Lentulus, Letter of

LENTULUS, Letter of. - Apocryphal, so called from its supposed sender, which describes the physical beauty of Jesus Christ, who would have been the most beautiful of men, according to Ps. 44:3.

The letter claims to have been written by a contemporary of the Lord, that is, by the Roman Lentulus, governor (praeses) or official (officialis), according to the various manuscripts, of Judea. But no L. held such a post in the times of Jesus Christ in Palestine. The writing perhaps depends on the famous Testimonium Flavianum (v. GIUSEPPE FLAVIO) and, certainly, on Nicetas Choniates (Hist. eccl., I, 40: PG 145, 748-50). It is read for the first time only in the 15th century, in the preface to the Vita Iesu Christi of Ludolph (v.) of Saxony (1300-70), printed at Cologne in 1474. But Valla already speaks of it in 1450, declaring it without hesitation apocryphal (De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione declaratio, ed. Leipzig 1928, p. 62). Against Valla's opinion very few, despite the great diffusion of the letter, have dared to maintain its authenticity. In all probability, in its present form it came from the pen of some Christian humanist of the 15th century, while originally it must be the fruit of the monastic literature of the 13th or 14th century. Although depending on Greek sources, it was written in Latin.

Angelo Penna