Editing Cornelius a Lapide

{{short description|Flemish Jesuit priest and exegete (1567 – 1637)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|birth_place=[[Bocholt, Belgium|Bocholt]], [[Spanish Netherlands]]|death_place=[[Rome]], [[Papal States]]|birth_name=Cornelis Cornelissen van den Staen|honorific_suffix=[[Jesuits|SJ]]|honorific_prefix=The Reverend}}
'''Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide''' {{post-nominals |post-noms= [[Society of Jesus |SJ]]}} (''né'' Cornelis Cornelissen van den Steen; 18 December 1567 – 12 March 1637) was a [[Flemish people|Flemish]] [[Catholic]] [[Catholic priest |priest]]. He was a [[Jesuit]] and [[exegete]] of [[Bible|Sacred Scripture]].<ref>{{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia |wstitle=Cornelius Cornelii à Lapide |volume=4 |first= Johannes Peter Van |last= Kasteren}}</ref>

==Life==

Lapide was born in [[Bocholt, Belgium]]. He studied humanities and philosophy at the [[Jesuits|Jesuit]] colleges in [[Maastricht]] and [[Cologne]], first theology for half a year at the [[University of Douai]] and afterwards for four years at the [[Old University of Leuven]]; he entered the Society of Jesus on 11 June 1592 and, after a [[novitiate]] of two years and another year of theology, was ordained a [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|Catholic priest]] on 24 December 1595. After teaching philosophy for half a year, he was made a professor of [[Bible|Sacred Scripture]] at Leuven in 1596 and professor of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in 1597. During his professorship at Leuven, he spent his holidays preaching and administering the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|Sacraments]], especially at the pilgrimage of [[Scherpenheuvel]] (Montaigu). 

In 1616, Lapide was called to [[Rome]] in the same capacity, where, on 3 November, he assumed the office that he held for many years thereafter. The latter years of his life, however, he apparently devoted himself exclusively to completing and correcting his commentaries. He died in Rome on 12 March 1637.

Lapide described himself in a prayer to the [[Prophets of Christianity|prophets]] at the end of his commentary on the ''[[Book of Daniel]]'': "For nearly thirty years I suffer with and for You [God] with gladness the continual [[Martyr|martyrdom]] of religious life, the martyrdom of illness, the martyrdom of study and writing; obtain for me also, I beseech You, to crown all, the fourth martyrdom, of blood. For You I have spent my vital and animal spirits; I will spend my blood too."

==Works==
[[File:Christus en Serafijnen Titelpagina voor Cornelius a Lapide, Commentaria in quatuor prophetas maiores, 1622, RP-P-2016-722.jpg|thumb|Cornelius a Lapide, ''Commentaria in quatuor prophetas maiores''. Antwerpen: Nutius, Martinus (III), 1622.]]

Cornelius a Lapide wrote commentaries on all the books of the Catholic Canon of Scripture, i.e., including the [[deuterocanonical books]], except the [[Book of Job]] and the [[Psalms]]. Even before departing [[Flanders]], he edited the ''Commentaries in omnes divi Pauli epistolas'' in 1614 and ''In Pentateuchum'' (''On the [[Pentateuch]]'') in 1616, both in [[Antwerp]]. The commentaries on the Greater and Lesser Prophets, [[Acts of the Apostles]], Canonical [[Epistle]]s and the [[Revelation of Saint John|Apocalypse of Saint John]], [[Book of Sirach|Wisdom of Sirach]], and [[Book of Proverbs]] followed later. The remainder were edited posthumously, and all of them have been re-edited several times severally and collectively. Of the ''Commentary on the [[Pauline epistles|Epistles of Saint Paul]]'' he lived to see at least 11 editions.

The complete series, with the Book of Job and the Psalms added by others, was published in Antwerp in 1681 and 1714; in [[Venice]] in 1717, 1740, and 1798; in [[Cologne]] in 1732; in [[Turin]] in 1838; in [[Lyons]] in 1839–42, 1865, and 1866; in [[Malta]] in 1843–46; in [[Naples]] in 1854; in [[Lyons]] and [[Paris]] in 1855 and 1856; in [[Milan]] in 1857; and in [[Paris]] in 1859–63. To the most widely mentioned edition, Crampon and Péronne added complementary annotations from later interpreters. A large work in four volumes, ''Les trésors de Cornelius a Lapide: extraits de ses commentaires de l'écriture sainte à l'usage des prédicateurs, des communautés et des familles chrétiennes'' by Abbé Barbier was published in [[Le Mans]] and [[Paris]] in 1856, re-edited in [[Paris]] in 1859, 1872, 1876, 1885, and 1896; and translated into Italian by F. M. Faber and published in [[Parma]] in 1869–70, in 10 volumes over 16 months.

All of the aforementioned commentaries are great in scope. They explain not only the literal, but also the [[Allegory|allegorical]], [[Tropological reading|tropological]], and [[Anagoge|anagogical]] senses of the Sacred Scriptures and provide numerous quotations of the [[Church Fathers]] and mediaeval interpreters. Like most of his predecessors and contemporaries, a Lapide intended to serve the historical and scientific study of the Sacred Scriptures and, more so, pious meditation and especially [[homily|homiletic]] exposition. An extract from the commentary on the ''Acts of the Apostles'' appeared in 1737 in [[Tyrnau]] under the title ''Effigies Sancti Pauli, sive idea vitae apostolicae''. 

== Legacy and translations ==
G. H. Goetzius authored an academic dissertation, ''Exercitatio theologica de Cornelii a Lapide Commentariis in Sacram Scripturam'' (Leipzig, 1699), in which he praised a Lapide as the most important Catholic scriptural commentator. 

Thomas W. Mossman, an [[Anglican]] clergyman, translated some of the New Testament commentaries into English under the title ''The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide'' (London, 1876):

* The [[Gospel|Four Gospels]]

* The epistles to the [[First Epistle to the Corinthians|Corinthians]] and the [[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]]

* St. John's [[Johannine epistles|1st, 2nd and 3rd epistles]]

A manuscript in the [[Vatican Library]] contains an Arabic translation of the ''Commentary on the Apocalypse of Saint John'' by the [[Maronite]] Yusuf ibn Girgis (beginning of the eighteenth century), who also purportedly translated the ''Commentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Catholic|wstitle=Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide}}

==External links==
* {{treccani|cornelio-a-lapide|Cornelio a Lapide|Agostino Faggiotto|1933}}
* [http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/newtestament/Lapide.htm The Great Biblical Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide (most of the New Testament)]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=cornelius%20lapide%20AND%20collection%3Atoronto Scanned Volumes of the Commentary (archive.org)]
* [http://cdigital.dgb.uanl.mx/la/1080014741_C/1080014741_C.html Lapide's complete commentary in Latin (1891, page photographs)]
* [https://www.ecatholic2000.com/lapide/untitled.shtml (3rd ed. John Hodges, London, 1887)]
* [http://catholicapologetics.info/scripture/newtestament/generalpreface.htm (4th ed. John Hodges, London,1890)]

* {{Librivox author |id=15903}}

{{portal bar|Belgium|Biography|Catholicism}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapide, Cornelius a}}
[[Category:1567 births]]
[[Category:1637 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Limburg (Belgium)]]
[[Category:Jesuits from the Spanish Netherlands]]
[[Category:Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic biblical scholars]]
[[Category:University of Douai alumni]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic theologians from the Spanish Netherlands]]
[[Category:Jesuit theologians]]
[[Category:17th-century biblical scholars]]
[[Category:16th-century Christian biblical scholars]]
[[Category:17th-century Christian biblical scholars]]