Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/704

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690
JUVENALIS.
JUVENCUS.

vo. Lips. 1801'; Gott. 1808, Lips. 1819; of Achaintre, 8vo. Paris, 1810; of Weber, 8vo. Weimar, 1825; and of Heinrich, 8vo. Bonn, 1839, effected probably everj-thing that our present re- sources will permit us to accomplish.

Our author appears to have been studied with extreme avidity upon the revival of letters, and the presses of the fifteenth century teemed with com- mentaries. The earliest were those of Angelus Sabinus and Domitius Calderinus, both published in fol. at Rome in 1474; followed by those of Georgius Merula, fol. Venet. 1478, and Tarvis, 1478; of Georgius Valla, fol. Venet. 1486; of Antonius Mancinellus, fol. Venet. 1 492 ; of Badius Ascensius, 4to. Lugd. 1498; of Joannes Britan- nicus, fol. Venet. 1499. To these may be added the annotations of Pulmannus, Pithoeus and Rigal- tius, attached to their editions, as specified above ; of Lubinus, 8vo, Rostoch. 16"()2, 4to. Hanov. 1603; of Famabius, 12mo. 1612, very often reprinted ; of Prateus, the Dolphin editor, 4to. Paris, 1684 ; of Heninnius, 4to. Ultraj. 1685, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 1696; and of Marshall, 8vo. Loud. 1723. The brief remarks of Coelius Curio, which were first ap- pended to the edition of Colinaeus, 8vo. Paris, 1528, and afterwards in a much enlarged and im- proved shape to that of Frobenius, fol. Basil, 1551, possess much merit. The old scholia were first printed in a complete form in the edition of Pithoeus, 8vo. Paris, 1585. The whole of the above have been repeatedly reprinted both entire and in selec- tions.

The student who provides himself with the edi- tions of Heninnius, 4to. Lugd. Bat. 1695; of Achaintre, of Ruperti, and of Heinrich, will possess every thing he can require. The commentary of Heinrich, written in German, is the best that has yet appeared.

The earliest English versions are those of Barten Holyday (best ed. fol. Oxford, 1673), and of Sir Robert Stapylton (best ed. fol. London, 1660), both of which enjoyed considerable popularity during the seventeenth century. Although the lines in Holyday are ludicrously quaint and rugged, the meaning of the original is for the most part re- presented with great fidelity, and the commentary attached may still be consulted with advantage. Dryden has rendered the first, third, sixth, tenth and sixteenth satires, in language full of genius and spirit, but always paraphrastic, and often inaccurate. The most faithful and scholarlike translation which has yet appeared is that of GifFord, 4to. Lond. 1 802 ; and much praise is due to that of Badham, at least to the second edition, published in Valpy's Family Classical Library.

All the ancient documents regarding the life of Juvenal will be found collected and arranged in the edition of Ruperti, and the various inferences de- duced from them have been fully discussed by Franke in his two dissertations, the first published at Altona and Leipzig, 8vo. 1 820 ; the second at Dorpat, fol. 1827; by C. Hermann, in his Dispvr tatio de Juvencdis Satirae Septimae Temporihus^ 4 to. Gott. 1843 ; by Pinzger, in Jahn's Jahrbueher fur PhUologie, vol. xiv. p. 261 ; and by Dlintzer, in the sixth supplemental volume to the same work, p. 373. [W. R.]

JUVENA′LIS, ST., a physician at Carthage in the 4th century after Christ, who was also in priest's orders. He afterwards left Africa, and went to Rome, where he was consecrated bishop of Namia in Umbria, May 3, a. d. 369. He converted many of the people to Christianity, and is said to have performed several miracles, both dunng his life, and also by his relics after his death, which took place Aug. 7, A. D, 376. His epitaph is preserved, and also a rhyming Latin hymn, which used to be sung in his honour by the church of Narnia, on the day on which his memory was observed, viz. May 3. {Acta Sanctor. May, vol. i. p. 376 ; Surius, de Probatl^ Sanctor. Hisfor. vol. vii. p. 361 ; Bzovius, Nomencl. Sane. Profess. Medicor.) [W. A. G.]

JUVENCUS VE′TTIUS AQUILI′NUS, one of the earliest among the Christian poets, flourished under Constantino the Great, was a native of Spain, the descendant of an illustrious family, and a presbyter of the church. These particulars, for which we are indebted chiefly to St. Jerome, com- prise the whole of our knowledge with regard to the personal history of this writer, who owes his repu- tation to the first of the two following works: —

1. Historiae Evangelicae Lihri IV.., published about A. D. 332, a life of Christ in hexameter verse, compiled from the four evangelists. The narrative of St. Matthew is taken as the ground- work, the additional facts supplied by the three others are interwoven in their proper places, the whole thus forming a complete harmony of the Gospels. The liberal praises bestowed upon Ju- vencus by divines and scholars, from St. Jerome down to Petrarch, must be understood to belong rather to the substance of the piece than to the form under which the materials are presented. We may honour the pious motive which prompted the undertaking, and we may bestow the same com- mendation upon the laborious ingenuity with which every particular recorded by the sacred historians, and frequently their very words, are forced into numbers ; but the very plan of the composition excludes all play of fancy and all poetical freedom of expression, while the versification, although fluent and generally harmonious, too often bids defiance to the laws of prosody, and the language, although evidently in many places copied from the purest models, betrays here and there evident indications of corruption and decaj^ The idea that this pro- duction might be employed with advantage in the interpretation of the Scriptures, inasmuch as it may be supposed to exhibit faithfully the meaning attached to various obscure passages in the early age to which it belongs, will not, upon examina- tion, be found to merit much attention.

2. Liber in Genesim, in 1541 hexameters, divided into as many chapters as the original ; an attempt, it would appear, to render the study of the Old Testament more generally popular by clothing it in a metrical dress, the plan and exe- cution being in every respect similar to the Historia Evangelica, For a long period the first four sec- tions alone were known to exist, and were va- riously ascribed by different critics to Tertullian, Cyprian, or Salvianus of Marseilles ; but the entire book, together with the real author, were made known in the beginning of the eighteenth century, from a MS. of the eleventh century, and published by Durand. (See below.)

3. St. Jerome and other ecclesiastical biographers mention some hexameters upon the sacraments, but of these no trace remains.

The Editio Princeps of the Historia Evangelica was printed at Deventer in Holland, 4to. 1490 ; it is inclnded in the Poelarum veterutn Eccles. Opera