Sulpitii Severi Opera omnia quae extant – 1656

The Latin historian Sulpicius (or Sulpitius) Severus was born in Aquitania ca. 360 A.D. He organized under the influence of Bishop Martinus of Tours a sort of monastic life on his own estate for himself and his friends. His extant works are a vita S. Martini Turonensis, ‘which is an apology for ascetism’; and this Sacrae Historiae, a kind of universal chronicle to A.D. 402, ‘which is an important source for the history of 4th-century events. The whole book is an interesting attempt to present a ‘breviarium’ of history from the Christian point of view: it uses Christian chronographers, especially St. Jerome, but also Pagan writers. J. Bernays suggested that for the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D 70 Sulpicius followed the lost account of Tacitus.

Such books are becoming more and more rare. We advocate conservation and preservation.