Antibarbari Colloquia #3 Anna Usacheva: Letter as a Form of Publication in theCorpus Hieronymi

Seventy years ago, Evaristo Arns argued that Jerome and other Christian authors disseminated their books exclusively via private channels of friendly reading groups and private libraries. Since this practice of book dissemination via private channels basically overlapped with the correspondence routine, and since ancient authors often issued edited collections of their own letters, it stands to question whether letter could legitimately and unequivocally be considered as a form of publication? In my presentation I’m going to explore whether there is evidence to the effect that Jerome made a distinction between private and public letters, and also letters addressed to specific audience. Arns stated that Jerome did not believe in a limited private circulation. I’m going to question this approach. I will also discuss the influence of the letter genre on the form of some Hieronymian treatises and observe how the practise of dissemination shaped the literary form of Jerome’s compositions.