Albrecht Drer's St.

Jerome in His Study: A Philological Reference

Author(s): Peter W. Parshall
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sep., 1971), pp. 303-305
Published by: College Art Association
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303

Albrecht Dairer's St. Jerome in His

A Philological Reference*

Study.

PeterW. Parshall
Albrecht Diirer's masterly engraving of St. Jerome in His
Study (Fig. I), dated 1514, evokes an ideal of contemplative
solitude which bore a special appeal for humanists of the
Renaissance. The venerable church father is bent in concentration in the warm serenity of his study, accompanied by a
lion, his legendary companion. His monastic cell, fully
appointed with the attributes of a scholarly life, is cast in
a rigidly constructed mathematical perspective which conveys an image of exacting intellectual and spiritual discipline.1 Here nothing appears to be out of place, with the
exception of a single detail which, despite its insistent
obtrusiveness, has gone almost without mention in analyses
of the print.
Suspended above the threshold in the immediate foreground is a large, ripe gourd still retaining its leaves and
vine as if freshly cut from the garden. The meticulous care
with which this engraving is composed and our general
knowledge of Duirer's use of plant symbolism indicate that
so prominent a motif must have some particular significance.2 Specific identification of the plant itself poses no
difficulty. It is a common variety of gourd classified in the
Latin genus Cucurbita and known in German as Kiirbis.3 A
woodcut illustration (Fig. 2) taken from the German edition
of a herbal published in 1485 provides an adequate though
crudely schematized likeness.4
Diirer's inclusion of the gourd is indeed meaningful, for
this very plant was the subject of a philological controversy
which concerned Jerome for at least a decade. The debate
to which it refers involves a biblical passage from the Book
ofJonah (4:6): "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and
made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow
over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was
exceeding glad of the gourd."5 In his edition of the Latin
Vulgate Jerome translates the name of this plant as hedera,
a type of ivy, rejecting the older Latin reading of cucurbita
or gourd. As we learn from his commentary on the Book of

Jonah written ca. 396, Jerome was attacked fiercely for this
alteration.6 In the lengthy section of his commentary devoted to this verse Jerome argues with satirical vehemence
against his critics.
Characteristically, Jerome concentrates on the Hebrew
text as a basis for his interpolation. Jerome recognizes that
the Hebrew term for the plant - ciceion or kikayon- refers to
the castor oil plant which grew abundantly in Palestine.
He notes that the botanical nature of this leafy vine which
sprouts quickly and withers in the sunlight accords well with
that described in the Bible. Since Jerome knows of no Latin
or Greek word for the castor oil plant he selects hederawhich
he implies is physically closer than the cucurbitato the ciceion.
Furthermore, he insists that the Greek term used in the
Septuagint version of the Jonah passage is more correctly
rendered hederathan cucurbitaas earlier translators had maintained. The conflict over Jonah's bower flared up again
later in Africa, provoking an important exchange of letters
between Jerome and Augustine in the years 403-04.7
The debate over Jonah's gourd is particularly intriguing
because it indicates Jerome's preferences as a text critic,
displays his practical knowledge of natural history, and
demonstrates his insistence on establishing the physical
plausibility of biblical events. Such a controversy was bound
to attract the eye of Renaissance humanists who lauded St.
Jerome above all for his critical abilities as a scholar.
At just the time that Diirer's engraving of 1514 appeared,
Erasmus of Rotterdam was engaged in preparations for a
complete publication of Jerome's works. He had already
proposed an edition of the letters in 1512, and he became
general editor of the complete works which appeared from
the presses of Johannes Froben at Basel in 1516.8 Erasmus,
Johannes Reuchlin, and Johannes Amerbach collaborated
with innumerable other classical scholars and Hebraicists
on this monumental undertaking. Their writings reflect the
philological orientation of biblical humanism and its

* I would like to
express my gratitude to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for having supported my research at the Warburg Institute, London.
1 E. Panofsky, AlbrechtDiirer, Princeton, 1943, 1, 154-56;
II, handlist No.
167. For general studies of the subject: A. Venturi, L'artea San Girolamo,
Milan, 1924; A. Strtimpell, "Hieronymus im Gehiuse," Marburger
Jahrbuchfiir Kunstwissenschaft,11, 1925-26, 173-252; 0. Piicht, "Zur
Entstehung des 'Hieronymus im Gehaus,"' Pantheon,xxI, 1963, 131-42.
2 For specific studies of Dtirer's
plant symbolism: S. Killermann, A.
Diirers Pflanzen- und Tierzeichnungen,Strasbourg, 1910; R. Wustmann,
"Von einigen Tieren und Pflanzen bei Diirer," Zeitschriftfiir bildende
Kunst, n.s., xxu, 1911, 109-16; L. Behling, "Betrachtungen zu einigen
Diirer-Pflanzen," Pantheon,xxiiI, 1965, 279-91.
3 Variant spellings of the plant
or TurkenKiirbis,also called Turbankiirbis
bund-Kiirbisdue to its characteristic shape, are given in J. Grimm and
W. Grimm, Deutsches Wirterbuch,Leipzig, 1873, v, 2797-99; and H.
der deutschenPflanzennamen,Leipzig, 1970, II, II52f.
Marzell, W4adrterbuch
Killermann, DiirersPflanzen,38f., identifies the plant as Cucurbitalagenaria
L.

4 Johannes de Cuba, Hortussanitatis, pub. Peter Sch6ffer, Mainz, 1485Facsimile ed., W. L. Schreiber, Munich, 1924, chap. xci.

5The

King James version.

6 St. Jerome: Commentariain Jonam Prophetam,Migne, PatrologiaLatina,
25, I147-49. The text of the commentary, with a French translation,
useful introduction and documentation, is given in P. Antin, SaintJer6me
surJonas, Paris, 1956, see esp. 31f., Io8ff. The gourd was often included
in depictions of the Jonah story already in catacomb paintings and early
sarcophagi: F. Cabrol and H. Leclercq, Dictionnaired'archeologiechre'tienneet de liturgie,Paris, 1927, vii, 2572ff.
7 St. Jerome: Epistolae,CiV,5-6; cxII, 22, Migne, PatrologiaLatina, xxiu,
833f., 93of. respectively. Antin, Jerdme, lo9, n. I; and Y. M. Duval,
sur Jonas de saint Jor6me," Revuedes
"Saint Augustin et le Commentaire
etudes Augustiniennes,
xu, 1968, 9-40, with further bibliography and an
account of the controversy.
8 OpusEpistolarumDes. ErasmiRoterodami,ed. P. S.
Allen, Oxford, 1910,
i, 21 of., discusses the circumstances of publication.

304

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2 Gourd plant, Hortussanitatis,1485 (photo: courtesy of the

Warburg Institute)
emphasis on the purification of religious texts. Correspondence from this period is filled with references to Hebrew,
Greek and Latin textual problems involving Jerome's Vulgate and commentaries.9 Hence, it is reasonable to suppose
that Diirer's use of the gourd in this context would have
been intelligible to the extensive circle of Northern scholars
concerned with text revision - men who revered Jerome as
a patron saint of biblical studies.10 Willibald Pirkheimer and
Johannes Amerbach are among several of Diirer's acquaintances who could have suggested the motif. Furthermore,
DiUrer's own connection with Jerome's works can be dated

as early as 1492 when the artist designed a woodcut frontispiece for Nicolaus Kessler's edition of Jerome's letters.11
This illustration is unusual in that it places particular emphasis on Jerome's correlation of texts by displaying prominently three codices meticulously inscribed with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts for Genesis I.
The connection between the gourd in Dilrer's St. Jerome
and Jonah's vine may contribute a further dimension to our
understanding of the print's symbolic message. It has been
previously suggested that the perishable fruit might be intended as a symbol of transience,12 and this is in a sense its

ed. L. Geiger, Ttibingen,

9 For example,JohannReuchlins
Briefwechsel,

Erasmus retained hederain his edition of the Latin Bible (1522), whereas
Martin Luther's German translation adopted Kuiirbis.

1875, II12f., I28f.,

I30f.,

Opus Epistolarum, I, 4Ioff.;

ii, 86ff. Some years

afterthe appearanceof the 1516JeromeeditionErasmusmakesa direct

referenceto the gourd controversy:DesideriiErasmiOperaOmnia,ed. J.
Clericus,Hildesheim,1962, Ix, I37B. For a discussionof the pictorial
analogiesrelatingErasmusand St. Jerome see: G. Marlier,Erasmeet la
desontemps,Damme, 1954, I69ff.
peintureflamande
10
Dtirer'schoice of the gourdratherthanJerome'snondescriptvine as
an allusionto the controversyseemsjustifiedby the fact that a gourdis
favoredin the pictorialtraditionand would thusbe morereadilyidentified as a referenceto the Jonah passage.It is interestingto note that

11 Panofsky,

Diirer, I, 26f.; II, 414, fig. 32. The success of this often-

repeated composition initiated Dtirer's long association with Basel publishing houses.
12 P. Reuterswdird,"Sinn und Nebensinn bei
Dtirer. Randbemerkungen
zur 'Melancholia I,' " Gestaltund Wirklichkeit.
FestgabefiirFerdinandWeinhandl, ed. R. Muhlher, Berlin, 1967, 424-29. Later emblematic compendia also use the gourd as a symbol of vain pride. A. Henkel, Emblemata,
Stuttgart,

tatem."

1967, 331f., e.g. Alciati's emblem

"In momentaneam

foelici-

DiURER'S

significance in the biblical tale, for the gourd "came up in

a night, and perished in a night" at the Lord's command
(Jonah 6:1o). Hence the gourd may not only allude to an
obscure philological issue, but, like the ominous skull resting
on St. Jerome's window sill, caution against the vanity of
all temporal pursuits.
Acceptance of the gourd in Diirer's St. Jerome as a veiled
allusion to a philological dispute would tend to strengthen
the proposed link between this engraving and its contemporary, the complex Melancolia I. Documents reveal that
these two prints were frequently distributed together, even
discussed as a pair, and were probably intended at least on
one level for a highly intellectual audience.13 The objects
which surround Diirer's figure of Melancholia symbolize
both the skills and the frustrations of secular genius. Similarly the pendant gourd, as a reference to Jerome's philological expertise, enhances the image of St. Jerome in His Study
as an ideal of theological wisdom.
Reed College

13 Panofsky, Diirer, I, I56. W. M. Conway, LiteraryRemainsof Albrecht

Diirer, Cambridge, 1889, ioo, 103, 104. H. Lidecke and S. Heiland,
Diirer unddie Nachwelt, Berlin, 1955, 24-

"ST

JEROME"

305