Victor of Capua (Victor Capuanus) was a sixth-century bishop of Capua, in Italy. About his life nothing is known except what is found in his epitaph (C.I.L., 4503), which has been preserved, though the tomb itself has disappeared. This inscription simply states that his episcopate of thirteen years ended in April, 554. The authenticity of the inscription and its chronological data admit of no doubt. Victor is commemorated in the

Roman Martyrology The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...

on 17 October, as "eruditione et sanctitate conspicus". His original writings, preserved only in fragments, show him to have been a devoted student and a man of wide and varied learning. His best-known work is the ''

Codex Fuldensis The Codex Fuldensis, also known as the Victor Codex (Hessian State Library, ''Codex Bonifatianus I''), designated by F, is a New Testament manuscript based on the Latin Vulgate made between 541 and 546. The codex is considered the second most impo ...

'', one of the most ancient manuscripts of the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

, prepared under his direction, and which he himself revised and corrected. In this codex the place of the

Four Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

is taken by a harmony of the Gospels, or as he himself terms it in the preface, a single Gospel composed from the four. Victor was not certain that the harmony he used was identical with the '' Diatesseron'' of

Tatian Tatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (; la, Tatianus; grc, Τατιανός; syc, ܛܛܝܢܘܣ; c. 120 – c. 180 AD) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century. Tatian's most influential w ...

. The discovery of the text of the latter work and recent investigation have made it clear that this Latin harmony used by Victor was drawn up about A.D. 500. The anonymous author of this work simply substituted the Latin of St. Jerome's Vulgate for the Greek of Tatian, and at times changed the order or inserted additional passages. Many of the discrepancies may be due however to subsequent changes. Other works by Victor were: *"De cyclo paschali" written about 550 in refutation of the "Cursus paschalis" of Victorius. Only a few fragments of this work have survived ('' Patrologia Latina'', LXVIII, 1097–98;

Jean Baptiste François Pitra Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

, "Spic. Solesm.", I, 296) *commentaries on the Old and New Testament, for the most part catenae of quotations from the Greek exegetes *"Libelius reticulus seu de arca Noe" (Pitra, "Spic. Solesm.", I, 287), containing an ingenious allegorical computation showing that the dimensions of the ark typified the years of Christ's earthly life *"Capitula de resurrectione Domini" dealt with some of the chief difficulties regarding Christ's genealogy and the hour of the Crucifixion as recorded in the Evangelists.

References

* Ferdinando Ughelli, ''Italia sacra'', VI, 306 * Jean Baptiste Francois Pitra, ''Spicilegium solesmense'', I (Paris, 1852), p. 1 sq., 265 sq., 287, 296 *

Theodor Zahn Theodor Zahn or Theodor von Zahn (10 October 1838 in Moers – 5 March 1933 in Erlangen) was a German Protestant theologian, a biblical scholar. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Career Zahn was born in Moers of the ...

, ''Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons'', II, 535 *

Otto Bardenhewer Bertram Otto Bardenhewer (Mönchengladbach, 16 March 1851 – Munich, 23 March 1935) was a German Catholic patrologist. His ''Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur'' is a standard work, re-issued in 2008. For Bardenhewer, a patrologist was no ...

(translator Thomas J. Shahan), ''Patrology'', p. 628. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Victor of Capua 6th-century Italian bishops Bishops of Capua Medieval Italian theologians 6th-century Christian theologians 6th-century Italian writers 6th-century Latin writers