QUENTIN, HENRI

Biblical scholar; b. St. Thierry in the Diocese of Reims, France, Oct. 7, 1872; d. Rome, Feb. 4, 1935. He studied in the diocesan seminary in Reims and entered the Benedictine Abbey of maredsous, Belgium, in 1894, taking his vows there in 1895. In 1897 he went to the Abbey of solesmes, France, where he was ordained in 1902. His studies on conciliar history and hagiography brought him, in 1907, an appointment to the Commission for Revision of the Vulgate and he was sent to Rome.

There, Quentin collected a series of photographic copies of all important Vulgate manuscripts, including what is probably the oldest text, viz, that in the Codex Amiatinus. His Mémoire sur l'établissement du text de la Vulgate (Collectanea biblica 6; Rome 1922) was basic for the structural organization of the edition. The method of textual criticism used by Quentin, especially his theories on the relative interdependence of the manuscripts and their subsequent value for the history of the transmission of the text, remained a very controversial issue. In the Vulgate Commission presided over by F. gasquet, Quentin was editor-in-chief of the Pentateuch (1926–36). In 1923 Quentin became a member of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology (see pontifical academies), and in 1930 Pope pius xi appointed him to the historical section of the Congregation of Rites. Quentin had a substantial part in the creation of the new Sacred Heart liturgy, established by the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor in 1928 (see sacred heart, devotionto). In 1933 he was made first abbot of the Abbey of S. Girolamo in Rome.

Bibliography: Works. h. quentin, Jean-Dominique Mansi et les grandes collections conciliaires (Paris 1900); Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen âge (Paris 1908); Essais de critique textuelle (Paris 1926). b. mombritius, Sanctuarium, seu vitae sanctorum, 2 v. (new ed. Paris 1910). Literature. c. mohlberg, "Dom Enrico Quentin," Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana de Archeologia 11 (1935): 13–39, bibliog. 34–39. a. manser, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 v. (Freiburg 1957–65) 8:934.

[h. rumpler]