CORNELIO a LAPIDE (CORNELIS CORNELIS-SEN van den STEEN). – Celebrated exegete, born at Bocholt (Belgian province of Limburg) on 18 December 1567, died in Rome on 11 or 12 March 1637. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1592, was ordained a priest in 1595, taught Sacred Scripture at Louvain from 1596 to 1616, and from 1616 until his death at the Roman College.
C. commented on all of Sacred Scripture with the exception of two books: Giobbe and the Salmi. Of his commentaries on Sacred Scripture, he himself published: Epistolae Dici Pauli (1614); Pentateuchus (1616); Jeremias (1621), together with Baruc and Lamentazioni; Ezechiel (1621), Daniel (1621). He then published the book of Ionia, adding a new edition of the preceding works: Quattuor maiores prophetae (1622). These were followed by: Duodecum minores prophetae (1625); Actus Apostolorum, Epistolae canonicae, Apocalypsis (1621); Ecclesiasticus I e II (1633–34), Proverbia (1635). Published after his death were: Ecclesiastes (1638), Cantica Canticorum (1638), Liber Sapientiae (1638), Evangelia (1639), I (Mt. and Mc.), and II (Lc. and Io.), Iosue, Judicum, Ruth, IV Regum, I-II Paral. (1642), Esdras, Nehemias, Tobias, Iudith, Esther (1645), I-II Machabaei (1645).
New editions appeared while he was still alive. Among the later ones, the Antwerp edition (1681), in 10 vols., deserves special mention. A large part of C.’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 of Malta (21 vols., 1843–51) and Paris (also 21 vols., 1866), edited by A. GRAMONT (v.), who completed the edition by adding B. Cordier’s (v.) commentary on the book of Giobbe and Cardinal Bellarmine’s on the Salmi. Since 1912, new editions of the commentary on the Gospels and St. Paul have appeared in Turin, edited by A. Padovani. The Memoriale praedicatorum is an extract from C.’s works edited by J. M. Peronne (Paris 1867). More widely circulated is Les trésors de C. a L., edited by Abbé Barbier (4 vols., Paris 1856; Italian version, 2nd ed., 10 vols., Parma 1900; new version, 3 vols., Turin 1930).
Everyone admires the author’s great erudition, scrupulous diligence, and luminous intellect with which he treats Sacred Scripture. These qualities ensure that, although many new questions have arisen concerning one point or another, his magnificent volumes still retain their authority today. The criticisms directed at him are of little significance; and the narratives often added to the biblical interpretations find little acceptance.