Name Henri Quentin | ||
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Dom Henri Quentin was a French Benedictine monk, born 7 October 1872 at Saint-Thierry, died 4 February 1935 at Rome. A philologist specializing in biblical texts and martyrologies, he was the creator of an original method of textual criticism (sometimes called the neo-Lachmannian method).
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Life
After studying theology at the seminary of Rheims, he joined in 1892 Maredsous Abbey and in 1897 Solesmes Abbey. In 1907, he was called to Rome to direct the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate, newly created by Pope Pius X and entrusted to the Order of St Benedict. In March 1914, he was appointed consultant to the liturgical section of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate was transformed in 1933 into the Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City, where he became the first abbot.
Method
Faced with the enormous mass of manuscripts of the Bible, and the special relationship of copyists with this text, Dom Quentin was obliged to change the approach he had adopted for martyrologies and criticize the methods traditionally applied in the establishment of a stemma codicum. The method of Dom Quentin has been much discussed and often criticized, but has attracted interest because of its arithmetical character and its capacity for automation.