VERCELLONE, var"chel-li5'nc?, CARLO: Italian Biblical scholar; b. at Biella (55 m. w. of Milan) Jan. 10, 1814; d. in Rome Jan. 19, 1869. He entered the order of the Barnabites at Genoa in 1829; studied philosophy at Turin and theology at Rome; taught at Alexandria, Turin, Perugia, and Parma; became president of the College of the Barnabites at Rome in 1847, and held that position till his death. He devoted himself to the textual criticism of the Vulgate, and his fame rests upon his Yarice leetiones Vulgate Latinm editionis Bibliorurrt (2 vols., Rome, 1860-64), epoch-making in the study of the Vulgate, the prolegomena being especially valuable; his edition (the best) of the simple Clementine Vulgate, 1861, and, with Cozza, his edition of the Codex Vaticanua (5 vols., 1868-81).

Bibliography: A sketch of the life and works, by G. M. Sergio, appeared Rome, 1889; another is in the facsimile edition of the Codes Vaticanus, vi., pp. w.-sv.; cf. KL, sii. 678-880.

VERDEN, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient Saxon diocese, doubtless established in the eighth century. It would seem that the region about Verden was given to the monastery of Amorbach as a mission field, and that Charlemagne conferred the rank of bishop on the abbot of the monastery (i.e., "St. Patto," probably the same as Bishop Pacificus; d. June 2, 788) as the head of the mission. The original see city of the diocese is as uncertain as the date of the creation of the bishopric. Saxon sources later than the thirteenth century describe the diocese as founded at Bardowiek and transferred to Verden in 814, but these documents are too late to be authoritative. The same holds true of the assertion of the Saxon chronicle that the original see city was Kuhfeld in Salzwedel. It seems most probable, therefore, that the diocese was established at Verden from the very first.

To the diocese of Verden belonged the districts of Mosidi, Bardengau, Drevani, and Oaterwalde. They Were inhabited partly by Wends, among whom paganism survived up to the thirteenth century, while among the Germanic population it apparently vanished in the course of the ninth.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: G. G. lxibniz, Script. rer. Brunsvrecenseum,

ii. 211 sqq., 3 vols., Hanover, 1707-11; C. G. Pfannkuche, Aeltere Geschichte des vonnaligen Bisthums Verden, 2 vols., Hamburg, 1830; F. Wichmann, Unlersuchungen zur itlteren Geaclaichte des Bisturas Verden, Göttingen, 1904; Hauck, KD, ii. 390-391. Lists of the bishops are in MGH, Script., xiii (1881), 343; Gams, Series episcoporum, pp. 320-321; Hauck-Hefsog, RE, Xx. 499-500.