DE JERPHANION, GUILLAUME. - Born on March 3, 1877, in Pontèves (Var), died in Rome on Oct. 22, 1948.
From 1918 he became professor of Eastern archaeology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, where he also taught epigraphy and Byzantine institutions. His most monumental work is
Une nouvelle province de l'art byzantin. Les églises rupestres de Cappadoce (Paris 1925-36) in two text volumes, divided into four parts and 208 plates. This was followed by: Mélanges d'archéologie anatolienne. Monuments prêhelléniques gréco-romains, byzantins et musulmans de Pont, de Cappadoce et de Galatie (in Mélanges de l'Université de St-Joseph de Beyrouth, 13 [Beyrouth 1928]).
As early as 1926 he deeply studied the Chalice of Antioch (v.), dated by some to the 1st century and considered a forgery by Wilpert, recognizing it as a product of 6th-century art (Le calice d'Antioche, Les théories du dr. Eisen et la date probable du calice, in Orientalia Christiana [Rome 1926]). And after direct observation at the Byzantine Art Exhibition in Paris in 1931, he confirmed his conclusions (La voix des monuments, II, pp. 19-35). Highly noteworthy are the two volumes with the suggestive title: La voix des monuments. Notes et études d'archéologie chrétienne, which appeared, the first in 1930 and the second in 1938. They bring together a number of lectures or studies previously published in earlier journals, but updated and accompanied by illustrations. They reflect the author's profound scholarship not only in the iconographic and epigraphic fields, but also in the liturgical one.
Especially notable are the studies illustrating: Le rôle de la Syrie et de l'Asie Mineure dans la formation de l'iconographie chrétienne (I, pp. 201-44); Le cycle iconographique de Sant'Angelo in Formis (I, pp. 260-80); La représentation de la Croix et du Crucifix aux origines de l'art chrétien (I, pp. 138-64); L'image de Jésus-Christ dans l'art chrétien (II, pp. 1-26); L'attribut des diacres dans l'art chrétien du moyen-âge en Orient (II, pp. 285-96); La plus ancienne représentation de l'orarion du diacre (II, pp. 279-82). His scientific activity also unfolded in numerous periodicals, such as Bessarione, Etudes, Mélanges de l'Université de St-Joseph de Beyrouth, Orientalia Christiana, La revue de l'art chrétien, Recherches de science religieuse, Byzantion, Etudes classiques, Nouvelle revue théologique, and Orientalia Christiana Periodica.
Above all, mention must be made of his Bulletin d'archéologie chrétienne et byzantine, in which the author examined recent archaeological publications and discoveries. The Bulletin appeared first in Orientalia Christiana (from 1928 to 1935) and then in Orientalia Christiana Periodica (from 1936 to 1948). He actively participated with valuable studies in the work of the « Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres », of which he was a member, and of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, of which he became a full member in 1932 with a study on L'ambon de Salonique, l'arc de Galère et l'ambon de Thèbes (Memorie della Pont. accad. rom. di Arch., 3rd series, 3 [1932], pp. 109-32); with Osservazioni sull'origine del quadrato magico « Sutor arepo » (Rendiconti della Pont. Accad. rom. di Arch., 3rd series, 12 [1937], pp. 401-404); and with La véritable interprétation d'une plaque aujourd'hui perdue de la chaire d'Ivoire de Ravenne (ibid., 14 [1939], pp. 29-46). His final works were:
Les miniatures du manuscrit syriaque n. 559 de la Bibliothèque Vaticane (Vatican City 1940); Vieilles croix des Monts du Lyonnais; Les croix de Larajane et autres lieux voisins (Lyon 1942); Le Missel de la Ste Chapelle à la Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon (ibid. 1944). The complete bibliography was published in Orientalia Christiana Periodica (13 [1947], pp. 6-17).