Menochio, Giovanni Stefano

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MENOCHIO, GIOVANNI STEFANO

17th-century theologian and exegete; b. Pavia, Italy, December 1575; d. Rome, Feb. 4, 1655. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1594, and after receiving the usual course of training, taught humanities, Sacred Scripture, and moral theology at Milan. He was superior successively at Cremona, Milan, and Genoa; then rector of the Roman College, provincial first of Milan and later of Rome, and finally Italian assistant to two Jesuit generals, Carafa and Piccolomini. His most notable work, Brevis explicatio sensus literalis totius Sacrae Scripturae ex optimis quibusque auctoribus per epitomen collecta (Cologne 1630), deservedly appeared in at least nine exegetical collections, most recently in La Sainte Bible of C. F. Drioux (Paris 1873). Other principal works of Menochio are Hieropoliticum, sive Institutiones politicae e S. Scripturis depromptae (Lyons 1625) and Le suore di Giovanni Corona, tessute di varia erudizione sacra, morale e profana (Rome 1646).

Bibliography: c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels-Paris 18901932) 5:948955. h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae (Innsbruck 190313) 3:106063.

[t. t. taheny]