The captive maiden of Deuteronomy 21:10-14 is no mere metaphor. Ausonius’s Bissula & Jerome in his letters followed Rabbi Akiba in understanding. … Read the post Ausonius’s Bissula & Jerome’s captive maiden: Rabbi Akiba understood
Jerome disparaged Homerocentones & Vergiliocentones, alluding to Proba’s Virgilian cento. Boccaccio and followers restitched Jerome’s words to praise Proba. … Read the post Homerocentones & Vergiliocentones from Jerome to Boccaccio and beyond
Book 4 of Lucretius’ De rerum natura urges men acting as slaves of love to swerve from dream vision to seeing the bodily reality of beloved women. … Read the post men desiring women must swerve from dream vision to bodily reality
Luxorius’s Paula, an eagerly remarrying widow, is a particularly perverse counterpart to Jerome’s Paula. … Read the post Luxorius refigured Jerome’s patron Paula as oft-remarrying widow
Mary of Egypt, the Former Harlot, trumped Jerome’s Life of Paul the First Hermit in competition for ascetic and spiritual primacy among desert hermits. … Read the post penitent harlot Mary of Egypt victorious in competition among hermits