Dom Henri Quentin (7 October 1872, Saint-Thierry - 4 February 1935,

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) was a French

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk. A

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

specializing in biblical texts and

martyrologies A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by na ...

, he was the creator of an original method of

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

(sometimes called the neo-Lachmannian method). He pioneered techniques to compare texts and produce trees of relationships between version and editions in order to study their origins and variations.

Life

After studying theology at the seminary of

Rheims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

, he joined in 1892 Maredsous Abbey and in 1897

Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Gu� ...

. He was ordained priest in 1902. In 1907, he was called to Rome to direct the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate, newly created by Pope Pius X and entrusted to the Order of St Benedict. It was during this time that he was faced with a wide range of versions of texts with differences. This forced him to explore the editions systematically using quantitative approaches. In March 1914, he was appointed consultant to the liturgical section of the

Sacred Congregation of Rites The Sacred Congregation of Rites was a congregation of the Roman Curia, erected on 22 January 1588 by Pope Sixtus V by '' Immensa Aeterni Dei''; it had its functions reassigned by Pope Paul VI on 8 May 1969. The Congregation was charged with the ...

. The Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate was transformed in 1933 into the

Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City The Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City ( la, Abbatia pontificia sancti Hieronymi in urbe; it, San Girolamo in urbe) was a Benedictine monastery in Rome founded in 1933 for the purpose of creating a critical edition of the Vulgate. The abbey ...

, where he became the first abbot.

Method

Faced with the enormous mass of manuscripts of the Bible, and the special relationship of copyists with this text, Dom Quentin was obliged to change the approach he had adopted for martyrologies and criticize the methods traditionally applied in the establishment of a '' stemma codicum''. The method of Dom Quentin has been much discussed and often criticized, but has attracted interest because of its arithmetical character and its capacity for automation. Quentin's method is identical to what is used in phylogenetic analysis for the study of evolution to produce unrooted trees.

Publications

* '' Jean-Dominique Mansi et les grandes collections conciliaires'', Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1900. * ''Les martyrologes historiques du Moyen Âge : étude sur la formation du Martyrologe romain'', Paris, 1908. *
Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate
'. 1^ère partie : '' Octateuque'', Paris, Gabalda, 1922 (Collectanea biblica latina VI). * ''Essais de critique textuelle ( Ecdotique)'', Paris, Picard, 1926. * Hippolyte Delehaye (S.J.) et Henri Quentin (O.S.B.), '' Acta sanctorum novembris'', tomi II pars posterior, qua continetur Hippolyti Delehaye commentarius perpetuus in

Martyrologium Hieronymianum The ''Martyrologium Hieronymianum'' (meaning "martyrology of Jerome") or ''Martyrologium sancti Hieronymi'' (meaning "martyrology of Saint Jerome") is an ancient martyrology or list of Christian martyrs in calendar order, one of the most used a ...

ad recensionem Henrici Quentin, Bruxelles, Société des Bollandistes, 1931.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quentin, Henri Benedictine Biblical scholars Benedictine abbots French philologists 1872 births 1935 deaths

Life

Method

Publications

Further reading

References