Biblical Commentary and Translation in Later Medieval England: Experiments in Interpretations
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Description
Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources, this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England.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.
Publication Date
4-2020
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Keywords
Bible, history, criticism, commentaries, interpretation, history, English history, Middle Ages, translating, versions
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Original Publication Information
Cambridge University Press
Recommended Citation
Kraebel, A. B. (2020). Biblical commentary and translation in later medieval England: Experiments in interpretation. Cambridge University Press.