the prefatory letter, he decided to translate Basil mainly to share his own
knowledge and experience with others. He also notes that no science truly
merits its name until it is transmitted to others orally or in writing. More to the
point, the experience and knowledge he wants to transmit in this particular
instance is his admiration for Basil as an excellent and severe critic of morals
and Christian discipline. In Maffei’s view, Basil has been called‘the Great’due
to his exceptional eloquence and the austerity of his lifestyle. Thus the purpose
behind Maffei’s edition is clearly educational, and although the link Basil
might provide with pagan letters is not mentioned explicitly, it is clear that
Maffei assesses him according to literary rather than doctrinal criteria.
A very interesting reversal of those criteria occurs in the Köln edition of the
works of Basil edited by Gottfried Hittorp and printed by Eucharius Cervicorn in
1523 and again in 1531 without significant changes.^36 Pirating the Paris edition of
1520,^37 Hittorp and Cervicorn operate one significant change not of content but
of order of the treatises as published by Maffei, which the Paris edition had kept
intact. They shiftAd iuvenesfrom among Basil’s homilies and move it to the
section which comprises Basil’s ascetic works. This suggests that Gottfried Hittorp
(1490–1573) wanted the reading of pagan authors to be viewed as an intrinsic part
of all monastic training and considered it to be more spiritual an occupation than
a mere introduction to theology. When we remember that the University of Köln
did not particularly encourage the publication of pagan authors, this was a good
way of presentingAd iuvenesbecause it showed the university authorities that
their view had not been shared by venerable church fathers.
When we now look at the early Greek editions of Basil, thefirst of these
consisted of a few letters of his published in a collection which included both
sacred and pagan authors such as Isocrates and Apollonius. The book appeared
in Venice from the presses of Aldus Manutius in 1499. Significantly, it was
intendedfirst and foremost for the use of teachers of Greek.^38 As Manutius
explains in his preface dedicated to Antonio Urceo (1446–1500), the Italian
humanist who taught grammar and eloquence in Bologna,^39 the publication is
intended as a gift to Urceo and to his students so that they pursue humanities
with even greater zeal. Post-Reformation editions of Basil, regardless of whether
they are Catholic or Protestant, tend to neglect the link between Basil and profane
letters and turn increasingly towards theology and confessional polemics.
One interesting exception to this is Janus Cornarius’s Latin edition of Basil,
which does not take up any existing translations. In 1540 Cornarius did a
(^36) Gottfried Hittorp (ed.),Divi Basilii Magni Caesariensis episcopi eruditissima opera...(Köln:
Eucharius Cervicorn, 1523). See also Backus,Lectures,26–7.
(^37) See also Backus,Lectures,25–6.
(^38) Cf. V. M. Bessières,‘La tradition manuscrite de la correspondance de saint Basile’,Journal
of Theological Studies21 (1919–20), 13.
(^39) See Carlo Malagola,Della vita e delle opere di Antonio Urceo detto Codro: studi e ricerche
(Bologna: Fava e Garagnani, 1878).
The Church Fathers and the Humanities 47