Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources, this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England. In an area ripe for revision, Andrew Kraebel challenges the accepted theory (inherited from Reformation writers) that medieval English Bible translations represent a proto-Protestant rejection of scholastic modes of interpretation. Instead, he argues that early translators were themselves part of a larger scholastic interpretive tradition, and that they tried to make that tradition available to a broader audience. Translation was thus one among many ways that English exegetes experimented with the possibilities of commentary. With a wide scope, the book focuses on works by writers from the heretic John Wyclif to the hermit Richard Rolle, alongside a host of lesser-known authors, including Henry Cossey and Nicholas Trevet, and many anonymous texts. The study provides new insight into the ingenuity of medieval interpreters willing to develop new literary-critical methods and embrace intellectual risks.
Author(s): Andrew Kraebel
Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 109
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 322
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Series information
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations and Conventions
Introduction
Chapter 1 Interpretive Theories and Traditions
The Indifferent Conservative: Thomas Waleys
Interpretive Innovation: Nicholas Trevet and Henry Cossey
Chapter 2 Eclectic Hermeneutics: Biblical Commentary in Wyclif's Oxford
Hermeneutic Eclecticism and the Structure of the Psalter
Private Glosses
Uncommon Exposition
Eclectic Hermeneutics and Belated Exegesis: William Woodford on Matthew
Chapter 3 Richard Rolle's Scholarly Devotion
Hermit Hermeneutics
The Invention of Commentary-Translation
The School of Rolle
Rolle in Oxford, Again
Chapter 4 Moral Experiments: Middle English Matthew Commentaries
''Not of Myne Hede Nor of Myne Owne Fantasy''
''Þis Scribeler Hadde Travelid wiþ Fals Bookis''
''As in a Riche Mannes Schoppe''
''Pleyn Mater''
Epilogue: John Bale's Dilemma
Appendix A Subject Matter Symbols in Wyclif's Postils
Appendix B The Texts and Revisions of Rolle's Latin Psalter
Appendix C The Durham Matthew Prologue
[Introitus ad Litteram Libri]
Liber Generationis Iesu Christi: Capitulum Secundum
Textual Notes
Notes
Introduction
1 Interpretive Theories and Traditions
2 Eclectic Hermeneutics: Biblical Commentary in Wyclif's Oxford
3 Richard Rolle's Scholarly Devotion
4 Moral Experiments: Middle English Matthew Commentaries
Epilogue: John Bale's Dilemma
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Secondary Studies
Index of Manuscripts
General Index
