French theologian, historian, priest and philosopher (died 1240)
Seal of Jacques de Vitry as bishop of Acre.
Jacques de Vitry (Jacobus de Vitriaco, c. 1160/70 – 1 May 1240) was a Frenchcanon regular who was a noted theologian and chronicler of his era.
He was elected bishop of Acre in 1214 and made cardinal in 1229.
His Historia Orientalis (also known as Historia Hierosolymitana) is an important source for the historiography of the Crusades.
In 1214 Jacques was elected Bishop of Acre. He received episcopal consecration and arrived at his see in 1216. He was subsequently heavily involved in the Fifth Crusade, participating in the siege of Damietta from 1218 to 1220. In 1219 he began to write the Historia Hierosolymitana, a history of the Holy Land from the advent of Islam until the crusades of his own day, but only two parts were completed. He returned to Europe in 1225.
From a document issued by Pope Gregory on 14 May 1240 it appears that de Vitry, shortly before his death, had been elected as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, but this election was either not ratified by the Pope or he rejected it himself.
Manuscript of Sermones Vulgares, 13th century, by Jacques de Vitry
Aside from the Historia, his works include hundreds of sermons, and letters to Pope Honorius III. He also wrote about the immoral life of the students at the University of Paris and the holy life of the BeguinesofLiège, in particular his Life of Marie d'Oignies, whose advice inspired him to become a canon regular.[3]
Jacques de Vitry was fascinated by the powers held by the beguines, such that they were paralleled with the priests of the time, yet functioned outside the church proper.[4] Although this movement was unrecognized in the church, Jacques made appeal to Pope Honorius III to legitimize the work of their community, as well as the Liège diocese, all France and throughout the Holy Roman Empire.[5]
In 2015, the CROMIOSS project, led by the Archaeological Society of Namur (SAN) in partnership with several Belgian universities and research institutes, undertook an interdisciplinary scientific study around the reliquary of Jacques de Vitry, located in the church of Saint Marie d’Oigines in Belgium. Anthropological, isotopic and genetic analyses indicated a high likelihood that the remains were in fact those of Jacques de Vitry.[6] His unique parchment mitre was also analysed.[7] Forensic work on the skull, supplemented with DNA evidence, also allowed for the creation of a visual reconstruction of what the bishop might have looked like.[8][9] The remains were reinterred at Oignies in 2019.[10]
Orientalis et occidentalis Historia. ed. F. Moschi, ex officina typographica Balthazaris Belleri, Douai, 1596, (archive.org, online facsimile).
Historia Hierosolimitana. ed. Jacques Bongars, in: Gesta Dei Per Francos, Sive Orientalium Expeditionum, Et Regni Francorum Hierosolimitani Historia. 1611, (online facsimile).
John Frederick Hinnebusch (ed.): The Historia occidentalis of Jacques de Vitry. A Critical Edition (= Spicilegium Friburgense. Texte zur Geschichte des kirchlichen Lebens. vol. 17, ISSN0561-6158). The University Press, Fribourg 1972.
Jacques de Vitry. Historia Orientalis, ed. Jean Donnadieu, 2008.
Sermones de tempore. Kreuzherrenkonvent, Düsseldorf 1486, (Digitized)
Sermones de Tempore. In aedibus viduae & haeredum Ioannis Steelsij, Antwerpen 1575.
Iacobus de Vitriaco. Sermones vulgares vel ad status I, éd. J. Longère (Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 255), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2013 (ISBN978-2-503-54532-5)
Sermones vulgares. In: Analecta Novissima Spicilegii solesmensis. Disseruit Joannes Baptista Pitra. Band 2. Typis Tusculanis, Paris 1888, (excerpts).
The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry (= Publications of the Folk-Lore Society. 26, ZDB-ID401527-7). Edited with introduction, analysis, and notes by Thomas Frederick Crane. Nutt, London 1890, (archive.org).
Joseph Greven (ed.): Die Exempla aus den Sermones feriales et communes des Jakob von Vitry (= Sammlungen mittellateinischer Texte. 9, ZDB-ID500169-9). Winter, Heidelberg 1914, (archive.org).
Goswin Frenken, Die Exempla des Jacob von Vitry. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Erzählungsliteratur des Mittelalters (= Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters. vol. 5.1, ZDB-ID516355-9). Beck, München 1914.
^Fulton, Rachel, and Bruce W. Holsinger. History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. p. 45.
^Coakley, John W. Women, men, and spiritual power female saints and their male collaborators. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. pg 69
