. Pier Paolo Vergerio (the Elder) and the 
Beginnings of the Humanist Cult of Jerome. 
The Catholic Review 71:3–32.
– – –. 2017. Funeral Oratory and the Cultural Ideals 
of Italian Humanism. Chapel Hill, NC: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press.
O’Malley, John W. 1979. Praise and Blame in Re-
naissance Rome: Rhetoric, Doctrine, and Re-
form in the Sacred Orators of the Papal Court, 
c. 1450–1521. Durham, NC: Duke University 
Press.
Pernot, Laurent. 1993. La Rhétorique de l’éloge 
dans le monde gréco-romain. Paris: Institut des 
Études Augustiniennes.
Rice, Eugene F. 1988. Saint Jerome in the Renais-
sance. Baltimore: John Hopkins University 
Press. 
Robey, David. 1973. P. P. Vergerio The Elder: Re-
publicanism and Civic Values in the Work of an 
Early Humanist. Past&Present 58:3–37.
Rundle, David. 1998. »Not so Much Praise as 
Precept«: Erasmus, Panegyric, and the Re-
naissance Art of Teaching Princes. In: Yun Lee 
Too and Niall Livingstone, eds. Pedagogy and 
Power: Rhetorics of Classical Learning, 148–69. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, Donald A., and Nigel G. Wilson. 1981. 
Menander Rhetor. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Simoniti, Primož. 1979. Humanizem na Slov-
enskem in slovenski humanisti do srede 16. 
stoletja [Humanism in Slovenia and Slovenian 
Humanists by the mid-16th Century]. Ljubljana: 
Slovenska Matica.
Valenčič, Rafko. 2007. Sveti Hieronim – mož s 
Krasa: prispevek k ubikaciji Stridona, rojstne-
ga kraja sv. Hieronima [St. Jerome – the man 
from the Karst: a contribution to the ubiety of 
Stridon, birthplace of St. Jerome]. Ljubljana: 
Družina; ZRC TEOF.
Vauchez, André. 1997. Sainthood in the Later Mid-
dle Ages. Translated by Jean Birrell. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press.
Verkholantsev, Julia. 2014. The Slavic Letters of 
St. Jerome: The History of the Legend and Its 
Legacy, or How the Translator of the Vulgate 
Became an Apostle of the Slavs. DeKalb, IL: NIU 
Press.
Visočnik, Julijana. 2018. Kvintilijanova Šola 
govorništva in pridiganje škofa Tomaža Hrena 
Hrena [Quintilianus’ Institutionis Oratoriae and 
Sermons of the Bishop Tomaž Hren]. Bogoslov-
ni vestnik 78, no.3:841–853.
Vitti, Paolo. 1987. Dati, Agostino. In: Dizionario 
Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 33. Rome: Istituto 
della Enciclopedia italiana.
Witt, Ronald G. 1990. Civic Humanism and the Re-
birth of the Ciceronian Oration. Modern Lan-
guage Quarterly 51:171–78.