thumb|[[Diptych with the Letter of Lentulus and a portrait of Christ<br>(Museum Catharijneconvent)]]

The Letter of Lentulus () is an epistle of mysterious origin that was first widely published in Italy in the fifteenth century. It purports to be written by a Roman official, contemporary of Jesus, and gives a physical and personal description of Jesus. The letter may have influenced how Jesus was later physically depicted in art.

Origin

It appears in several Florentine publications from around 1460 along with works of such humanists as Petrarch and Boccaccio. The letter was first printed in Germany in the "Life of Christ" by Ludolph the Carthusian (Cologne, 1474), and in the "Introduction to the works of St. Anselm" (Nuremberg, 1491). But it is neither the work of St. Anselm nor of Ludolph. According to the manuscript of Jena, a certain Giacomo of the Colonna family found the letter in 1421 in an ancient Roman document sent to Rome from Constantinople. It must have been of Greek origin, and translated into Latin during the thirteenth or fourteenth century, though it received its present form at the hands of a humanist of the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

In 1899, Ernst von Dobschütz listed over 75 historical manuscripts from Germany, France, and Italy, including the Letter of Lentulus in variant forms.

The 19th-century scholar Friedrich Münter believed he could trace the letter down to the time of Diocletian, but this is generally not accepted by present-day scholars.

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia regards the letter as apocryphal for several reasons:

  • No Governor of Jerusalem or Procurator of Judea is known to have been called Lentulus, and a Roman governor would not have addressed the Senate in the way represented.
  • The Roman writer cited the expressions "prophet of truth", "sons of men" and "Jesus Christ". The former two are Hebrew idioms, and the third is taken from the New Testament. The letter, therefore, gives a description of Jesus such as Christian piety conceived of him. It also gave various artists, such as Dirk Bouts, a model on which to base the face and appearance of Jesus Christ.

References

Further reading

  • Didier Martens, Dirk Bouts en de iconografie; keuzes van de schilder, de 'adviseur' ende opdrachtgevern in Catheline Perier-D'Ieteren, Dirk Bouts: Het volledige oeuvre, 2005, page 62.
  • Lentulus - in ancient sources @ attalus.org. ATTALUS: Greek and Roman history 322 - 42 B.C.