Biblical Commentary and Translation in Later Medieval England: Experiments in Interpretation (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108486644)

Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources, this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England.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
ISBN-10: 1108486649
ISBN-13: 9781108486644
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/16/2020
Pages: 322
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2021