Overview

Interdisciplinary study of the medieval commentary tradition, covering a range of sources from the Wycliffite Bible and French Marian Lyric to John Lydgate and Anselm of Canterbury. Textual and material survivals from across medieval Europe testify to a pervasive commentary culture on Scripture. The biblical text becomes a central object of explication and comment, generating a variety of interpretive texts and genres. But precisely because it is so ubiquitous, medieval commentary can also prove elusive, requiring perspectives from different disciplines. How can we define commentary, and how does it develop and function in different linguistic and geographical areas? What role do commentaries play in the formation and reformulation of personal and national identities across the period? How can contemporary scholars best approach this fundamental genre of the medieval world? Exploring these among many other questions, this volume revises and refines our current understanding of the intellectual, cultural, and literary dynamics of the medieval commentary tradition. Contributors consider matters such asauthority, patronage, readership, textual genesis, and material contexts of commentary, as well as the absences and lacunae in our knowledge, and how we might take these into account from today's perspective. Expansive in their chronological, methodological, and disciplinary scope, the chapters here illuminate the origins and forms of commentary from Late Antiquity to the late medieval period in Western Europe, extending across Hebrew, Latin and vernacular texts, and examine a wide range of literary and cultural artefacts, from single-authored works to manuscript compilations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Cosima Clara Gillhammer ,  Dr Audrey Southgate ,  Professor Alastair J Minnis (Customer) ,  Alexandra Barnes
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   D.S. Brewer
ISBN:  

9781843847670

ISBN 10:   1843847671
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   24 February 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION Why Commentary? Lesley Smith PART I: GENRES AND FORMS 1 Iohannes Apostolus and Anselm of Laon: Foundations of the Glossa Ordinaria and Twelfth-Century Biblical Commentary Practices Simon Whedbee 2 Parables, Beatitudes, and History: Early Medieval Exegesis of Matthew 13 in an Augustinian Mode David J. Elliott 3 The Children from Stones: Michael Suchenschatz on Metaphors and Magic from the Gospels Edit Anna Lukács 4 Translation as Commentary? Literal and Expository Modes in the Wycliffite Bible Elizabeth Solopova PART II: IDENTITIES 5 Conversing with the Sage King Solomon: Hellenistic Jewish Sages' Commentary on Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach Jiani Sun 6 The Association of Punic and Hebrew in North African Exegesis and Ecclesial Identity Joshua Caminiti 7 Biblical Commentary and Royal Patronage in Carolingian Europe Zachary Guiliano 8 Anselm of Canterbury as Biblical Commentator? Rachel Cresswell PART III: TRANSFORMATIONS 9 'This law did not apply to her': Marian Lyric as Commentary on Esther Anna Wilmore 10 The Chess of Love, Text and Gloss: From Évrart de Conty to John Lydgate Alastair Minnis 11 Reading Eleanor Hull's Commentary on the Penitential Psalms through St Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Human Nature Eduardo de Oliveira Correia 12 Authority in the Margins: The Apparatus of Biblical Commentary in a Fifteenth-Century Middle English Devotional Compilation Alexandra Barnes 13 Editing Middle English Biblical Glosses in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Bodley 554 Michael P. Kuczynski AFTERWORD William Marx Index of Manuscripts

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Author Information

COSIMA CLARA GILLHAMMER is a Career Development Fellow in Medieval English at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford AUDREY SOUTHGATE is currently an Academic Visitor in Oxford's English faculty, teaching Old and Middle English and researching the pedagogical reception history of the Psalms. AUDREY SOUTHGATE is currently an Academic Visitor in Oxford's English faculty, teaching Old and Middle English and researching the pedagogical reception history of the Psalms. COSIMA CLARA GILLHAMMER is a Career Development Fellow in Medieval English at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford

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