Giles Antonini, O.E.S.A. | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal Priest ofSan Marcello al Corso | |
 | |
| Province | Holy See |
| Diocese | Bishop of Viterbo e Tuscania |
| Installed | 2 December 1523 |
| Term ended | 12 November 1532 |
| Predecessor | Ottaviano Visconti Riario |
| Successor | Giampietro Grassi |
| Other posts |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | c. 1495 |
| Consecration | December 1523 |
| Created cardinal | 1 July 1517 |
| Rank | Cardinal Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | unknown 1472 (1472) |
| Died | November 12, 1532(1532-11-12) (aged 59–60) |
| Buried | Basilica of Sant'Agostino,Rome, Italy |
| Parents | Lorenzo Antonini & Maria del Testa |
Giles AntoniniO.E.S.A.[1] commonly referred to asGiles of Viterbo (Latin:Ægidius Viterbensis,Italian:Egidio da Viterbo), was a 16th-century ItalianAugustinianfriar,bishop ofViterbo andcardinal, a reformingtheologian,orator,humanist andpoet. He was born in Viterbo and died inRome.
Antonini was born to humble parents and his given name is not known; his father was Lorenzo Antonini, ofCanepina, near Viterbo, and his mother, Maria del Testa.[2][3] He entered theOrder of St. Augustine in June 1488, at which time he was given the nameGiles. He began a course of studies at priories of the Order inAmeria,Padua,Istria,Florence andRome, studying philosophy, and later made adoctor of theology. He becameVicar General of the Order in 1506. Upon the death of thePrior General, he was elected as his successor at three successiveGeneral Chapters of the Order: in 1507, 1511 and 1515, with the patronage ofPope Julius II.
He was a noted preacher, presiding at several papal services ofPope Alexander VI. He also travelled widely, due to his responsibilities as head of the Order. This allowed him to be in touch with leading intellectual figures of the period, with whom he formed working collaborations. One friend,Giovanni Pontano, dedicated a work to him, entitledÆgidius.[4] He is famous in ecclesiastical history for the boldness and earnestness of the discourse which he delivered at the opening of theFifth Lateran Council, held in 1512, at theLateran Palace.[5]
Following his service to his Order, Antonini was elevated to the rank ofcardinal byPope Leo X in theconsistory of 1 July 1517, and given thetitular church ofSan Bartolomeo all'Isola, but he immediately had the appointment changed to the Church ofSan Matteo in Via Merulana. He resigned the office of Prior General in February 1519, and Pope Leo assigned him to severalsees in succession, employed him aslegate on important missions, notably toCharles of Spain, soon to become Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
His zeal for the genuine reformation of conditions in the Catholic Church prompted him to presentPope Adrian VI with apromemoria.[6] He was given the title ofLatin Patriarch of Constantinople in 1524.[4] When the riotous soldiers of Charles Vsacked Rome in 1527, Antonini's extensive library was destroyed, and he spent the next year living in exile inPadua. He requested the transfer of his titular church to the Church ofSan Marcello al Corso in 1530.[4] He was universally esteemed as a learned and virtuous member of the great pontifical senate, and manydeemed him destined to succeedPope Clement VII.
Antonini died in Rome and was buried in theBasilica of Sant'Agostino.[4]
Antonini knewMarsilio Ficino from a visit to Florence, and he was familiar withPico della Mirandola's interpretations of theKabbalah. His interest in theTalmud led him into correspondence withJohannes Reuchlin.[7]
He is known in Jewish history for taking in as patron thegrammarianElia Levita, who helped the cardinal's knowledge ofHebrew andAramaic. When the turmoil of war drove Levita fromPadua to Rome, he was welcomed at the palace of the cardinal with his family, where he was supported and lived for more than ten years. While there, Levita became the foremost tutor of Christian notables in Hebrew lore. The first edition of Levita'sBaḥur is dedicated to Antonini, who introduced Levita to classical scholarship and the Greek language. This enabled him to utilize Greek in his Hebrew lexicographic labours, a debt acknowledged by Levita, who dedicated hisConcordance in 1521 to the cardinal.
Antonini's main motive was to penetrate the mysteries of theKabbalah. He belonged to the group of sixteenth-centuryChristian kabbalists, includingJohann Reuchlin andPico della Mirandola. They believed thatJewish mysticism, particularly theZohar, contained incontrovertible testimony to the truth of the Christian religion. During Reuchlin's conflict with theobscurantists, concerning the preservation of Jewish books, the cardinal wrote to his friend in 1516: "While we labour on thy behalf, we defend not thee, but the law; not theTalmud, but the Church."
He also engaged another Jewish scholar,Baruch di Benevento, to translate theZohar for him. Benevento may also have been partly responsible for the numerous kabbalistic translations and treatises which appeared under the name of Ægidius. The cardinal was a collector of Hebrew manuscripts, many of which are still at theBavarian State Library, bearing both faint traces of his signature and brief Latin annotations.
In theBiblioteca Angelica at Rome, an old Hebrew manuscript is extant, which was given to Antonini byPope Leo X. The richly illuminated manuscript (Ms. Or 72), produced in the 14th century, contains Biblical texts in Hebrew, grammatical and rabbinic works.[8] TheBritish Museum contains a copy ofMakiri and theMidrash on theminor Prophets, written for the cardinal atTivoli, in the year 1514, byJohanan ben Jacob Sarkuse. The study ofJewish literature led the cardinal to a friendly interest in the Jews themselves, which he manifested both in his energetic encouragement of Reuchlin, and a vain attempt working with cardinalGeronimo de Ghinucci in 1531 to prevent the issue of the papal edict authorizing the introduction of theInquisition against theMaranos.
Antonini was a profound student of theScriptures and a good scholar inGreek as well asHebrew.Giovanni Pontano dedicated to him one of hisDialoghi.
The writings commonly attributed to Antonini are numerous. Most of them are to be found in manuscript form in theBibliothèque Nationale,Paris, but their authenticity is still to be established. Aside from minor works on the Hebrew language, the majority by far are of a cabalistic nature. There is scarcely a classic of Jewish medieval mysticism that he has not translated, annotated, or commented upon. Among these works may be mentioned theZohar.
Only a few of Antonini's writings have been printed in the third volume of theCollectio Novissima ofMartène. When urged byPope Clement VII to publish his works, he is said, by the Augustinian historian, Friar Tomás de Herrera, O.E.S.A., to have replied that he feared to contradict famous and holy men by his exposition of Scripture. The Pope replied that human respect should not deter him; it was quite permissible to preach and write what was contrary to the opinions of others, provided one did not depart from the truth and from the common tradition of the Church.[9]
Antonini's major original work is a historical treatise:Historia viginti sæculorum per totidem psalmos conscripta. It deals in a philosophical-historical way with the history of the world before and after the birth of Christ, is valuable for the history of its own time, and offers a certain analogy withBossuet's famousDiscours sur l'histoire universelle.
The six books of Antonini's important correspondence (1497–1523) concerning the affairs of his Order, much of which is addressed to Friar Gabriel of Venice, his successor as Prior General, are preserved in Rome in theBiblioteca Angelica. CardinalJoseph Hergenröther, a leadingChurch historian of the 19th century, praised particularly the circular letter in which Antonini made known (27 February 1519), his resignation of the office of Prior General of the Augustinian friars.[10]
Other of Antonini's known works are a commentary on the first book of theSentences ofPeter Lombard, threeEclogae Sacrae, a dictionary of Hebrew roots, aLibellus de ecclesiae incremento, aLiber dialogorum, and anInformatio pro sedis apostolicae auctoritate contraLutheranam sectam.
In 1518,Juan Gabriel of Teruel (formerly known as Ali Alayzar), a Muslim convert to Christianity, prepared a Latin translation of the Quran for Giles of Viterbo, who had commissioned the translation for the purpose of converting Muslims to Christianity.Leo Africanus, a Muslim convert who was a godson of Giles of Viterbo, revised the translation in 1525.[11][12][13] Surviving manuscripts of the translation are Cambridge MS Mm. v. 26 (C) and Milan MS D 100 inf. (M).[14][15] MS D 100 Inf was copied by Scottish scholar David Colville in 1621, from a manuscript at the library ofEl Escorial in Spain. Colville later brought the manuscript toMilan. Today, it is archived at theBiblioteca Ambrosiana.[16]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Egidio Colonna".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Aegidius of Viterbo".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
