CORNELIUS à LAPIDE (Cornelis Cornelis-Sen van den Steen). - Celebrated exegete, born at Bocholt (Belgian province of Limburg) on 18 December 1567, died at Rome on 12 March 1637. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1592, was ordained priest in 1595, and from 1596 to 1616 taught Sacred Scripture at Louvain; from 1616 until his death he taught at the Roman College.
Cornelius commented on the entire Bible except for two books: Job and the Psalms. Of his biblical commentaries he himself published: *Epistolae Divi Pauli* (1614); *Pentateuchus* (1616); *Ieremias* (1621) together with Baruch and Lamentations; *Ezechiel* (1621), *Daniel* (1621). He then published the book of Isaiah, adding a new edition of his earlier works under the title *Quattuor maiores prophetae* (1622). This was followed by: *Duodecim minores prophetae* (1625); *Actus Apostolorum*, *Epistolae canonicae*, *Apocalypsis* (1621); *Ecclesiasticus* I and II (1633-34), *Proverbia* (1635). Works published after his death include: *Ecclesiasticus* (1638), *Cantica Canticorum* (1638), *Liber Sapientiae* (1638), *Evangelia* (1639) I (Mt and Mk), and II (Lk and Jn), *Iosue*, *Iudicum*, *Ruth*, *IV Regum*, *I-II Paral.* (1642), *Esdras*, *Nehemias*, *Tobias*, *Judith*, *Esther* (1645), *I-II Machabaei* (1645).
New editions appeared during his lifetime. Among later editions, special mention should be made of the Antwerp edition (1681) in 10 volumes. A large part of Cornelius’s works was included by J. P. Migne in his collection *Cursus S. Scripturae*, vols. V-XX, Paris 1837-45.
There are also the two complete editions from Malta (21 vols., 1843-51) and from Paris (likewise 21 vols., 1866), edited by A. GRAMONT (v.), who completed the edition by adding the commentary of B. CORBIE (v.) on the book of Job and that of Cardinal Bellarmine on the Psalms. Since 1912 new editions of the commentaries on the Gospels and on St Paul have been issued in Turin under the care of A. Padovani. The *Memoriale praedicatorum* is an anthology of Cornelius’s works edited by J. M. Peronne (Paris 1867). More widely diffused is *Les trésors de C.*, edited by Abbot Barbier (4 vols., Paris 1856; 2nd ed., 10 vols., Parma 1900; new ed., 3 vols., Turin 1930).
All admire the author’s vast learning, his scrupulous diligence, and the luminous intelligence with which he treats Sacred Scripture. These qualities ensure that, despite the emergence of new questions on one point or another, his magnificent volumes still retain authority today. The criticisms levelled against him are of little weight, and the narratives often added to biblical interpretations find little acceptance.