Biblical Commentary and Translation in Later Medieval England: Experiments in Interpretation

Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources, this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England.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: Andrew Kraebel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/05/2020
Pages: 322
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781108486644
ISBN10: 1108486649
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
- Religion | Biblical Criticism & Interpretation | General