BREVIARIUM (BREVIARIUS)
They mean compendium (as in *breviculum* and *breviculus*) and were already used in classical times as titles for books (Augustus had a *Breviarium imperii* drawn up, and Eutropius wrote a *Breviarium historiae romanae*); they recur again in the patristic age; cf. the *Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis* of St Augustine.
Some of these works, of uncertain authorship, are often cited anonymously, particularly: 1) *Breviarium fidei adversus Arianos* (PL 13, 653; 55, 182), perhaps to be identified with the *Libellus adversus Arianos et Macedonianos* which Gennadius ascribes to Faustus of Riez (v. SCHANZ, PAUL, IV, II, p. 544); 2) *Breviarium de Hierosolymis* (ed. F. Geyer: CSEL, 39, p. 153 ff.), a brief description of the city from the 6th century, surviving in two recensions; 3) *Breviarium in psalmos* (PL 26, 821), which goes under the name of St Jerome and certainly contains much that is Jerome’s. The author made use of the *Commentarielli* of the Saint (conceived as brief supplementary notes to the *Enchiridion* of Origen on the Psalter) and of at least 63 homilies on the Psalms. Both works were traced in manuscripts by G. Morin and published in *Analecta Maredsolana*, III, 1, Maredsous 1895; III, 2, ibid. 1897. V. Moricca, II, p. 1328; 4) *Breviarium super quattuor evangelistas*, one of the best ancient Latin commentaries on the Gospels, usually attributed to St Jerome (PL 30, 531), but also to Walahfrid Strabo (PL 114, 86r), with whom however it has nothing in common. More probably it is to be seen as the commentary on the Gospels attributed by AQUILA (v.). Vedi Moricca, op. cit., p. 590.
BIBL.:
Gennadius, *De viris illustribus*, 65;
Schanz, M., *Geschichte der römischen Literatur*, IV, II, p. 544;
Geyer, F., in CSEL 39, p. 153 ff.;
Morin, G., *Analecta Maredsolana*, III, 1-2, Maredsous 1895-97;
Moricca, U., *Storia della letteratura cristiana antica*, II, p. 1328, 590.