Saint Jerome (c.342-420)

British (English) School. Oil painting on panel, Saint Jerome (c.342-420), British (English) School, late 16th century. Half-length portrait of an elderly man, turned to the left in profile, seated at his writing-stand, bearded and bald, in a red, hooded cloak. In an interior, a shelf of books on the back wall, a lantern clock hanging behind him, his lion in lower right that he had befriended when living in penance in the desert. He writes with a quill in an open book. He is shown writing his translation of the Bible into Latin, which became canonical for the Catholic Church, under the later name of the Vulgate. Note how the books on the shelf are ranged in the old way, with the fore-edges (which would have been inscribed or decorated) facing outwards, the inkpot under his left hand, and the 'pen-knife' taken out of its case, ready to sharpen the quill pen with which he is writing. Inscribed upper left; St Hierome a famous docteur / lived in the yere 300. The garbled word 'doctor' in the inscription refers, not to any medical qualification, but to the fact that St. Jerome was a learned (Lat.: doctus) teacher. See also note below. Chastleton House, Oxfordshire (Accredited Museum)