DE JERPHANION, GUILLAUME. - Born on March 3, 1877 at Pontèves (Var), died in Rome on Oct. 22, 1948.
Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1893, he was sent in 1903 to the College of Tokat for the Armenians of Anatolia, where he remained until 1907, making in that year a first visit to the rock-cut churches of Cappadocia, to which he returned from the summer of 1911 to Jan. 1912.
From 1918 he became a professor of Oriental archaeology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, where he also taught epigraphy and Byzantine institutions. His most powerful work is the above-mentioned Une nouvelle province de l'art byzantin. Les églises rupestres de Cappadoce (Paris 1925-36) in two volumes of text, divided into four parts, and 208 plates. There follow: 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 studied in depth the chalice of Antioch (v.), dated by some to the 1st century, considered false by Wilpert, recognizing in it a product of the art of the 6th century (Le calice d'Antioche, Les théories du dr. Eisen et la date probable du calice, in Orientalia Christiana (Rome 1926)). And after direct viewing at the Byzantine art exhibition in Paris in 1931 he confirmed his conclusions (La voix des monuments, II, pp. 19-35). Very valuable are the two volumes with the evocative title: La voix des monuments. Notes et études d'archéologie chrétienne, which appeared, the first in 1930, the second in 1938. They bring together a certain number of lectures or studies that had already appeared in earlier journals, but updated and accompanied by illustrations. In them is reflected the depth of the author's learning not only in the iconographic and epigraphic field, but also in the liturgical one.
Especially noteworthy are the studies that illustrate: 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 scholarly 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, Les Etudes classiques, Nouvelle revue théologique, Orientalia Christiana Periodica.
Above all, his Bulletin d'archéologie chrétienne et byzantine should be remembered, in which the author examined recent publications and archaeological discoveries. The Bulletin appeared first in Orientalia Christiana (from 1928 to 1935) and then in Orientalia Christiana Periodica (from 1936 to 1948). He participated effectively with valuable studies in the activity of the "Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres," to which he belonged, and of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, of which he was an effective member from 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 last 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 (Lyons 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).
Bibliography
Enrico Josi