ABSTRACT
Francesco Petrarca’s (Petrarch) predilection for Augustine has obscured the importance of Saint Jerome who, as the prototype of Christian philologists, was to inspire thinkers like Erasmus. What's more, or rather what's less, in the Familiares Jerome is merely invoked as one of the four of the Doctors of the Church, almost as if his presence were required by ecclesiastical protocol. In other works as well, Petrarch likewise places Jerome in this same distinguished company of the blessed. Indeed, Martin Luther drew a stark contrast between Jerome and Augustine that rewords Petrarch's affirmation of Augustine's supremacy with Germanic virulence: Collatio Augustini et Hieronimi. Besides his fascination with history and biography, Petrarch shared Jerome's predilection for writing letters. Petrarch dedicates only one brief paragraph to Jerome while devoting whole pages to Saint Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory. When Petrarch pays tribute to St Paula, he concedes that he is emulating Jerome's Epistle 108, and may therefore incur the censure of envious critics.
