PROOF, PROBATIONARY PERIOD. - The employment contract presupposes in the worker the existence of the necessary technical capacity for the duties to be performed. To ascertain this in advance, and more generally, to ensure mutual satisfaction between the parties, a probationary period agreement may be stipulated (drawn up in writing, unless collective norms provide otherwise). Its legal nature is among the most debated in doctrine (preliminary contract, resolutive condition of an employment contract or, conversely, suspensive [si placuerit] or improperly potestative, or accessory pact, or special trial relationship, or emptio rei speratae). The employer and the worker are respectively bound to consent to the trial and to carry out the trial that forms the object of the agreement.
By so providing, the new Civil Code (art. 2096) has resolved a previously controversial issue, in the sense that it seemed more logical in relation to the effectiveness of the contractual bond, and fairer in relation to the purpose of the probationary period; since the parties have agreed to proceed with the trial, it is right that they be bound to carry it out, under penalty otherwise of having to compensate for damages (specific performance is not in fact possible in labor matters). During the period, either party may withdraw from the contract without notice or indemnity; however, if the probationary period is set for a minimum necessary time, the right of withdrawal cannot be exercised before the term expires. Once the probationary period is completed, the hiring becomes definitive, and the service rendered counts toward the worker’s seniority. The Civil Code does not establish the duration of the probationary period, a duration that does not seem capable of exceeding a certain maximum limit, consistent with the practical purpose of the probationary period itself; one might even accept the thesis of an indeterminate probationary period, but only in the sense of an initial indeterminacy, which does not exclude subsequent determinability to be equitably fixed by the judge case by case. Otherwise, the probationary period could easily be used to circumvent labor protective legislation, especially regarding termination and its effects. For employees, the maximum terms of the special law of 1924 remain in force. Other norms that derogate from the law only in a more favorable sense for the worker may be found in collective agreements and customs, in particular, for example, the so-called “protest clause” of entertainment workers.
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**PROVENCHER, Joseph-Norbert.** - Missionary bishop, born on 12 Feb. 1787 in Nicolet, Lower Canada, died at St-Boniface on 7 June 1853. Ordained priest on 21 Dec. 1811, he spent his early years in the vicinity of Montréal. In 1818, he was entrusted with the ministry among Catholic colonists of the Red River. Msgr. Joseph-Octave Plessis, Bishop of Québec, appointed him vicar general for the Northwest.
On 10 Nov. 1818, P. inaugurated the first chapel for Canadian and German colonists at St-Boniface. In the same year, following the instructions of Msgr. Plessis, he also opened the first school in the region. On 10 Feb. 1820, he was created titular Bishop of Juliopolis and coadjutor for the Canadian Northwest. Consecrated by Msgr. Plessis in Québec on 30 May 1822, he returned on 7 Aug. 1822 to St-Boniface, where until 1840 he had no more than three priests. He labored not only among colonists and Métis but also began mission work among the Indians; in 1844 he succeeded in obtaining the “Grey Nuns” for the vicariate. Through the intervention of Msgr. Bourget of Montréal, he secured the Oblates of Mary Immaculate for the mission of the Northwest, detached on 16 Apr. 1844 from the Diocese of Québec. On 25 Aug. 1845, the first two oblates, Fr. Pierre Aubert and subdeacon Alexandre Taché, arrived at St-Boniface. He paved the way for the Catholic Church in the Canadian West and North.
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**PROVENÇAL, Language and Literature.** - Strictly speaking, there is today no single Provençal language, but rather a system of dialects of southern France, distinguished from the dialects of northern France by a number of important characteristics, generally more conservative. It comprises all dialects south of an ideal line that, starting in the west at the Gironde estuary, follows a stretch of the Dordogne, arches around the Massif Central including Limousin and Auvergne, descends to the Rhône, crosses it between Vienne and Valence, traverses the Dauphiné to the junction of the Cottian and Maritime Alps, and then follows these latter, ending at the sea near Monaco. In the Middle Ages, the domain of these dialects extended further north, toward the Loire, perhaps even including Poitevin; and upon them was elaborated, with the features of a koiné, a literary language of importance not inferior to the others of the emerging Romance world. Dante designated it, from the affirmative particle, as the *langue d’oc*, to distinguish it from its sisters, the Italian *lingua del sì* and the French *langue d’oïl*; but in usage, the name *Provençal*, rigorously improper, became fixed from the 13th century onward, referring to a linguistic area far vaster than the Provençal region proper, indeed larger than the Roman Province itself. The linguistic differentiation of southern from northern France was influenced by more intense Romanization, the different pre-Latin substratum (Celtiberian in the south, Gaulish in the north), the different Germanic superstratum (Visigoths, then Burgundians in the south, Franks in the north), and finally all the historical and geographical conditions that allowed the Duchy of Aquitaine and, in general, southern life to enjoy considerable independence in the Middle Ages.
The earliest surviving text of Provençal literature, in a manuscript from the abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire, now in Orléans, is a fragment of a didactic-hagiographic poem on Boethius, considered a martyr of Christianity; this poem, in decasyllabic verse, was likely composed around the mid-11th century by a Limousin author who drew on a Latin biography and directly on the *De consolatione philosophiae*. A few decades later is another hagiographic poem, whose manuscript, now in Leiden, shares the same provenance as the first, though the text belongs instead to the Narbonese region: the *Chanson de Sainte Foy*, which recounts, in octosyllabic verse, the life and martyrdom of the legendary Saint venerated at Agen and Conques, drawing on Latin accounts of her passion and translation, the miracles described by Bernard of Angers, and in some parts on Lactantius’ *De mortibus persecutorum*. Still at the end of the 11th century or on the threshold of the 12th, some sacred lyrics appear (a Latin Christmas hymn interspersed with Provençal, a Provençal prayer to the Virgin modeled on certain Latin hymns), in a manuscript from Saint Martial of Limoges, now in Paris. These elements suffice to indicate the weight of purely religious impulses in the rise of Provençal literature, as of the other Romance literatures.
School traditions and clerical culture certainly exerted great influence in the rise of troubadour lyric poetry, which constitutes the largest and finest part of Provençal literature. It is no accident that the monastery of St Martial in Limoges, one of the most open workshops of Latin rhythmic poetry since the time of Abbot Odolric (1025–40), lay within the domains of William VII, Count of Poitiers and IX Duke of Aquitaine (1071–1126), the first troubadour whose poems have come down to us, certainly one of the first to practise this art, which took its name from the ecclesiastical *tropos* and borrowed its verse forms and stanza structures from the medieval rhythmics of tropes and hymns. It was precisely in William’s time and within his domains that the preacher Robert of Arbrissel (1101) founded the monastery of Fontevrault, whose singular constitution, inspired by the glorification of the Mother of God, entrusted authority over a mixed convent not to an abbot but to an abbess, not to a virgin but to a widow: a mystical exaltation of woman from which, according to Bezzola, William may have drawn inspiration, reducing it to a profane intent for that celebration of woman which is the central theme of troubadour love poetry.
Whether or not this hypothesis is accepted, it is certain that between the profane love of the troubadours and the mystical love of a St Bernard or a St Francis there is a profound affinity. The reference to Cathar heresy which this conception has suggested to some critics (Pécladan, Rahn, De Rougemont) is, however, excessive. The ‘well-concealing’, the use of pseudonyms (*senhals*) to designate the lady, are not precautions of heretical esotericism but practical discretion, often a mere pretext for freeing lyric poetry from too immediate an autobiographical condition; and the *solatz* longed for by the troubadours is worldly and literary delight, which may be idealised as the seal of courtesy but remains far removed from the sacramental pretensions of the Cathar *consolamentum*.
In the final analysis, this is a matter of custom, readily understandable in the environment of rich feudal castles, as cicisbeism would be in eighteenth-century salons; and it is a social game of ‘contrasts’ and ‘partimenti’, of questions and ‘courts of love’, with their casuistic refinements. Yet the importance of courtly love transcends these practical and contingent aspects, assuming in the history of Western civilisation the significance of a discovery. Not only are social relations between the sexes intuited on a new plane that, in certain respects (ideas of ‘courting’, ‘knighthood’, etc.), extends to our own day; but in the experience of love a new tone of spirit is discovered, unknown to classical eros, a more intimate and universal human value, whereby love, this ‘discovery of the twelfth century’ (Seignobos), becomes the symbol of a civilisation. Between the brute instinctiveness of the senses, a natural reality never disavowed, and the rigour of moral and religious law, always recognised as superior, a world of sentiment is carved out, risky in its ambiguity, subtly delicate in its refinement, aristocratic and intellectually sophisticated in its manifestations, almost inexhaustible as a source of literary inspiration. The theorist, one might say the Machiavelli, of this autonomy of sentimental life, regulated by a minute code of etiquette *intra propria principia*, was Andreas Capellanus with his treatise *De Amore*, composed around 1185 and later condemned in 1277 by Bishop Stephen Tempier; but he did nothing more than systematise a complex of attitudes that can be discerned in their native state in troubadour lyric poetry, which finds its unity precisely around this ideal pivot.
This unity should not, however, be understood in too static a sense. Not long ago the Provençal poetry could seem to a Diez as uniform as the work of a single author. All recent criticism tends to better identify and define, within the unity of the tradition represented in the chansonniers that have come down to us by some 2,700 lyrics from over 400 authors, the individual personalities of these poets and the various modes and degrees of their inspiration. Attention focuses on the initiators, who by creating their poetry founded a poetics; whereas monotony, conventionalism and lack of inspiration are more often the fault of the epigones, who versified within the limits and on the models of an already established tradition. Thus we see how the exaltation of woman and of sentimental love appears in William IX alongside old and still lively motifs of mischievous antifeminine satire and exuberant, sometimes coarse sensuality (hence the definition of him as a ‘two-faced troubadour’). In contrast to the rising courtly poetic school, whose head is pointed to in the person of a vassal of William’s, Eble Viscount of Ventadour, there rises with robust invective and sarcastic parody the scornful song of Marcabru (texts datable: 1133–48), who redeems the humility of his social condition with the awareness of an art striving, in a difficult language, towards proud formal achievements, and with a sense almost prophetic of his mission, so that his verses have biblical accents to lash the corruption of morals and to exhort to the crusade against the infidels of Spain. We feel the charm of a dreamy and subtly contradictory inspiration in the theme (which is not, as some have believed, religious allegory) of distant love, sung by Jaufré Rudel, Prince of Blaye (d. in the Second Crusade). We recognise in Bernard of Ventadour (active: 1158–80), the finest representative of Eble’s school, the clearest voice of troubadour poetry, which flows with spontaneous musicality in songs of ecstatic tenderness and sweet nostalgia of love.
Provençal language and literature – Poems by Folquet de Marseille, Provençal codex of the 13th century (O) – Vatican Library, cod. Vat. lat. 3208, f. 3.
Radiant with images and stirred by a lively readiness of intuition. In contrast to his trobar leu, that is, easy and light, which was also practised by the elegant Peire Rogier and the passionate Countess of Dia Beatrice (the most notable among the seventeen female poets who mark the female participation in the troubadour movement), stands the trobar clus of Rambaut d’Aurenga (1150–73), today one might say hermetic, with its exacerbated search for lexical harshness, phonetic and conceptual surprises, and new structures, dominated with aristocratic assurance; and later the trobar ric of Arnaut Daniel (1180–1210), fervent master of style and technique, a true “smith,” more than a chiseller, of difficult formal experiments (one need only recall the “sestina”) which aroused the admiration and imitation of Dante and Petrarch. Marcabrunian and courtly echoes intertwine in Cercamon and Bernart Marti, and with more conscious yearning for perfection in Peire d’Alvernhe (1158–80); trobar clus and trobar leu alternate in Giraut de Bornelh (1165–1200), whom Dante hailed as “poet of rectitude” and who was indeed a preacher sustained, but not profound, a severe moralist, yet not to the point of rejecting courtly love, as did Marcabrun. Alongside the familiar amorous, satirical, and moral themes, others resound: for example, in Bertran de Born (1181–94) the antibourgeois taste for arms and prowess, the spectacular exaltation of war. Nor is the religious note lacking, inspiring significant compositions, from the sorrowful penitential song that William IX composed during an illness, in the thought of death, to the crusade songs of Marcabrun and Peire d’Alvernhe, to the prayer and profession of faith of the latter.
In the years straddling the two centuries, troubadour poetry is in full bloom. The names become more numerous, but at the same time less significant, as the distinctive features are attenuated and levelled by fashion. Peire Vidal, of Toulouse (1180–1206), finds felicitous accents in a lively fantastic and sentimental humour; Rambaut de Vaqueyras (d. after 1205) delights in varying tones and genres, from the juglaresque to the epic; Folquet displays in his early poetic activity (1180–95) qualities of culture and rational doctrine that would later lead him to the bishopric of Marseille (though some religious poems attributed to him are probably by the homonymous Folquet of Romans). And one should also recall: Gaucelm Faidit, with his accents of melancholy; Arnaut de Mareuil, with his weary and somewhat prolix grace; Rigaut de Berbezilh, with his curious comparisons drawn from the Bestiaries; Raimon de Miraval, Gaucelm Faidit, Peirol, the Monk of Montaudon, and others. The decline is approaching, not caused but merely hastened by the Albigensian war, by the royal confiscation of the great fiefs, and by the consequent waning of that elegant life which had nourished “courtly” poetry. In the second half of the century, the most notable voice is that of the Toulousan Peire Cardenal (1235–72), who raises his to cry out his horror at the violence committed against his land and his violent reaction against the political and economic preponderance of the clergy; he does not, however, defend heresy, and indeed preserves a sincere and profound religious feeling: one of his best songs is addressed to the Madonna. The intensification of Marian devotion is moreover a characteristic of the age, and the Virgin was also the subject of songs by other troubadours, from Perdigon and Aimeric de Belenoi in the first half of the century to Folquet de Lunel and Deodat de Pradas in the second. An attempt to reconcile the courtly ideal with the new religious impulse is that of Guilhem de Montanhagol (1233–58), whose status as a precursor of the Stilnovisti is still debated.
This leads to consideration of the diffusion achieved in the meantime by troubadour poetry. Already at the beginning of the 12th century, from Rambaut de Vaqueyras, Peire Vidal, Aimeric de Peguilhan, down to Uc de Saint Circ, Provençal troubadours disembark in Genoa, descend into Piedmont, traverse Lombardy as far as the March of Treviso: the marquises of Montferrat, the counts of Savoy, the Malaspina, the Este, Ezzelino da Romano vie with one another in welcoming and honouring them. Others, like Marcabrun before them, cross the Pyrenees and visit the courts of Aragon and Castile: here there lived for a long time what was called “the last of the troubadours,”
PROVENÇAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE — Song by Guilhem de Saint-Leidier with melody. Provençal codex of the 14th century (G.). Milan, Ambrosian Library, ms. R. 71 Sup., fol. 75r.
Giraut Riquier (1254–82). Catalan poets arose in rivalry, from Guilhem de Berguedan to his namesake of Cervera (known as Cerverí), who adopted Provençal as their literary language; among them even King Alfonso II himself (1162–96). Thus in northern Italy, from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 14th, from Pier della Cavarara to Ferrarino da Ferrara, Provençal was the language of courtly lyric, and in Provençal wrote with propriety the Bolognese Rambertino Buvalelli and the Mantuan Sordello, the Genoese Lanfranco Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo as well as the Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi, even Tuscans such as Dante da Maiano and Terramagnino da Pisa. In regions geographically and linguistically more distant, such as Galicia, Sicily, Germany, or where there was already a glorious literary tradition, such as in northern France, poetic schools arose which reproduced Provençal modes in the vernacular. Thus troubadour poetry stands as the point of departure for all European lyric; and if today, after the discovery of the Khargias mozarabic, which can be traced back to the mid-11th century, one can no longer say that the verses of the troubadours were the first lyrical verses in a Romance language, one can certainly say that theirs was the first literary movement in which a high and complex artistic consciousness was expressed, a movement decisive at the roots of all modern Western poetry.
The work of the troubadours is also notable from the musical point of view: the 264 melodies that have come down to us show a technique closely linked to that of Gregorian chant, with lesser amplitude but greater formal precision, with a more marked tendency to consolidate rhythm in short periods and tonal sense in modes closer to our present major and minor.
Less important was the Provençal literature in other fields. At one time (Fauriel) it was believed that the primogeniture
Attempts at revival within the dialectal sphere, such as those seen at the end of the 16th century with the Gascon Du Bartas, in the 17th with the Toulousain Pierre Goudelin (Goudouli), and in the early 19th century with the school of Marseille and the poet-perruquier Jasmin, did not elevate the Provençal language beyond its regional confines. It was instead raised by the movement founded in 1854 by seven young men, among whom were genuine poetic talents: Joseph Roumanille, Théodore Aubanel, Mistral (v.). Yet this revival proved fleeting. The language of the *félibres* (as these poets styled themselves, adopting the obscure term by which a popular religious song designated the doctors who disputed with Jesus) was the Arlesian dialect refined through subtle philological selection and aesthetic refinement. It never attained true completeness in literary functions, and the rapid evolution of spoken Arlesian itself, the resistance of other strongly characterized dialects, the mutual unintelligibility of more distant variants, and the now habitual recourse of all to the official language of the state—French—as the language of conversation and culture, ensured that even Mistral’s masterpiece *Mirèio* is no longer accessible today to the people for whom it was written. Contemporary *félibrism*, surviving Mistral’s death and the two world wars, remains and will remain dialectal literature.
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The *māšāl* in the Book of Proverbs ranges from elementary forms of simple maxims (chs. 10–22, 25–29) to curious numerical proverbs (6:16–19; 30:15–31), vivid vignettes and character sketches (23:29–35; 24:30–34; cf. 6:6–11; 26:13–16, etc.), and imaginative presentations of wisdom and its opposite, folly, sometimes employing personification (7:6–27; 9:1–6; 13–18). The poetic form varies as well: from the distich, almost constant in the two Solomonic collections, to the tetrastich frequent elsewhere, to strophes of ten or more verses in chs. 1–9. Particular prominence attaches to the numerical *māšāl*, which groups, by certain common traits, specific objects, defining their number in two stages: first with one less than the actual count, then with the precise figure, followed by the enumeration of the items. In the Book of Proverbs this is almost always four (30:15–16, 18–19, 21–23, 24–28, 29–31; seven in 6:16–19), preceded by mention of three (note the exception in 30:24); but in other books, especially the prophetic ones, the full number may be two (Job 40:5; Ps 62:13), five, sometimes seven (Job 5:19), and even eight (Mic 5:5) or ten (Sir 25:7).
The Book of Proverbs has only a redactional unity. The various collections cluster around two main ones. Within the individual collections themselves, it is difficult or impossible to discern any unity or logical arrangement, as sayings follow one another without evident connection.
More positive indications of the multiplicity of collections are, besides the diversity of style and doctrine, the repetition of very similar or even identical sayings, and the titles preserved at the beginning of individual collections. After the extended introduction of chs. 1–9, the title of 1:1 is repeated (10:1), because at this point the first Solomonic collection begins (10:1–22:16). Two smaller collections follow (22:17–24:22; 24:23–34) of sayings by the wise: the first is introduced (22:17) without a title, though presupposed by the brief introduction at 24:23. The second Solomonic collection (chs. 25–29) was compiled by the men of King Hezekiah of Judah (25:1). Attached to this are the sayings of Agur son of Jakeh of Massa (30:1), which appear to be limited to 30:1–14, followed by the numerical proverbs (30:15–33). Similarly, the sayings of Lemuel, king of Massa (31:1), reduce to nine verses (31:1–9: warnings against evil women who corrupt kings and against the abuse of wine). By contrast, the final poem on the virtuous woman (31:10–31) stands out for its acrostic form (twenty-two distichs corresponding to the letters of the alphabet): a vigorous portrait of the ideal wife and mother.
Medieval Fathers and interpreters attributed the entire Book of Proverbs to Solomon, deceived by the title in 1:1 and by the Agur (v.) and Lemuel (v. at 31:1), which were often taken as pseudonyms or symbolic names of Solomon. The unity of authorship is no longer defended. The diversity of historical and cultural setting is too evident in the collections listed above. There is no serious difficulty in accepting a Solomonic origin for the content of the two collections 10:1–22:16 and 25–29. For this central core the entire book could be denominated from Solomon, as the Psalter from David. The language of these two collections belongs to the best period; the form of the *māšāl* is simple yet effective; frequent are allusions to a monarchy in a period of splendor (16:12–15; 20:8–26:28), while national disasters are never mentioned. The content of these two collections may be regarded as a sample of the three thousand “proverbs” spoken by Solomon, according to 1 Kings 5:12 (Vulg. 4:32). The second collection was made by the men of Hezekiah (25:1); the first may be considerably earlier, though not reaching back to Solomon’s age. It is difficult to determine when the two Solomonic collections were joined to the minor ones, and when the book attained its final form with the long introduction of chs. 1–9, which have the appearance of a little treatise on the nature and utility of wisdom. To assign this latter part to the Hellenistic age is not justified: the manner of conceiving wisdom here differs from that in the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, the former of which, especially, is influenced by Greek culture.
Chs. 1–9, though predominantly exhortations to follow wisdom, also treat of fleeing wicked company (1:8–19; 2:10–22), especially evil women (5; 6:20–35), duties toward one’s neighbor (3:17–33), prudence in making commitments (6:1–5), and fleeing from piety (6:6–11). A dominant note is the invitation to follow wisdom (ch. 8), feasting at her table (9:1–6), contrasted with the banquet of folly (9:13–18).
FIG. 1. (photo Ente Catt.)
**FIG. 1.** Provided, Book of Proverbs, incipit of the Book of Proverbs or Parables of Solomon. The miniature depicts the judgment of Solomon; in the lower background, a young Solomon — Vatican Library, cod. Urb. lat. 2, fol. 31v (15th cent.).
The content of the two Solomonic collections is varied and disjointed, shifting from the assertion that children, depending on whether they are good or bad, bring joy or sorrow to their parents (10:1), to the condemnation of ill-gotten wealth and the exaltation of justice (10:2–3), and then to the stigmatization of laziness (10:4–5), and so on. Even where there is a certain unity of content, as in 10:11–21 (wisdom in speech), maxims on wealth and poverty are interspersed, as well as the different uses to which the just and the wicked put their earnings (10:15–16). Every aspect of individual, family, and social life is considered. Particular emphasis is given to the dignity and role of the king, of whom a model is outlined in 16:10–15; 20:26–21:1. Cf. 25:2–7; 29:2–14.
The same character of disconnected maxims and advice is found in the two collections of sayings by the wise (22:17–24:22 and 24:23–34), which deal with how to behave toward one’s neighbor, especially the poor and defenseless (22:22–28; 24:11–18), with table manners (23:1–3), with the docility required for good upbringing (23:12–28), and which vividly depict the drunkard (23:20–35) and the lazy man (24:30–34). The king is conceived as close to God in the exhortation to subjects not to provoke the anger of either (24:21–22).
The sayings of Agur (not individual) begin with
proverbs, book of - Incipit of the book of P. or the Parables of Solomon. Borso d'Este Bible, executed between 1455 and 1461, vol. I, f. 270 V. MODERATI, Biblioteca Estense.
a profession of the inaccessibility and transcendence of God (30:1–4) and of the immutability of His word (30:5–6). Agur loves the golden mean, desiring neither poverty nor wealth, which equally expose one to moral dangers, but only what is necessary for life (30:7–9). In the numerical *mishle* (30:15–31), he also extols the king (cf. vv. 29–31). Lemuel (an unknown figure) draws the portrait of a good prince (31:2–9). This is followed by the portrait of the virtuous woman (31:10–31).
Like other sapiential books, the Book of Proverbs offers notable parallels with the dogmatic and moral teaching of the New Testament; thus 25:21 is cited (Rom 12:20) with regard to certain acts of kindness to be performed even toward one’s enemy, whose misfortune one must not rejoice in (24:17–18). A free use of 25:6–7 is found in Luke 14:8–10. Prov 20:22 (cf. 24:29) forbids repaying evil with evil: surpassing the law of retaliation, it approaches the law of charity (cf. Rom 12:17; 1 Thess 5:15; 1 Pt 3:9). The motive for not repaying the enemy in kind is trust not in the avenging intervention of God (Deut 32:35), but in His protection.
In its most recent and doctrinal part, the Book of Proverbs vaguely anticipates the Christian Revelation of the Trinitarian mystery with the presentation of Wisdom as something distinct from the creating God: 8:22–31; cf. 1:20; 9:1–6, etc. It must be acknowledged, however, that the *mishle* of directly dogmatic content are few. Proverbs is a book eminently practical for the conduct of life. Yet beneath these practical directives lie premises or principles that touch upon the very foundation of religion. The morality of Proverbs rests on the fear of God (1:7), that is, on a profound sense of dependence on Him, united with a nearly filial trust (3:5–8).
Proverbs shows undeniable similarities with the sapiential literature of the other peoples of the East. In particular, the similarities between 22:17–24:20 and the Egyptian writing of Amen-em-ope (cf.) are so numerous and precise as to be considered non-accidental. Theoretically, the problem could be resolved either by the dependence of Proverbs on the Egyptian text or vice versa, or finally by both drawing from a common source. The first two solutions have found fewer supporters than the third.
As for the text of Proverbs, the most notable fact is the great difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. The Peshitta, the Targum, the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the Vulgate substantially agree with the Masoretic text. St. Jerome’s translation, made very hastily (in three days he translated Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs: cf. *Praef. in libros Salomonis*: PL 28, 1241), essentially reproduces a Hebrew text little anterior to the Masoretic era. The Septuagint agrees with the Coptic, Syro-Hexaplar, and Old Latin versions. The Septuagint version is characterized by excessive freedom. There are divergences in meaning (e.g., 13:2–4; 9; 14:22; 22:8; 25:20), texts translated twice (14:22; 22:8; 25:20), and numerous additions (either paraphrasing the previous text or expressing the same concept with some variation in imagery); yet these additions can sometimes (cf. 11:16; 27:20–21) be traces of a more ancient and better Hebrew text than the Masoretic. Omissions are relatively few: 1:16; 4:5a, 7; 7:25b; 8:26ab, 32b, 33; 11:4; 13:6; 15:31; 16:1–3, 6–9; 17:19b; 18:8, 23–24; 19:1; 20:14–19; 21:5, 18b; 22:6; 23:23; 25:9a, 19b. Transpositions occur both of entire sections (the first part of the words of Agur, 30:1–14, comes after 24:22, i.e., after the first collection of the sayings of the wise; the second part of the words of Agur, 30:15–33, and the words of Lemuel, 31:1–9, come after 24:34, i.e., after the second collection of the sayings of the wise) and of individual *mishle*, especially in the first Solomonic collection (e.g., 16:7 after 15:28; 20:22–23 after 20:9). The Vulgate has very few additions of its own compared to the Masoretic text and the Septuagint: e.g., 14:21c. Instead, a third of the additions in the Septuagint are common to the Vulgate. Rather than the influence of the Old Latin on the translator of the Vulgate, these seem to be later interpolations. The Masoretic text and the Vulgate, purged of interpolations, are notably shorter than the Septuagint and in fairly close agreement with each other. Both represent a synagogal text, freed in the early centuries of the Christian era from the additions preserved in the Septuagint.
### Proverbs, Book of
Theodoric of Castel San Pietro
### Providence, Diocese of
City and diocese in the State of Rhode Island (U.S.A.), suffragan of Boston, covering today an area of 1,085 square miles with a total population (1950 census) of 791,896, of whom 435,865 are Catholics.
Franco-Canadians who immigrated to the State still form an important part of the Catholic population. In the diocese of Providence there are 534 priests, of whom 173 are religious from various congregations; 136 parishes, 119 chapels, 25 missions, 40 female congregations with 1,716 religious, 2 seminaries and schools, 3 colleges, and 3 hospitals. The diocese of Providence was erected on 17 February 1872 for the State of Rhode Island and the southeastern part of Massachusetts. This latter part later became the Diocese of Fall River (14 March 1904). The city of Providence was also the seat of the Diocese of Hartford, erected by Gregory XVI on 28 November 1843, until 1847.
The earliest traces of Catholicism date back to 1780, when the French army under Rochambeau camped at Newport and Providence, and it is known that there were chaplains with the armed forces. Shortly afterward (February 1783), the colonial legislative assembly repealed the law against the Roman Catholic religion. The religious upheaval that followed the French Revolution caused the immigration of a number of French families to Newport and Providence. The first Mass, celebrated in a church built for the purpose, was said in Providence in November 1837.
### Providentissimus Deus
Encyclical letter of Leo XIII (18 November 1893) aimed at promoting and regulating the study of Holy Scripture (Acta Leonis XIII, 13 [1893], pp. 326-64; Acta Sanctae Sedis, 26 [1893-94], pp. 269-92; Enchiridion Biblicum, Rome 1927, nn. 66-119).
The prologue, presenting Scripture as a source of supernatural revelation, states that the purpose of the letter is to defend the patrimony of Scripture and to promote its study. The first part demonstrates the excellence of Holy Scripture and the importance of its study through the use made of it by Christ and the Apostles, the richness of its dogmatic and moral teachings, and the affirmations and practice of the Fathers and the Church (Ench. Bibl., nn. 66-84). The second part, quickly outlining the positions of the adversaries of the Bible, sets forth the norms to be followed in teaching it, beginning with the preparation of the teacher, whose duties are outlined, for the introduction and for exegesis. In this, the Vulgate is to be taken as the foundation, without neglecting the original texts and other versions, and the generally accepted rules of interpretation are to be followed: careful examination of the words in themselves, of the context, and of parallel passages, with the aid of all knowledge, even secular, that helps to understand the sacred text (ibid., nn. 85-92). To grasp the sometimes very recondite meaning of Scripture, exegesis must never lose sight of the magisterium of the Church, the authorized depositary and interpreter of Scripture, the analogy of faith, and the interpretation of the Fathers. Catholic interpreters may also make use of the studies of non-Catholics, but bearing in mind that these cannot reach the marrow of Scripture. Scripture is to be studied in function of theology, of which it must be the soul. In turn, sound theological formation and attachment to the magisterium of the Church will render the interpreter capable of defending the patrimony of the sacred books (ibid., nn. 93-102). To carry out this defensive task more effectively, the interpreter should be equipped with knowledge of ancient languages, particularly those in which the Bible was written, as well as sound criticism, without ever forgetting that the Bible, having no scientific intent, often uses common and popular language, even where it touches upon, or seems to touch upon, the sciences. There can be no contradiction between the information given by the Bible and that of well-established profane history (ibid., nn. 103-109). The supreme canon for the correct interpretation and defense of Scripture is the fact of its divine inspiration and the consequent immunity from error (ibid., nn. 110-12). The encyclical closes with an exhortation (ibid., nn. 113-19) to all Catholics to deepen their biblical studies or to cooperate in some way in their progress. Let bishops promote them first, and let all clergy dedicate themselves “to study the sacred letters with the greatest affection of reverence and piety” (ibid., n. 119).
Providentissimus Deus marked a decisive renewal of biblical studies among Catholics and a defense against the incipient modernist crisis. Once this was overcome through the energetic intervention of Bl. Pius X (encyclical Pascendi), Benedict XV (v. SPIRITUS PARACLITUS) would resume and apply its teachings, clarifying certain points.