»Movere et delectare« after St. Jerome: Pier Paolo Vergerio's Fifth Sermon pro Sancto Hieronymo

The present paper analyzes the personal devotion to St. Jerome as expressed in the works of Pier Paolo Vergerio, one of the leading humanist authors of his generation. Jerome’s simultaneous investment in theology and classical learning made him a famed saint among the humanists. By transforming St. Jerome into a model of a pious scholar, Vergerio was, therefore, one of the key proponents in the dissemination of St. Jerome’s cult in the Renaissance. Vergerio’s ten lively Sermones pro Sancto Hieronymo (1392–1408) are considered the earliest examples of the classicizing orations (panegyrics) in the context of devotional public oratory. Vergerio includes traditional elements of Jerome’s hagiography in his orations yet charges them with a personal dimension. Referring to the ancient tradition of his family, Vergerio portrays St. Jerome as their protector and patron saint and commends his recently deceased father into the saint’s care. There is, however, no extant information about the family’s rituals regarding St. Jerome and Vergerio does not refer to their devotion in all of his orations in honour of the saint. This paper explores Vergerio’s creation of a personal cult of St. Jerome and interprets it as a self-fashioning device, aiming to establish Vergerio as an eloquent humanist intellectual.